Old friends

When I was in Salem at the Department of Human Services building getting instructions for a special cleanup project today, I ran into coworkers I have not seen for years.

Jodie went to the meeting with me. At lunch we saw Bonnie. Bonnie was in support staff at the Washington County Branch when I worked there from 1989-1995. My first job, we were like family. Bonnie was at our wedding shower, our wedding, and the baby shower we had before E was born. Bonnie started talking to us, and it was for quite awhile.

We also saw Gail. We met her with the opening of the Gresham Child Welfare branch in 1999. I remember she and her husband were into old cars, and she liked to drag race.

At the end of the day I saw Nelson. Nelson and I learned and became foodstamp and medical eligibility workers back in 2002. We both tried hard to learn the job and we both struggled. His kids are 5 and 8 now.

I was struck by how good it made me feel to see these old friends of mine. I was really warmed by it!

The work will fade away, but the friendships and memories never die.

I should be dancing!

I should be doing a victory dance. A couple weeks ago I blogged about a cultural competency course I went to and the inaccessibility I went through getting there.

Today I received apologies from a head trainer and from the head of my district. I feel honored with the sincerity that my employer, the Oregon Department of Human Services, took my complaint. The decision was made that the facility just is not adequately accessible to hold future trainings.

So why am I not dancing?

I would like to say that I am a "together" disabled guy. I'm not. I often wish I weren't disabled, that I didn't have to deal with my disability....that I didn't have to deal with my walker or my scooter, depending on my pain level any given day.

Most of all, I wish that other's were not forced to confront my disability...such as the Ambridge Center.

But you know, the dance of life does not allow me to leave my disability for no one to see. It's with me 24/7.

When I walk out my door and into unfamiliar territory, life is sometimes scary. People might not understand what I say, or might assume my IQ is very low. I have trouble signing receipts. Self-serve cafes are very scary to me.

But when I get around people I know, situations like at work where I am a known quantity, life is easier. I might need to ask a friend for help with my tray in the cafeteria, but later on when someone needs to figure out how to get to a pcms screen, I'm their guy.

I just feel bad in a way that my accessibility needs are a burden I had to share with my agency and the Ambridge Center. It is a learning experience for us all.

Just an aside, I was in Salem today at the DHS building for a meeting concerning the Title IV-E program I work with. At morning break I heard a crowd in the foyer of the building. There was some disability awareness activity. Dr. Bruce Goldberg, head of DHS, shook my hand. And I saw the ADA representative for the department who I had met at the Ambridge Center last week.

I'm playing the Rolling Stones right now...and I'm dancing...

I am a Helen Keller fan...

Rare Helen Keller pic with doll discovered - CNN.com


A magnificent woman filled with grace and class.

Her quotes inspire me:

Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

Helen Keller

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

Helen Keller

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world.

Helen Keller

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

Helen Keller

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

Taken from:

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Helen_Keller

Nephew Vance and the boys take State!

2A boys basketball does not hit the airwaves much in Oregon. 6A are the big schools. 2A, well that is down the line.

Vance is a team captain for the Portland Christian Royals. He is only a sophomore, but he is already a leader on the court.

The team made it to State this year. 2A basketball playoffs are always held in Pendleton, a real cow town about 3 1/2 east of Portland.

Before I talk about Vance, I need to mention his dad, Ken Downey. Ken was kind of like a second father to my wife, Jodie. Ken was married to Jodie's sister, Denise. They were living with Jodie's Mom when we started dating back in 1990. Jodie moved back in with them so we could save money for our wedding. I remember bringing Jodie back to the house. We would pull into the driveway and Ken would start turning the front light on and off, to signal that he knew we were in the driveway, and Jodie better be working on getting out of the car....not something else.

Ken played basketball with the University of Portland, 1975-1979. He was a team captain. I found a link to U of P basketball history. It is a pdf file. If you do a search for "Ken Downey", you will see he played from 1975-1979, received a team captain award in 1978, had a .787 free throw percentage, and is #9 on the career assist list. He was asked to play ball overseas after colleges, but he and Denise did not want to.

Ken became a salesman. He sold different things, but I remember him selling transportation units (truck and rail). The job fit him well. He loved to talk and he love people. He was a very generous man. Jodie and him were tight. If I had not passed Ken's standards, I would have been out the door. But I passed, and Ken walked Jodie down the aisle for me.

Two weeks after our weddings, Ken's bad headaches were diagnosed...and it was not good. Four years later his strong athletic body could no longer fight the brain tumor. I had the honor of collecting stories and writing some words that were read at Ken's funeral. This was December 1994.

Fast forward 14 years. Ken's son, Vance, is a co-captain of the varsity basketball team at Portland Christian. He is a starting guard. He was two when his dad passed away. He is now a sophomore. They had a three loss season this year; none of the losses in league.

Vance is a great basketball player. Yes, I am prejudice. He can score, he can rebound, but his magic is the way he flies around the floor. He is not so concerned with his personal stats as he is with making sure his team is properly tuned. Shots, rebounds, assists, good passes---whatever it takes to the the team a win. He makes plenty of three's, but when he does miss, blink your eyes and he is at the hoop tapping one in!

E was at the 2A basketball tourney in Pendleton for game 1 and game 2. Jodie and I had to listen to those games over internet radio. We drove to Pendleton Saturday to see game 3. Vance had solid play in each game - double digit score and some good rebounding. Game 3 was well worth the 200 hundred mile drive. Western Mennonite was a large team, in height and numbers. It was unbelievable the first quarter score, 2-22! Vance's team went on to win the championship game, 70-38.

Jodie and I were able to go to many of Vance's games this year. They were accessible to us, thanks to a new ramp at a local college, Warner Pacific, where Portland Christian played their home games. Jodie is a screaming fan. People look our way; I shrug my shoulders.

After each game, Vance has a hug for his Aunt Jodie and Uncle Troy.

The spirit of Ken Downey lives on.

Okay....I'll bite...

What did Pastor Roger do?

Never assume...

I had to go to the dentist today. My half yearly scrape....scrape...

I went to the elevator. A guy was waiting at the elevator, so I waited and waited. The guy walked away from the elevator and walked down the hall.

I looked at the button and noticed the light was not on. I pushed the button and the elevator opened immediately.

I had assumed that the guy had pushed the elevator button. Now, I don't know what he was doing.

Never assume...

Return to Ambridge Event Center

I was asked to participate in a review of the steps that the Ambridge Event Center has taken since my recent experience there.

People from Salem and people from the Service Delivery Area office in Portland were there. I was glad to see Heather from the SDA office there. She uses a power chair and is versed in the ADA. She had a lot of great input. I am a writer, but I am not very verbal. Joe, a person from Salem who handles ADA issues did an accessibility checklist, one for the basement and one for the main floor. The facilities manager and receptionist for the center were also there.

The upstairs is more accessible, but the room up their rents for ten times as much as the one downstairs. The state is always trying for a deal, but the person who heads the training department was resolute that accessibility should not be sacrificed for cost.


We all pointed out areas of inaccessibility in the center, but the facilities manager had a solution or a reason for each deficiency. Doors were heavy, but there would be someone there to help. The confusing buttons on the basement door were all removed; that door will remain unlocked when there is a State training down there. The restrooms that adjoin the downstairs training room are not at all accessible, but the ones out at the end of the hall are.

