Thank you Oil Can Henry's!

This is not a paid commercial, just a thank you for good service.

Our rig, Jet White, is a diesel Sprinter. When we first got it a couple years ago, we took it to our local Oil Can Henry's for an oil change. They did not stock the oil filter needed for our rig, but the manager told us if we went and bought one they would do it for us.

We were getting ready for our California trip, so we really wanted to get the oil change done. I had to go to a few auto parts stores to find the filter...even then it had to be ordered. Oil Can Henry's did the oil change. We were thankful they did the oil change for us, but after that we found it easier to just go to the dealership.

Lately we have had to have our headlights changed...each one, a couple weeks apart. The manager at Oil Can Henry's asked me where I was going for my oil changes and how much I was paying. He offered to order the parts and do it for less.

Last night Eric and I stopped and they did the oil change for us.

Way more convenient.

Thank you Oil Can Henry's.

Another tight spot for Jet White

Friday, E had a basketball game at Riverdale Elementary in SW Portland. It is up in the hills.

I initially pulled to the front of the school. I should have parked Jet White, our Dodge Sprinter van, there. But I saw what looked to be the gym, at the other end of the school. I drove around to see if I could park closer.

I found a very small parking lot by the gym, and one handicapped parking spot just for us, as shown in the Google satellite view below.



View Larger Map

It was not until I drove down the driveway into the small lot that I realized how steep the driveway was and that there was not much room for me to turn around.

I parked Jet White in the handicapped spot. I figured I would worry about backing out after the game.

But I worried about it through the whole game!


After the game (E's team won 49-17), we went to the van. I had been worried that I would need to back up the steep driveway. I saw room to turn around, if I was very careful. I backed up, angled, went forward. Someone came out to leave. I pulled back into the parking spot until they left, figuring that the fewer cars in the lot, the better.

After a lot of maneuvering, I got the van turned around.

Jodie had called the school earlier in the week to find out whether the gym was accessible. The lady was not sure, so she went outside to check, and yes, there is a ramp. I never thought to have Jodie ask about where best to park our monster van!

We won?

E's baseball team played the nearly unbeaten Camas team on there home field last night. E pitched three good innings, Drew finished the game very well. Boys on our team who have struggled made some stellar plays in the field. This Camas team has been beating other teams by 10 points or better. I don't know how we got out of there with a 10-3 win!

There was a young boy (maybe 10?) with some sort of disability tooling around on a smaller scooter than what Jodie and I have. He was driving on the edge of the blacktop with one wheel in the dirt, kicking up dust. Littler kids were chasing him in fun. He was cruising around the tennis court. Made me feel good to see the little guy having fun.

As I was loading my scooter into Jet White, I saw a man watching us from his truck with a big smile on his face. I wondered if it was little guy's father....

Spring break....snow?

E had the week off for spring break. Jodie took the whole week off; I just took Thursday and Friday off.

Snow in this part of Oregon usually ends in early March. Washington, just across the mighty Columbia River, always has their spring break a week after Oregon. More often than not, we get rain for our spring break, and they get sun.

This year, we got snow! No accumulation here, but we have been getting showers of a mix of hail and snow.

On Thursday. we drove down to Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer to watch Portland Christian play in a 2A baseball tournament. Nephew Vance played catcher in the game we saw. They won 15-5 in the game we saw. The game was stopped three times due to hail and rain. Friday's games were canceled because of snow - it was really snowing down there Friday afternoon. We did not go town today.

We had a guy come over to give us an estimate on a sun porch. I was thinking it would cost $5,000. Hee hee hee. Naw, it's really not that funny. I don't think we'll be doing a sun porch...


I took Jet White, our monster van, to have the breaks checked. The break peddle has had a little give in it lately. I thought it was more in my head. It turns out a little fluid is leaking in the cylinder when I break -- something like that -- so it was not in my head. The parts are ordered and I go in on Tuesday.

I applied for a job with the web design team with the State. I have created a number of websites, and I manage a few. I don't have formal training, but I have learned a lot on my own. Evidently not enough. I got my "Dear John" letter on Friday.

Sigh.....

Where's my Mark and Dave?

Jodie knew why I was upset before I did. "Troy, you need to email Mark and Dave about this."

Mark and Dave, 4 to 7, drive time talk radio at night. I am a member of their "cult", which is defined as:

WHAT IS THE MARK & DAVE CULT? It’s the exclusive group of listeners who listen every day from 4 to 7! For those skittish about the word ‘cult,’ Mark & Dave like to point out the dictionary definition of the word (Definition #6 to be exact): An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest. That’s us!

Saturday we bought a new stereo unit for Jet White, our Dodge Sprinter. Because of it's hugeness, I can't see what is behind us. I needed a backup camera. For my birthday, Jodie wanted to get me one.

We went to a shop Saturday. They sold us a fancy Kenwood stereo with a built in Garmin, touch screen radio, and backup camera. It's a nice unit.

Sunday, I decided to try out the AM band. Using the "seek" button, only one station came up, and it was not 1190 KEX!

We went back to the shop. They pulled the radio out. They called the tech who installed it. We waited well past the half hour they said it would take. Out van was back in the lot, and they were not coming for us. We asked if they were done with the van. The lady behind the desk went to check.

The lady went into the garage area...then she shut the door. A guy came out to explian things to me. From what I could understand, the AM antenna is too far from the unit. They would need a AM antenna extender. Evidentally they don't have them and can't get them. I don't understand that part of it. It also had something to do with where the brain of our new stereo is.

I asked to see the manager. They were taking a long time, so I headed to the van. The manager finally came out to see us. We told him we had no idea that we would be losing AM radio when we got the new stereo. He offered to get us into a HD radio...but that we would need to pay for labor. We was going to call us, but he has not called us yet.

I did find out we can get so AM, but the reception is very poor.

I think I will need to have my mom or stepdad, John, go down to the shop with me. People have trouble taking the disabled serious...especially when they are mad!

I can't live without my Mark & Dave!

Another wife in the car!

Jodie and E got me a Garmin for Christmas. I never use to get lost when I was driving somewhere. Now, I am over 40.

We were at Target in Fairview, OR, tonight. Our home is just a few miles away.

I turned on the Garmin. Earlier it was showing our location as Kansas. Finally figured out that you need to flip the antenna up.

The satellite picked us up at Target. I punched in our home address.

I drove out the driveway onto Halsey. The Garmin had wanted us to cut through Fairview Village.

I went down to Eastman. The Garmin was not happy. A female voice kept telling me what way to turn. When I did not turn as I was suppose to, she would say "Recalculating".

All the way home, the Garmin kept telling me to go right. It wanted me to take another street home and kept telling me to go right at every street I passed in order to get to that street. Each time it said "Recalculating".

We were all laughing, because every time is said "recalculating" it sounded more and more annoyed! Just like a wife!

Turns out the Garmin was trying to get us to another address the is similar to ours. I must have keyed in "av" instead of "pl". I'm not sure...I just know that we have had a lot of pizza places have a hard time finding us because our address is similar to a couple other locales.

My life story...every turn I make..."Recalculating!"

More parking antics....

I drove Jodie to a chiropractor that we have not seen in years yesterday. He has moved from downtown portland to 20th and burnside.

I saw a disabled parking space available, so I turned into the lot.

OMG!

Not enough room for Jet White, our big Dodge Sprinter,...again!

Backing out onto burnside would be impossible. Pulling into the space might be possible, but pulling out would not.

What to do!

I tried to back in, but as I turned the wheel I was too close to the building. I kept pulling up perpemdiculer, closer and closer to the parkes cars. I cranked the wheel real hard. Cleared the end car and the building, and I parked.

Whew!

Zero clearance...

I went to a work retreat today at the training annex in the Lloyd District. Dept. of Human Services are not allowed to park in the parking garage there...it's reserved for the vocational colleged that is there. There are disabled spots there that I have always been allowed to park in.

I am a poor judge of the heighth of Jet White, our Dodge Sprinter. Eight feet, four inches is tall.

I pulled into the garage. I heard the antenna hit the ceiling, but I seemed to fit okay. I pulled into a disabled parking spot. When I got out of Jet White and walked around back to unloaded my scooter, I was horrified to see that there was not clearance between the top of Jet White and the ceiling of the garage --- it was pretty much touching it!

Coworkers Ruby and Sheri walked up as I was getting my scooter. They could not believe what I had done! The front of the van was in the open, but the back of the van was under the covered area. Out radio antenne is on the front, centered on the roof. It looked like it would snap off when I backed out. Ruby and Sheri just knew it would.

Ruby went out by the van during afternoon break for a smoke. When she came back to the meeting room, she told me there were some "suits" looking at me van, and that they wrote down my license.

When the meeting was over, I went down and started loading my scooter in the van. As I was backing onto the lift, a security guy drove by and told me to tell whoever was driving the van to be real careful when backing out. He did not know that the guy with CP on the scooter--me--was the driver of the van!