Heather has a minivan with a side ramp. None of the handicapped spots available had space on the side for the ramp to come out to. The facilities manager promised to set out a cone to create such space in the future when there is a training.

One excuse that was used many times as to why the center was not accessible was that they building was old and the building was "grandfathered" into the ADA - basically not required to follow aspects of the law due to the age of the building.

Accessibility and older buildings is a difficult marriage. Accessibility is expensive. The head of the DHS training unit said she now sees that assessing a venue's accessibility takes more than going through a checklist over the phone. Seeing a place, and watching a PWD (person with disability) maneuver through a place, is much more informative.

Hats off to the Ambridge Event Center for their good faith effort to make their building accessible, however makeshift it may be.

I am satisfied that my employer, State of Oregon, Department of Human Services, saw that accessibility is more than a checklist. Accessibility has to involve real input from people with physical challenges.

Whatever the outcome is from this exercise, I am excited that the conversation of accessibility has moved beyond the classroom and into the real world.

King of Dodge Ball...out of commission for a month...

The kind of call you don't want to get at the end of the work day. My son had broke or sprained his are playing dodge ball during PE. He tripped over his friend's feet.

My in-laws care for E while Jodie and I work. They were on the way to pick Jodie up from work, and the going to the doctor's. The x-ray showed a fracture. He is wearing a splint for a couple days until the swelling goes down. The doctor will see then if he needs a cast.

After breaking my arm twice, I know what the pain is like. I wish I could go through it for him.

He is taking Tylenol with codeine. A short while ago he was feeling pain and we had to encourage him to take a pill.

E will not be playing in the basketball tourney this weekend, though we will be there to root the team on.

He was telling us how he is the king of dodge ball. A month is a long time for me...I hope he can handle it that long.

Hopefully it will not interfere with his baseball season.

Scare at the drive-thru

We stopped to get burgers tonight. Talking through the speaker, they don't understand me very well...and they can't hear Jodie from the passenger side, so E stands over me and speaks the order for us.

He shouts, because one drive thru we have gone to requires us to shout. The order clerk told us not to shout. E toned it down a bit, but the clerk still was not getting it. Then Jodie tried. We thought they got the order.

When we got to the window, they asked us for our order again. We paid, and proceeded to the next window. We waited....and waited. The cars were stacking up behind us.

It was a long time.

A guy from a few cars back got out of his car. He came up to the order window and asked the worker "What is this? Senior citizens night out?"

He saw our van....and our two scooters. He was a little rough looking. I rolled my window up. We were a little afraid.

I drove off without our food. I was going to park in front and go in for the food. As we drove around front, an employee ran out with our food.

I don't know why we weren't asked to wait in the "grill" parking places for when orders take longer.

Mark that B'ville off our list for awhile.....

Back to CarToys

The shop manager never called back with any resolution to my car stereo problem. Expensive radio, no AM antenna...very poor reception.

My mom called me the other day at work to find out more about the problem. I explained what the guy at the shop said as well as I could. Mom said that John laughed when she called him at work and told him that I was upset over not getting AM reception in the car. He said, "Only Troy would get upset over that!"

Mom and John met me at CarToys this morning. I sat in the van until I saw them. Mom was irked that a bunch of employees were just watching me from inside. Finally, the salesman I bought the stereo from last Saturday came out. He had not been there when we returned last Sunday when we returned because of lack of AM reception. He seemed to have different reasons for why the AM didn't work...something about a European plug....and add-on radios versus stock radios. I asked about the reasons we were told last Sunday...he was like "Oh yeah, that too."

He had the shop look at it again to see what they could do. In the end, they ran a wire from the stereo to the AM radio.

Why didn't they do that for us last week?

They also reversed the view of the backup camera, so now now the view looks the same as I would see through a rearview mirror. I was getting confused with it the other way.

Iraq doing what it can...

...to halt use of disabled in suicide bombings.

Please pray for their efforts.

Iraq Moves To Halt Use Of Impaired In Bombings - washingtonpost.com

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!

Cultural Competency class...accessibility takes a back seat!

Important Update: Upon reading the following blog entry, the Department of Human Services met with the manager of the Ambridge Event Center and immediate actions have been taken to alleviate the failings in regards to accessibility of the building.

The door that is on the side of the building where the disabled gain access to the basement will remain unlocked during trainings. No more buzzers to nowhere!

Thank you DHS! Thank you Ambridge Event Center!

You have each shown a high level of integrity.

*******

Accessibility by law,
but
not accessibility in spirit.

In the course of my 18 years as an employee for the Department of Human Services for the State of Oregon, I have gone to dozens of mandatory trainings. Today I went to one facilitated by a dear gentleman named Miguel Valenciano was truly a joy to listen to.

Miguel won me over when he included disability in his course on cultural competency. Jodie and I have often complained to each other how disability does not get included in discussions regarding minorities. One of his case studies included a man with cerebral palsy. Miguel is a gifted man, and I gave him my full attention today.

The training was held at the Ambridge Event Center.

I parked my van in the parking lot this morning. Deb, my desk partner, parked next to me. I got my walker out and headed for the front door. There was no handicapped parking in front. I had trouble finding the curb cuts. I had to walk to the end of the sidewalk, a detour from the front door. I went up to the front door. Deb held the door.

We learned that the training was downstairs and there was no elevator. Instead, there was a door on the side of the building. It is a locked door, so Deb went downstairs to let me in. I had to walk back down the ramp, and around to the side of the building. It was quite the jaunt!

After Deb let me in, I had to walk down a long dark hall to get to the meeting room.

A worker from another branch went through the same thing. She uses a power chair, and her work partner caught up with Miguel before the training. She and Miguel went looking for an elevator together to learn that there was none. Miguel brought this episode up in the afternoon as an example of barriars that get in the way.

I was going to forgo lunch so I would not have to go through the hassle of getting in and out of the building. I had brought some snacks today....okay, I was bad--some candy bars and pop and a yogurt. Lunch came and I decided to go over to the burger place on the corner. Some of my coworkers were there--Social Service Assistants who transport kids and supervise family visits. I see them in passing...but never really have much chance to to visit with them. We had a pleasant time.

They walked with me back to the meeting, around to the door on the side of the building. The sign said to press the buzzer to be let in the door. There were about eight buttons, some for various offices, some were blank, no one button to indicate access. I pressed one button, then another, eventually all of them...no access.

One of my coworkers walked around through the front. He asked the security guard about the buttons and was told "Oh, none of them work."

That is not access!

For an agency whose mission is "Assisting people to become independent, healthy and safe," holding meeting in a poorly accessible location (at best) is not acceptable.

Disabled man dumped from wheelchair...

Have you seen this video?




The sheriff has apologized.

According to an AP story:


TAMPA, Fla. (AP) Four sheriff's deputies in Florida have been suspended over surveillance footage that shows one of them purposely dumping a quadriplegic man out of his wheelchair. Brian Sterner tells The Tampa Tribune that the deputy was "irked" that he wasn't standing up for a jailhouse search. He was brought in on a warrant after a traffic violation. The department's chief deputy says "anything short of dismissal would be inappropriate" for those involved.


A more complete version of the story.


Good points taken by Tampa Bay Online:

•Why no training on how to frisk suspects in wheelchairs? Col. David Parrish, who oversees jail operations, says deputies are trained to follow the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires disabled inmates to be assessed by a nurse upon admission. But deputies receive no specific training on how to frisk people in wheelchairs.

Parrish may be right that it should not be necessary to instruct someone "not to throw someone out of a wheelchair," but when a 22-year-veteran does just that, it indicates training protocols need to be far more rigorous.

• Has this happened before? Parrish says the jail handles hundreds of people in wheelchairs each year - it currently has 31 - and has never had anything remotely similar occur. But the deputy and supervisors in the video appear awfully relaxed about what's going on, suggesting such behavior is not out of the norm.

Gee's office should review the videos to determine whether other incidents have happened.

• Why didn't the supervisors report the incident? It occurred Jan. 29 when Brian Sterner, who was partially paralyzed in a 1994 wrestling accident, was booked for blocking an intersection with his vehicle and fleeing an officer.

Missing Tigard boy found...

This story puzzled my son and I. The boy was still missing when I dropped E off at his grandma's this morning for his ride to school with his cousin.

E was thinking the worst happened to the boy. I said we can't think that way until we know for sure. It his hard in this day when the worst does happen some of the time.

Turns out he missed his bus, tried to walk home and got lost.

The police were surprised the boy did not ask for help. We teach our kids not to talk to strangers.

Thank God he is okay.

Missing Tigard boy found

Writer's got their flag on the internet...

Interesting piece on what was one:

Writers’ Strike: Why the Web Wins | Newsweek From Forbes.com | Newsweek.com

I can't wait until all tv is delivered over the internet.

It will be cheaper, more choice......right!!

Madeliene

E had a basketball game at Madeleine this afternoon. NE 23 and Klickitat in Portland. It is a Catholic church and school.

I took the right freeway exit, but I was in the wrong lane and I wound up back on the freeway. The Garmin took me off the next exit, and got my to the school. I like my Garmin!

We got to the school and E started freaking out because we didn't know where the gym was. Chill kid! The Garmin cannot help us with that.

We saw a guy walking across the parking lot. He looked like he might know where the gym was. He did. "Upstairs." Upstairs?

Jodie has a much more difficult time with stairs than I do...but stairs aren't my friend either.

She told me to go up with E so that one of us would be there. E and I made it upstairs. It was a long staircase with a short landing in the middle and a door to the right at the top of the stairs. E helped me with the door. When we got upstairs, the guy we had seen in the parking lot was up there. He said there was an elevator on the other side, that he would run it for us.

I went to the door and looked down the stairs. I wanted to go get Jodie. I froze. Going downstairs is harder than going up. I froze.

I went back into the gym and headed for the other door. I thought maybe the stairs there were less daunting. As I started toward the door. the guy came back and said the elevator door was looked, and they didn't knew where the key for the elevator was.

I felt bad that Jodie had to stay in the car. But her attitude was that at least one of us were there for E. And Pastor Karl came to the game...that was very awesome.

Our boys were behind the whole game. The highlight was a short run in the third or forth quarter where we went from being 20 down to just being 8 down in just a minute or two, but then it went back the other way.

It is frustrating when inaccessibility gets in the way. Church's and private schools do the best they can do.

I should be more militant...I know. I am a fan of Mr. Magoo. We muddle through.

Yahoo says no....

...to Microsoft.


Bloomberg.com: Worldwide


Maybe Google?

Hmm....

Yahoo brand...Google is king of search...Microsoft is the behemoth in the corner.

Why did the proposed bid send Microsoft's stock down?

It's all about cloud computing....now I kind of understand.

Super Tuesday...Dems tie!

Hillary did not get the lead she was looking for. Obama made the gains he was wishing for...not a lead, but pretty much a tie.

Clinton is loaning her own campaign money. Obama raised $32 mil in January alone.

McCain is doing well....yawn! The only thrill on that side is that his future running mate, Huckabee, is helping to knock out Romney.

Google being out-Googled

I love Google. I have an igoogle page with ten tabs....news, local news, blogs...I have feeds galore. I have my google calendar. My Gmail...it it tops! Google analytics helps me track the traffic on my websites. Blogger is wonderful...the auto-save feature I love. I have just earned my first $19 from my google ads. I save attached documents into my google docs, and then cut and paste the html code from the google docs into me websites. Googlepages needs work...I look for Google to offer free hosting with mysql database access...free Joomla hosting...I can dream can't I? Google's Picasa and online photo album I love.

I am a Google addict!

I'm really surprised how upset Google is at the prospect of Microsoft buying Yahoo. Google's stock is down to $501. OMG! They were over $700 at Christmas!

Google is really whining.

Google is afraid that Microsoft is trying to take over the world.

The truth is that they are mad they didn't get to Yahoo first.

I hope this Blogger blog is still around tomorrow. Big Bro Goog...I'm sorry....

Just heinous...

Horror struck me when I heard this:

Disabled women used to kill 91 in Baghdad - The Boston Globe

I know that extremists have different values than I, but this is a new low.

2 down

Edwards is out. I liked him, but he never got traction this year. Barack, he'd be a great running mate.



Giuliani is out too. John....no.

Hey Ma...I need more straws...

Next Costco run, Ma, I need a bag of straws.

The bag with 2500 unwraped straws is my preferrence, but the bag with 2000 wrapped straws is okay. This last bag was the wrapped straws...kind of Troy-proof (hard to open).

I use lots of straws. A bag lasts about a year. I have some left...just don't want to run out.

Thank you Ma!

931-442-3321

We have had calls appear on our caller ID from this phone number. The ID says "Santa Fe, TN". No idea who it is. I google the number. I'm just curious. This number has called a few times, but has not left a message.

So, it's Star Travel regarding a time share that's not really a time share.

Huh....now I know.

Good Samaritans helping the disabled in the West Bank

I don't know how these two men wound up in the small town of Athena, Oregon, but what a blessing!

Inspires me that a country baptist church would bring these Muslim "Good Samaritans" in to hear of the work they are doing in the biblical town of Bethany.

"I In a place where religion is often a dividing factor between people, the organizations Alloush and Hamdan run will take anybody, no matter their creed or race."

I would not have what I have...a family and a job...if I were born over there. I am thankful to God for men such as these who make life easier for my brothers and sisters over there.

Disaboom article re: Presidential candidates stance on disability issues

Renee Reynolds did a very nice job with this synopsis.

The GOP is mute on disability issues save for John McCain. McCain has a life dedication to vets and worked on the ADA. Edwards has us in his platfrorm, Clinton includes us in her health plan, and Obama has his "Disabilities and Equal Opportunities Plan".

Thank you Renee.

Close call

Close call tonight. An astroid past by earth tonight, three football fields wide, a Moon-and-a-half away.

A nightmare of mine is that the earth gets obliterated by an astroid. True worriers like me always have a pile of scenarios in their head to worry about.

I guess this worry can be retired until 2027...

Keeping track of the race

Bojack turned me on to The Presidential Toteboard 2008. It is a wonderful summation/commentary of what's going on in the race to the White House.