Ruby and Sheri drove by and backed into a nearby space. Wanting to see a train wreck, wanting to help me if I needed help, wanting to help me get my broken antenna. I couldn't blame them...it was going to be interesting!

I very slowly backed out. I heard the antenna moving around, but I did not hear any scraping.

As I pulled into the open, Ruby and Sheri were both giving me a big thumbs up. I made it!

I went and picked up E. I asked him if the antenna was still there. "Dad, what did you do?"

What can I say? I am good.

No...I am lucky!

Back to Universal

We made several phone calls after the accident. One was to Universal Studios to let them know what happened to us in their parking lot.

We told our hostess how well the Disney staff treated us and that we were suprised to not get that fine of treatment at Universal. We called customer service and spoke with a kind gentleman named Sergio. As we suspected, the parking attendents at Universal are contracted out. He said he would look into what happened to us and how we were treated.

Cindy, our hostess, called Sergio back later and was able to get discounted tickets for us.

Last night Cindy and Rick took us back to Universal. We called Sergio and were able to get free parking. Interestingly enough, we were directed to VIP parking, and when we got there were told it was employee parking and we had to turn around.

We missed the last tour, so we might go back on Tuesday. We walked through City Walk, and we had dinner at Comancho's, a wonderful Mexican restaurant.

Nightmare at Universal

We decided to stop at Universal Studios on our way out of L.A. We made our way through the gridlock on I-5 and 101. We took the exit to Universal Studios Blvd.

We were told to look for the Woody Woodpecker parking lot. We found the lot, but we were waved on by the attendent there. The attendent at the next lot said the our Jet White would not fit in their garage and had us turn around. We pulled in to Woodpecker lot, but there was no placen to park. The guy told us to look for row "H", but the right turn to get there was blocked off. I drove back onto the road, trying to get to row "H". All the entrances were blocked. I didn't know where to go. The parking attendant told me to turn around. I thought about leaving the park because I had no idea where she was sending us.

I looked, and I made a "U" turn. Bam!

We were hit as I began to turn.

The lady's car screeched a lot before she hit us. She said she did not see us, but Jet White is big and hard to miss. She was driving a rented SUV, on the small side. Her front right was pretty damaged.

Security and parking attendants came over to check things out. When they saw me and my brand of cerebral palsy, I was not taken very serious. I asked Jodie to get out to help with communication. We were not taken real serious.

We called our insurance guy to coach us through the process. He was so helpful. We exchanged all the information.

Our van did not look very damaged. We went to leave. The van was making a screeching noise. Security came back. He directed us to a turn around street. He wanted us to try to park in the lot, but I did not feel safe doing so. Later an attendant drove up in a golf cart and yelled at us to move our car into the lot and we just shrugged.

We called AAA. The first towtruck was too small. He radiod for a flatbed. The flatbed came. The concern was our height added to his and making it through the under passes. He was really nice. Jodie could not get into the truck. She and I rode in our van on top of the flatbed. He took us to Studio City Automotive.

The owner, Ed, was super nice. He could sense that Jodie and I were a wreck. E was amazingly cool. Ed assured us that he would take care of us, and he did.

Our front suspension is broke. The owner got us a room at the Hollywood Hilton. The next day we found out our car would not be ready until Monday.

We are staying with relatives in Santa Clarita. She and her boyfriend have a wonderful house and treated us well.

Where's the diesel?

We drove Jet White down from Gresham to Anahiem. We arrived last night after two days of driving. We spent Sunday night at a nice Best Western in Lodi. We were on the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) nearing Anahiem when our fuel gage hit empty.

We exited the freeway and we were in Norwalk, CA, searching for diesel. We found a few gas stations, but none had diesel. Most of the station attendents here are Spanish speaking, but we were eventually directed to a station with a diesel pump. We found it. It was full of cars. To get to the diesel pump from the one street I would have had to drive over a curb. I had to go around a large block to get in. We were only allowed 15 gallons, but it got us back on the road.

Did I mention that we were all hot and irritable? That made our adventure even more fun!

The attendent did not understand my request for directions to I-5. I should have said the Santa Ana.

We eventually found I-5, missed the exit for CA-90, turned around, and made our way to our motel in Anahiem Hills.

Our Big Rig.....

Eighteen feet long, eight and a half feet tall. Our new (slightly used) 2006 Dodge Sprinter. I want to call her Jet White, but the family wants BC JET (Bonnie, Clyde, Jodie, E, Troy). Bonnie and Clyde are our dogs, Terrier/Dachsun mixes.