Barack did well in SC today...but thoughts are that Hillary will sweep up on Super Tuesday.

I was at my nephew's basketball game last night. Two guys behind me were talking politics. Hillary scares them, but the one said Barack scared him even more. He is the "sexy" one among younger voters. He use to do drugs....once a druggy, always a druggy, you know. (I guess alcohol is different).

I am a right leaning Dem. I am disenchanted with both parties...let's get stuff done.

-Let's provide for our kids, birth through college, with health care. Supplement the best their family can provide with a benefit supplemental package so that quality health care is available to all kids.

-Let's provide for our kids, birth through college, with quality education. Preschool through college is important to all kids. Provide assistance or loans to supplement what parents can provide. No more unfunded mandates. Allow flexibility; communities are different, kids are different. One size does not fit all.

-Take care of our seniors as best we can.

-Allow the disabled to work without loss of benefits. Give them time to make sure the job will work out. Allow them to keep their medical benefits as needed.

-Rebuild our mental health system that has been ravaged by cuts for way too long. The high number of mentally ill clogging our prisons attests to this.

-Back out of Iraq as prudently as possible. A mess we never should have entered, but we are there, so we are responsible.

I confess that I am having trouble getting past the mudslinging of this delegate courtship to figure out who stands for my issues.

The guys who were talking in back of me last night would not vote for me. I would want more money from them in order to help our fellow Americans in need.

Disabled in Gaza

Thank you Kay for bringing up this article.

Sunday school, last week, Lebonan and Gaza came up...two sides to everything. Sad to see a paralyzed 12 yo's suffering made worse because we can't get along.

Disabled Football

AFC disabled football....this caught my eye.

I was thinking American football. This is the real football.

Very cool nonetheless.

12yo gets a cell!

Cell phones started showing up among E's classmates in the 3rd grade...he's been begging for one ever since.


Jodie and I showed up for Sunday school, and there was no class. We took of in Jet White down to a coffee stand and got a couple mocha's. When we returned, the one disabled spot we feel safe parking in was taken. We park at a bit of an angle there, giving me more visibility backing out. We parked in the back parking lot. I had to walk quite a ways to get to E's class.

I told E, "You know, this would be a whole lot easier if you had a cell phone."

He was hyped; I was committed. We went and got him his first cell phone, a grey Razr. He has 100 minutes.

Nephew Vance had a basketball game tonight. We were able to call E to have him meet us at the door with some of his cash so we could get in without making a trip to the bank.

Vance scored 28 points tonight...varsity 2a basketball. He kept making 3's!

Red, White and Blue Tag Sale - New York Times

Dowd puts it way better than me. A point she makes about the immigation issue being a diversion from "a bigger problem.."

Red, White and Blue Tag Sale - New York Times: "The country is engaged in a fit of nativism and Lou Dobbsism, obsessing about the millions of Mexicans who might be sneaking across the border when billions in foreign money are pouring into Citigroup. You figure out what might be a bigger problem."

Online game threatens American productivity

Game aimed at older White guys....

Online golf game handicaps productivity - Jan. 18, 2008

Good one...

I am a ODB fan. Here is a good one.

Foreign countries buying up U.S. - like Monopoly

The NY Times reports that the week dollar has created a buying frenzy of the United States by other countries.

Everything is on the table...except the military technology....might want to keep that here.

MYSQL bought by Sun

MySQL is an open source database. The Joomla websites I make each run off a Mysql database. Photo galleries, blogs, calendars, many different apps use MySQL databases.

Since it is open source, it is typically free.

I rent webspace from Bluehost. $95/year I believe. I have 50 MySQL databases I could use.

When I saw that Sun Microsystems bought MySQL, I was concerned. Am I going to pay more to use MySQL?

The answer appears to be "no". They do plan to market an improved enterprise version of it.


How did Sun beat Google to buy MySQL?

Easy Writer

I'd like to try one of these.



Handwriting is difficult for me. I have been typing since I was 7. I would love to have the freedom that handwriting gives. I wish I could try a Easy Writer on a tablet computer.



This still would not help me sign those pesky Visa receipts...not much left of the reciept when I'm done!

All relative foster caregivers will be paid

A new state law has just made my job a whole lot easier. Kids no longer need to be Title IV-E eligible in order for there relative caregivers to be paid. These are children who are wards of the State of Oregon...I know what you were thinking.

Title IV-E refers to the section of the Social Security Act that administers federal funds that partially reimburses the costs of kids in foster care.

I am a IV-E specialist, if you have not figured that out yet. A typical IV-E eligible child comes from a single parent home where the family was receiving a welfare grant, or would have been eligible to receive such grant had they applied.

Up until now, when a non IV-E eligible child went into relative foster care, I had to prepare a denial letter for relatives to explain why we could not pay them foster care $$. I would refer them to Self Sufficiency to apply for a non-needy relative caretaker grant, about half of what foster care pays.

I still have a job. We still need to optomize the federal funds...and we have a federal audit coming up.

It's just my stomach was always in knots when I had to explain to them why we could not pay them.

The dreaded part of my job is gone!

Mitt finally wins one...

John McCain thought he might be on a roll.

McCain Moves Focus to S.C. Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 Newsweek.com

Michigan was stripped of there democrat delagates due to moving their primary so early. All dems but Hillary had their names removed from the ballot. Hillary got 57% of the dem votes. 38% selected "uncommitted".

'Blade Runner' will not compete...

...in China.

The IAFF asserts that Oscar Pistorius uses 25% less energy with the carbide blade prostheses, compared to able bodied runners.

I can see both sides. The carbide blades are his legs, and he has worked hard to compete. If he can compete with able bodied runners, why not let him? Yet, do the carbide legs give him and unfair advantage? I just don't know.

Pistorius is asking for independent tests to see whether he does have an unfair advantage.

I side with fellow blogger Matt Moscona:

Oscar Pistorius is an inspiration to many. He is a man who has accomplished more without the use of his legs than many of us with two good legs could ever dream of. Pistorius serves as an example to humankind that anything truly is possible. There is even a place where Pistorius and others who share the same afflictions and equal zest for life can compete. Pistorius belongs in the Paralympic Games. He should spend the Summer of 2008 in Beijing, but he should spend it defending the 200 meter crown he won at the 2004 Athens Paralympic games.

It is a tough call, because the my dream as a disabled person is to find things that I can do well enough that my disability is not a factor.

Sometimes we need to find grace and comfort in the greatness our differentness brings.

Tornado

Just north of here there was a tornado yesterday! Nobody hurt, but lots of damage. It tore up a couple boathouses used by row teams (7-12 grade)...all the boats destroyed! Kids had been there a half hour earlier...and more were to come a couple hours later!

I was a kid when the last one hit.

E has a basketball game in Vancouver tomorrow...I checked the map. Looks like it's in a untouched area.

Jodie diagnosed....

A couple months ago Jodie went to renew her migraine medication and was told she would need to go in for a blood test. A couple weeks ago, she was asked to come in again for another.

The doc called a couple days ago to tell her that her thyroid hormone production was dangerously low. We freaked out a little, but doing some research, it sounds very treatable with medication. It sounds like a lifetime regimen, with frequent tests to make sure her hormone level is correct.

Hypothyroidism Causes, Symptoms, & Treatment on eMedicineHealth.com

Always something!

Janet & Obama

My stepdad's sister, Janet, has dedicated herself to the service of her country as a diplomat. She has been stationed several places throughout the world. She has spent a lot of time in Africa --- in Sudan, and more recently in Ehtiopia.

Obama stopped by in 2006. He was still considering whether to run at the time. Janet said that a young diplomat with them promised to vote for him if he ran.

Janet says "Maybe that decided him??!!"

Hillary won by a tear?

And won by 3 points in New Hampsire?



I feel for all the candidates. Such a long, difficult race.

Was the tear calculated? I don't think so....but maybe someone told Hillary that it's okay to be human.

Hope McCain wins. Flip-flopper...Dems would have have an easy go.

Meet and greet with Pastor Karl

We have a new associate pastor at our church. Pastor Karl joined us a couple months ago. He hails from Chicago, where his family is still living as they try to sell their house.

Pastor Karl is meeting with each of the youth in our church and their families. Pretty ambitious!

E is starting middle school...and the confirmation process. My old baptist buddies don't understand this...but you know, it is a beautiful process. Kids study every aspect of the faith. They bond with each other, the teachers, and the church. Not the only way...but a good way.

During our half hour meeting, he asked some insightful questions, like "What do you like about each other?"

Cliche, I know, but the youth of the church is our future.

Thank you Pastor Karl.

Catch his e-vo's.

Basketball game at Our Lady of the Lake...

E had a basketball game yesterday at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic church in Lake Oswego yesterday.

The Garmin got us there a different way that I normally would have gone. I got confused at one point...by around the block..."recalculating"...the Garmin got us right back on track.

For those of you not from the Portland area, Lake Oswego is a small hamlet just south of Portland --- a high class area.

We arrived a few minutes late. We parked in the parking lot in the back of the building. Having not been there before, we didn't know where the gym was. E got out and followed the other kids and parents around as the figured out where to go. The correct door was found and it was up a long flight of stairs.

I can do stairs if I have to, but I avoid them when I can. Going up is not too hard for me, but I don't feel stable coming down. As a kid I dislocated in a knee on stairs are home, a memory always in my mind whenever a set of stairs is in front of me. Jodie can do short sets of stairs, but they need to have backs on them. She uses her forearm crutches, one in front and one behind. These stairs did not have backs.

Jodie told me to go watch the game. I told her I would go scout out the accessibility. As I was heading for the stairs, a couple parents waived at us and said that if we drove to the front of the church, there was a ramp and they could let us in the front door.

I was moved that they were watching out for us. Readers of this blog might think it is a no-brainer that people would watch out for us this way, but if disability has not touched a person's life (personally, or through a friend or relative) , accessibility is not something that enters their stream of consciousness.

Jodie and I made it in and were able see the game. We sat with parents from the opposing team. Bob, a dad of one of our players, cleared us a spot close to the door. It kept Jodie more calm than usual. She really gets into cheering for the kids...kind of wild...loud...uncontrollable.

It was a good, close game. They lost it when they stopped playing as a team. Practices should be interesting this week.

Dirt on Obama?

Come kids....say it ain't so...

Swift Boat II? (Jack Bog's Blog)

Play nice!

New Hampshire debate

On the Republican side, I was happy to see at least one (Huckabee) say something negative about Bush's foreign policy. Is siding with President Bush really going to help any of them?

Clinton was on the defense. Status quo vs. change. What did Clinton mean by "35 years of change?" Other bloggers are having fun with that. Interesting reflections by someone who saw Edwards at an event earlier in the day.

Huckabee...

I am watching the New Hampshire debates tonight. Yawwn....

I find Huckabee interesting. He is folksy, down to earth, and he is a Southern Baptist preacher. He also seems like a player....letting stuff slip out..."Who...Me?"

Newsweek has an interesting article about how Huckabee is making evangelicals nervous. Yes, he is a preacher, but the article notes that he is not willing to talk about it.

I am undecided. I have much more research to do.

Dr. Randy liked the website

I made a new website for our chiropractor. More pictures to gather, but he likes it so far:

http://twittren.net/portlandchiropracticgroup/

Forward thinking....

...in Napal.

The race is on...

Analysis: Huckabee up, Clinton down heading to Granite State - CNN.com

Strange how the race has become about identy - who you like, who you don't like - rather than issues.

Rush brought it up yesterday, Jodie and I talked about it last night.

I need to study issues...get ready for our primary...in MAY!

Get that receptionist a computer!

We got a postcard in the mail a few weeks back addressed to "The Wittrens" saying that we had a dental appointment this morning. My wife had filled the card out at her last visit.

Jodie called. An appointment was made for all three of us. E begged us to not make him go today. He had a math test he didn't want to miss. We tried to convince him that no time is a good time to go to the dentist.

E was taken back first, and then me. My hygenist saw that E and I were last seen in August, less than 6 months ago. Insurance might not cover a visit prior to the six months. The receptionists tried frantically to contact the insurance company, but could not get past hold.

I decided to come back in February when my appointment is do. We had them clean Eric's teeth. with his braces there is a better chance that insurance will cover him. Jodie is on a different six month schedule, so she was due a cleaning today.

Six months ago when Jodie filled out the appointment reminder card, she put "The Wittren's" when she should have just put herself. What amazes me is that the appointment schedule is not on a computer, but a paper calendar with patient-written post cards as the reminder.

It's not until the patient is in the office and the hygienist is looking at the file that the insurance time frame is looked.

Very old school...but so is the receptionist.

Hard to be mad, but it is irritating.

Platform: Disability awareness

NewsChannel6 - Idaho Falls Native Vying for Miss America Crown

From the report:

Her platform, acceptance of and accessibility for people with disabilities.

Sadie Quigley, Miss Idaho: "Show that it's okay that we all have similarities and difference and some may be just be more physical than others and it is okay to accept each other and love it each other for who we are."

I like her platform. Disability awareness seems like a cliche', but there is still a ton of room for education. I don't think people really get it until disability touches their life, or that of a loved one.

Miss America is moving to TLC this year.

Disabled mom and the best interest of the child

Fellow blogger Deafmom wrote about a disabled mom losing parental rights here.

Lack of support system...very sad tale.

Communicator for the disabled

I am a intellectual lightweight.

This guy isn't:

Christian Helle's Blog: Cepa Mobility - Enabling the Disabled

Disabled kitty cat

Bless those 4th graders! Watch the video:
cbs4.com - Disabled Cat On Wheels

Wondderlful idea from othe side of the pond...

Karting for the Disabled Launches at the Karting Show at Kartlink

IE7 problems on Jodie's laptop

Jodie went to look at her e-mail yesterday and she could not get the internet to come up. That set me off on a wild goose chase to find a solution.

The connection box showed a red "X", as if something was wrong with the wireless router connection. My computer was finding the internet okay. It is plugged into the router. Eric's computer is connected over the wireless and it was finding the internet fine.

I went back to Jodie's computer and tried the Firefox browser instead of Internet Explorer 7. Firefox worked! IE7 just hung up.

I reset her computer several times.

I uninstalled her IE7, downloaded a new version, and reinstalled.

Still, her IE7 hung up.