We bought the van 2 weeks ago from the wonderful folks at Access Mobility Systems in Edmonds, WA. We have a full ADA compliant lift, and we can fit both scooters inside. It handles well for being so big, and it is nice not to be hauling one scooter inside and one outside...with our tail dragging.

Jet White has presented some challenges. It is a diesel. I wanted to get the oil changed, so I went to our local Oil Can Henry's to see if they could change our oil. We have been going there for years and they have been really nice to us. The manager came out and told me they could change the oil for us, but they don't carry the filter. He said that if we bought our own filter, they could change our oil.

I went to Thrifty Auto, a auto supply store near work at lunch to get the oil filter and an air filter. 2006 Dodge Sprinter 2400 turbo diesel. The had the air filter, It was not in stock, but they ordered one for me to pick up the next day. I picked up the oil filter the next day. E and I went to Oil Can Henry's after work. It was the wrong king of oil filter and the air filter was way too small.

I get flustered at this point. My cerebral palsy affects my speech in such a way that I can communicate well with people who know me, but with people who don't know me it is difficult because they are apprehensive of me, and I get nervous, making it harder for me to speak and be understood.

The lady at Thrifty Auto seemed to understand me when I explained what kind of van I had. The guy I encountered the next day was not quite as nice. I gave him the receipt I had and said I was back to pick up a oil filter. He came back with a air filter. No, I need an oil filter. He seemed a bit flustered, but he looked again and came back with a cannister oil filter.

Oil Can Henry's changed our oil, but said that we needed a cartridge oil filter, instead of the cannister.

Our Ride

Jodie and I can get around without using out scooters. Jodie uses forearm crutches. I can free walk.

As a kid I rarely ever used a wheelchair. Sometimes when my family would go to a zoo or a theme park they would rent a wheelchair for me because I didn't have the endurance or speed that the rest of my family had.

Jodie use to free walk around the house when we first got married.

Age does something to all of us. I had back surgery for a herniated disk back in 2001. I used a walker in my coming back after the surgery. Jodie and I have both lost the endurance on our feet that we once had.

With our son, Jodie and I decided that we wanted to keep up with all our son's activities. It was time for us to get scooters.

Our doctor wrote a prescription for me to get a scooter. In order for insurance to help us in getting a scooter, we had to prove that I could use the scooter in our house. It seemed funny to us that they were not interested in helping us become more mobile outside the home.

So it was after we got the scooter and it came time to get my scooter in our Chrysler Voyager minivan, insurance had no interest in helping us accessorize our minivan so that we could transport my scooter.

We tried a metal ramp. It was very heavy for me to handle. I fought with it and was able to get my scooter in the back of out minivan a couple times.

A day came when I was running the scooter up the ramp into our minivan at home. The front tire of the scooter went over the side of the ramp. I had to call Uncle Randy to rescue me.

We started looking for a lift for our minivan. We found a used Braun lift for about $1100. It looks something like this.

When we got Jodie's scooter awhile later, we had to get a second lift. With out son, we had to hang onto a back seat. I don't know if both scooters would fit in the back with no seats...but regardless, we had to have a seat.

The only other option was to get a second lift for the back of the car, outside. We found a Silver Star Lift for $1600.

I will try to get pictures of out current van to post in the next couple days.

This setup has gotten us by for the last five years or so. We don't always haul both scooters together. We do haul them both on the weekends when we do stuff as a family. Our vehicle seems to handle the weight, but I think it has been hard on the transmission (it has been in the shop for that a few times), and the breaks have had excessive wear.

With Jodie's scooter riding outside the van, and all the wonderful rain that we get here in the Northwest, we have had to carry a towel with us when it rains. I know, we should have invested in a cover for her scooter. I never knew how we would secure the cover, and, well, we never really looked into getting one.

See, our outside lift swings away from the hitch so that we can open the back hatch of the van. A metal bar extends about six inches from the hitch; it supports the lift swings closed. When I load my scooter in and out of our minivan, my scooter hits the hitch that holds our outside lift.

We have been looking off and on for the last year for a rig that we could get both scooters inside. We found a full-size van with a side lift. The salesman said we could get both scooters inside. I rode my scooter up and into the van. There was no room to get both scooters in there and for Jodie and I to maneuver around them to get to the front seat.

After doing a lot of googling, I became very interested in the Dodge Sprinters, and I found a place in Edmunds, Washington that sells them accessorized for the disabled -- Access Mobility Systems. Jodie, E and I made the 200 mile drive up there a week ago.

The Sprinter was very nice, and it had plenty of room for both scooters. We were interested in the 2006 Sprinter that they had. We filled out a credit application...and...well...