I googled for a solution. One suggestion was to run a registry cleaning program. I did, and it found issues, but in order to fix them I had to register the program. I tried to do that, but the program was trying to connect to the internet via IE7....aye aye aye!

I was past burned out. I showed Jodie how to access the internet with Firefox...but today I went to searching for a solution.

I finally found a link on how to reset IE7. I found the "reset" button under the advanced tab in the "internet options" section of the control panel.

And guess what? It worked!

New Years Day tradition

I don't recall a New Years Day in the past 18 years when we have not gone out for a meal with our dear friends Brad and Lori. One year it was it was Chinese food for lunch, but we usually go out for breakfast.

Today it was breakfast at the Gateway Elmers. E was with us. There daughter, Autumn, is at Disneyland with friends this year.

We parked at the back end of the lot. These days I park Jet White where it will be easiest to back out. The wind caught my door when I opened it. It was straight out and touching the dark blue pick-up parked next to us. It left some white paint on the truck. I freaked. E noted that there was other blemishes of spattered paint on the truck. I tried to wipe it off. No luck. Lori looked. She didn't see a scratch. If the truck owner was concerned he could leave us a note...still--guilt...

We talked politics -- not knowing who to vote for and having a hard time caring, since Oregon's primary is so late, thus meaningless. We talked about friends and family. E talked a lot about history. He reads historic biographies, and soldier diaries. He watches the History Channel. Brad knows a lot about history. He and E hit it off in several areas. E wants to learn woodworking, and it sounds like Brad could help get him started.

Having an only child does present challenges. Keeping them entertained is hard. Activities, dogs, games, computer---he has them all. Still, we always hear "I'm bored!" When we are out with friends and E is with us, the conversation is as much for him as it is for us.

We came home to a few chores...and some football.

Happy New Year!

Highlights of 2007:

2007

We watched "Oceans 13" tonight, and played Bible Trivia.

Our new Sprinter, Jet White, and our California vacation were highlights of the past year.

2008 - will we make it to the Grand Canyon? Jodie and I both have dreams of having a home business of some sort. What will '08 bring?

Walgreens...where's that voice coming from?

Yesterday after church, we stopped at Walgreens to pick up a prescription. We were at the drive thru window and were greeted by a woman's voice. The only person I could see looking at the round mirror into the pharmacy was a man. He never came over to help us.

"Turn your car off!" He voice was not too friendly. Our Jet White is diesel, and is loud, so the request was not unreasonable. What was unreasonable was that there was no face to go with the voice.

With the way my speech is affected by my cp, I don't like talking over speakers. I prefer seeing the people and them seeing me so they know why I speak with difficulty. I drop my debit card in the tray and they get my order.

Jodie gave the voice her name. The voice said there was nothing being held for her, that we waited too long to come in. It would take 30 minutes to fill it.

E came back with me later to get the prescription. He shouted into the mic "We need to pick up a prescription for Jodie Wittren!"

Virginia came to help us. She has helped me before. A friendly face with a name tag.

Much better than just a voice!

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!"

Jodie wants to change things

Jodie and E painted his room basin blue...while I was a work. I don't know how E moved his dresser and the bookshelf. Ignorance is fine by me. I thought it would look too dark...but it actually looks nice!

Jodie wants to move our office out of our garage into our third bedroom. That means emptying our third bedroom of he 300 plus doll collection. They will be going into storage, into the garage.

Last year our family added insulation and walls to finish our garage. We have two "L" shaped office cube-style desks so that it makes a square "U". I have my 13-inch tv in the corner. I like it out here in the garage...but it is colder out here. We leave the door open that leads into the family room when I am out here. Jodie and E are usually in the family room at night; I'm usually in the office. My objection to that plan is that I will be far away from Jodie and E at night. Jodie contends that she will be in the office more at night if it is in the house where it is warm.

Another piece of the equation is Bonnie and Clyde, our beloved mutts. Dachshund/Yorke mix, brother and sister -- they are wild and untrained. Owners to blame; we except that. We have gotten in the habit of leaving our bedrooms closed....otherwise they drag out all sorts of interesting stuff. Under the new plan we will keep stuff picked up and doors open. Faith and hope that they take the responsibility of having run of the house serious.....riiigghhttt!

As any good husband knows, you don't want to get in the way of a Woman and her plan...

Final tip earned...

Seven years this waitress put up with it!

Foul-mouthed customer leaves waitress $50,000 - CNN.com

Working during holiday week

I took Christmas Eve off this year. Except for the 2 holidays, I am working all the rest of the time. Jodie let a lot of her workers have Christmas Eve off, so she worked that day and took the rest of the week through New Years.

Jodie has a lot more vacation time than I have. I am trying to save time for out Grand Canyon adventure next summer. Yes, I know the Roloff's did this in recent episode of "Little People". We thought of this before seeing them do it....

Work has been so slow. I am suppose to work New Years Eve day also. Jodie and E want me to call in sick. I am tempted, but in 18 years on the job I have not used sick leave this way.

But being at work when my family, and my brain, is on holiday is really hard!

The Christmas Star

The word given to us at church through our new associate pastor, Pastor Karl Hestor, greatly inspired me. We get set in out spiritual routine...so set that we forget about the miracles and wonders of God.

Christmas is about God banging into our world and shaking things up. It happened at the birth of Christ 2000 years ago--the miracle we commemorate tonight. But it also happens today, tomorrow, and every day.

Our eyes of faith are weary. Miracles don't usually happen in our straight-on vision, but rather the peripheral. We focus of what we want to happen rather than what is happening.

The business of Christmas is stress. The right gifts for the right people. Cards sent late...oops! All the preparations.

Take a time out this Christmas to consider the mystery of God in a manger under the starry night 2,000 years ago...and of God in our world right now.

'Web of miracles' join soldier, disabled Iraqi boy - CNN.com

The season of miracles...Keep your eyes open!

CP orphan from Iraq knows the power of prayer:

'Web of miracles' join soldier, disabled Iraqi boy - CNN.com

New disabled parking rules coming to Oregon

Willamette Week had an editorial on SB716, a law that takes effect 1/1/08. It creates two classes of disabled parking plaques - wheelchair users, and non-wheelchair users.

The issue is the over use of the free parking privileges downtown (costing the city bucks), and the lack of disabled parking spaces available to true wheelchair users.

The law, as capsuled on the kptv website:

Senate Bill 716 directs the DMV to create a "wheelchair only" placard -- in addition to the standard disabled parking placard -- for Oregonians needing parking spaces large enough for a wheelchair-bearing vehicle. The bill requires some parking spaces to be reserved for use by wheelchair users only. Use of a wheelchair only parking space without permit will be a Class A offense with a minimum fine of $190.


The dmv website does not reflect this change yet.

I have several questions:

-Jodie and I use scooters. Do they qualify as a wheelchair?

-We use our scooters some of the time, but not all the time. Assuming we qualify for a wheelchair placard, are we breaking the law if we park in a wheelchair spot and don't use our scooters.

-When I use a scooter, parking close to the store is less important. When I don't use my scooter, my endurance is less. Parking close is more important.

Tips fron Grandfather Blogger

I need to grow a beard...

Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers From Original Blogger Jorn Barger

Another website done...

Roger, a friend of mine at church, is a minister to the homeless. He went to seminary a few years back...he can now be called Pastor Roger.

Roger and Ronald Nitz, a pastor from Holy Trinity Church in Portland, are starting a new worship community, a "koine'" community, in Portland.

A week ago Friday I met with Roger for lunch. He wanted a website. He has reserved the domain names koinecommunity.org and koinecommunity.com. He knows that I do the website for our church, Resurrection Lutheran Church at rlcpdx.org. He wanted to see what I could do for them. I told Roger I could set a Joomla site for them.

Roger emailed me content and pictures...makes setting up a website much easier. All went smooth except for a couple days ago when I logged out of the admin area...and the site was blank. I spent a day sorting through this problem. I googled and found there was a bug in the latest version of Joomla that was causing this to happen. I read through a huge thread on a joomla discussion board, and I replaced three of the php files...bug "hotfixes". Still, this site would not come up.

I started a new joomla site, very reluctantly. I was afraid the same error I was having in the first site would happen in the second site. I proceeded to copy files from the new site to the first site - the hot fixes were not working anyway.

I noticed something different between the two directories where the joomla sites are stored. The permissions on the first directory were tighter than the permissions on the second site. I must have changed then permissions, but I don't know how. A changed the permissions back...and the website came up again. I was so happy!

The website is here. The last challenge was to change the color of the template to match Roger's blog. I had to dig through the template files to find the graphic that made up the top of the website template. It was a small rectangle divided into three differently colored sections. The rectangle is repeated across the top to form the template. I used the rectangle and paint fill tools to change the colors. To find out the colors from Roger's blog, I viewed the source code to find out the color codes.

A lout of work...I know...but it worked!

The last step is to forward the domains to where the website is stored on my host. The domains are currently registered through Network Solutions. I was going to do the forwarding for Roger, but they charge $12 per domain per year to do this. I was surprised, because Godaddy does not charge for this. I researched the two companies. Network Solutions has been around since 1979...the beginning of web time. Godaddy started in 1997. The two are the biggest companies in the biz. It would be cheaper to transfer the domains from Network Solutions to Godaddy and then do the forwarding. I sent all this in an email to Roger. He's probably scratching his head.

Nothing in webdesign is ever simple!

Koine Community in Portland.: Omaha...

Koine Community in Portland.: Omaha...

Christmas program

E's school had their band/choir Christmas program last night. His part was with the intermediate school band. He was in the back row with his French horn.

I loved "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch." At first it sounded disorganized, but then I realized that was part of the Dr. Seuss genius, finger painting with music if you will.

They combined with the high school band to play White Christmas.

The choir was spectacular. The program left my hands...I don't know the name of the songs. One song, I think it was German, they kept repeating a word...it was fun. One of the altos (high voice...right?) was just incredible!

We ducked out at intermission. E had verse to study....and he was hungry!

Some Success...

For the last week, in my time at home, I have been working hard to update my church's website - rlcpdx.org.

I changed the template, I added the poll, and I got "e-vo" to work. e-vo is a devotion that our new associate pastor, Karl Hester, writes and posts online. People can subscribe to it so that when he writes a new one, subscribers have it e-mailed to them.

I use Joomla cms for the church site. I tried to get various Joomla components to this. I was googling error messages and editing php files. Nothing was working.

I had Karl open a blogger page. I thought I could pull in a RSS feed from that onto the website. Blogger does not produce RSS feeds, but rather ATOM feeds. I tried everything to pull those into joomla, to no avail.

I finally found a free third party program to do the trick, a widgit from Springwidgits. And I found a subscription program with FeedBlitz.

Tomorrow I am having lunch with Roger, a friend from church who ministers to the homeless. He wants a website. He has a good blog going. I am hoping I can help him. I just don't feel real confident in my web design abilities.

12 YO Humor

Talk of the class....

Back to webdesign...

It is flustrating! Now I know why I slowed down my web design efforts a wilee back.

I am updating my church's website, rlcpdx.org. Our new associate pastor, Pastor Karl Hester, has taken interest in the site.

He has a weekly devotion that he sends out by e-mail. Currently he is using a myspace account for this, but he wondered if I could add this functionality to the website. I have spent last night and today trying to do that.

I use joomla for the church website. It a great open source cms (content management system). I found three newsletter componants that would do what Pastor Karl wants. One was too simple and not functional enough, one was way to complicated.....I settled on YANC. When I wrote a sample newsletter, and went to save it, it wouldn't save.

Yes, I am pulling my hair out.

I found a nifty widgit from Feedblitz to allow people to subscribe to my blog.

I am testing it out to see if it might be a good solution for Pastor Karl. The main advantage to this widgit it that people can subscribe without being a member, as it is with myspace.

The other night I was trying to create a new website for the church. I had to log in to my hosting account through cpanel to change a file name. I don't know how, but I ended up deleting all this files...the whole website! I don't know how I did that...

Thinking your way around...

Good story about engaging the severely paralyzed (or otherwise disabled) into cyber life...which is becoming more real every day!

Disabled could think their way around Second Life - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Black Saturday...

Jodie likes to tackle the crowds at the mall during the holidays. I prefer to stay away.

In past years we have discovered that the best time to hit the mall for Christmas shopping is dinnertime, right after work.

For the last few years Jodie has expressed more and more interest in being one of the crowd waiting in line at a 4 a.m. Black Friday store opening. One of these years I will be waiting in the van as Jodie shops.

Shopping from a scooter under normal circumstances is tricky enough. People don't see you because you are just below eye level. When they do see you, people try to get around you anyway they can...but they won't let you get around them.

During Black Friday, any semblance of civility when people happen to see me would be off. That scares me to death!

Saturday afternoon after Jodie and E had finished putting the decorations up outside the house, I asked if they wanted to go to the mall to do some shopping. Jodie asked, "Are you sure?" She knows how much I hate the crowds.

We drove Jet White over to Clackamas Town Center. We got there about 3:30. Nowhere to park in back, so we went to the front of the mall. We finally saw an open disabled parking spot. I thought the car coming the other way would take it...so many people have the disabled parking placards anymore. Jet White is big and intimidating, but small cars are quicker and sassier. But behold, the spot was ours.

I took Eric shopping for Jodie first. An hour and a half later we met for dinner at Chili's. They were very accommodating for us with our two scooters...a very pleasant dining experience. Then, Jodie took Eric shopping for me. With one vehicle and one driver in the family, this is a good example of how we do things differently.

To my pleasant surprise, I did not find the crowds too intimidating...the parking lot was way worse. I didn't go in any of the small shops -- scooting around in some of those are impossible.

I found some additional elevators in the mall. The only 2 elevators I knew of before was the one at Sears on the one end, and the one at Penney's on the other end. Now there is a elevator in the middle of the mall (it is glass...I had to convince E that it was safe to go on), and I found a elevator at Barnes & Noble.

We left about 8. We actually had a good time at the mall...on Black Saturday.

Lay man's terms....please..

Health Articles » Blog Archive » Life Expectancy for Adults with Cerebral Palsy

Am I going to die young?

Visit with Dr. Molly

I went back to Dr. Molly yesterday.

I pulled up to the valet parking area. They thought I was delivering a person in a wheelchair...until they saw me. I have been there enough that they know me by face.

I gave them my name...I think "Croy" is what they got...almost "Troy".

They took the keys to Jet White. I figured they would know enough to not take our 8 in-a-half-foot tall monstrosity into the parking garage...unlike yours truly.

I made it to Molly's office at 2:30...right on time.

"Troy," the sweet voice behind the window asked, "Did you know your appointment is at 3:30?"

Uh, no I didn't. They got me in a half hour early.

I told Dr. Molly about the episode I had about a month ago. My chest was hurting, so I went and saw my main dr., and internist.

It was not my heart. It was the pleurisy, or whatever it is causing my chest pain. I had stopped taking the muscle relaxant and the pain reliever because Molly had told me to wean myself off them after the summer.

So on to yesterday's visit with Molly. She kind of left it up to me as to what to do. Take the least needed doses of the muscle relaxant and pain reliever needed to maintain. I told her that the pain in my chest mis aggravated when I do excessive walking. She said that we may eventually need to discuss mobility aides. I told her I have a scooter and a walker, but that each presents it's own hassles -- getting them in and out of the car. Molly empathized. Her daughter has cp and uses a walker sometimes.

In the end, it's all up to me. How much of the meds to take, when to use my walker or scooter.

It's up to me.

I have always liked to dr. to tell me what to do. I guess they don't know. In the past Molly seems in favor of more meds, but she has come to appreciate that I drive and I work. I need to function with clarity, rather than in the fog of total pain relief.

I left. I gave the guy my ticket to get my car. He came back, asking if there was a secret to starting my car. I could see Jet White parked on the street about a block down. I told him I could get it. My long walk down the street I thought "Gosh, I really could use my walker!"

The park that nobody loves...

Kinda sad...

A Park That Ran With the Wrong Crowd - New York Times


Here's a link to the park...


No motor vehicles...I won't be going there...

Work discrimination....

...From across the pond...

Disabled employees experience discrimination and prejudice at work as one in 10 pay for workplace ad

Have I experienced prejudice or discrimination in the work place? Interesting question...

I don't really know.

Early in my career with the state, I typed case notes. A caseworker insisted that I misspelled the word "inconsistent". I use to be a copy editor. The word was not misspelled. I wanted to copy the dictionary entry for the word...but I didn't. Was the caseworker prejudice against me? I don't know.

I have been overlooked for a couple promotions. Sometimes I feel that if I were not disabled that I would have gotten more of the promotions I have gone for over the years. The job I have now I applied for three years before I got it. I had one person up against me. I had more of the technical skills needed for the job; she got it because she was more social. I figured if I did not have the speech difficulty I have that I would have gotten the job.

I try to let stuff roll off as quick as I can. You only hurt yourself hanging onto stuff.

Bad stuff happens....good stuff happens...you roll on.

But Judge....sir...

My scooter technically is not a motor vehicle...or is it?


Disabled scooter rider facing DUI charge - The Money Times

Disabled in cartoons....

BBC has a story about Aardman Animations introducing 6 new animal characters with disbilities.

Here is a website for "Creature Discomforts".

I can't figure out if this will air on this side of the Pond...

Break Dance.....

....dasabled style!



Handicap Dance Competition - Watch more free videos

Black eye for Oregon

The Oregonian broke this story.

One in five adults with developmental disabilities who are in state care have been abused. Nearlly 7 in 10 caretakers quit in their first year due to low pay.

I am thankful for my independence. I feel for those who are dependent on a system that is so taxed and under funded.

I pray that the Guv and the legislature can do the right thing.

Being a government worker, I know that doing the right thing usually takes money...and getting the money depends on how hight it gets on the priority list.

Sigh...

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!

Joba Chamberlain and his dad

I read this article from Sports Illustrated at the shop while having our lift in our van looked at.

The part that describes Joba helping his father get his scooter out of the car reminded me of how my own son helps Jodie and I with ours.

I also like that his dad has a scooter just like mine.

Sorry that it is a 17 page article. A very good read!

Disabled parking for Brittany Spears?

The tanning bed was just too far away....

Catch me at Disaboom

I have a blog up and going over at Disaboom.

I blogged about the site in August before it was up.

I like it over there. It is an upbeat encouraging outlet for us differently abled folks.

My dilemma now is what to blog here and what to blog there.

A coach getting his due honor

Mark Speckman is an inspirational coach. Not by his choosing, I'm sure.

Mark was born with no hands. His bio is impressive.

He will be honored this weekend as one of Liberty Mutual coaches of the year.

I can't find a reference to it online, but in a local newscast Mark said when a player goes down he likes to put up both his arms and ask "How many fingers am I holding up?" It made me laugh.

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!

Jodie and I updated our rides.....

CelebrityX

We did not go through insurance this time. We wanted a slight upgrade.

It's expensive being disabled...anybody notice that?

Our old Victory scooters...six years old...Mine was banged up by having to be lifted into the old minivan and hitting the bar in the hitch that was needed for the outside lift the Jodie's scooter rode on.

Access blocked!

It was a miserable Oregon day for a football game, but our son, E, had a game yesterday at Westmoreland Park in Portland.

There was not a place to park close to the field of play, so we drove down to the larger lot. I like having the more space for our big White Bus -- we never have decided on a name. Jet White?...I'm still not sure.

E got out and ran to join his team for pre-game scrimmage.

Jodie and I unloaded our scooters and headed for the field. Westmoreland Park is a Portland treasure. It hosts a huge pond with lot's of ducks. Feeding the ducks is at Westmoreland Park should be on the top ten list of things to do in Portland.

There is only one access ramp in this area the park. Here is a street view photo. It is a simple blacktop ramp.

It does the trick -- when it's not blocked!

Jodie and I scooted down to the ramp. The two disabled parking spots were filled, as were all the parking spots nearby. On the ramp was parked a lady in a SUV who had her car running and was working on getting her son's football pads on.

I was annoyed; Jodie was ticked!

The lady saw us. She was obviously sorry, but she was getting her boy ready. She was the only adult, with other kids in the car.

I had empathy for her situation, but where is the empathy for us?

Able bodied people will not understand what blocked access feels like until they themselves or a loved one they are with cannot get where the need to go because of a blocked ramp.

The mentality that "I'm only going to be a second; there are no wheelchairs around..." -- you know, this is the number one barrier that still exists for the disabled.

A ramp is access. A ramp that is used as temporary parking is not access. Able bodied people don't understand this. They assume that we, the disabled, have more patience than they do.

It is hard to think of a good example of an able bodied person having their access blocked. All I can think of is a freeway on ramp blocked by a parked car. The driver was running into the store to get a pop, or getting their kids football pads on. You pick the scenario. For someone wanting to access the freeway, they want access now. Yes, there could be an emergency scenario that closes access.

The point is that you would not close a freeway on ramp for non-emergent reasons. Drivers are not going to have patience to wait for that. Why should the disabled wait?

As it turned out, I drove up the ramp....very tight fit. The lady then backed up and let Jodie use the ramp. She then pulled back on the ramp.

I got the feeling Why can't they (the disabled) just wait for me?

Neil Young's best ever - Chrome Dreams II

Chrome Dreams II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I loaded this on my Zune and listened through it twice at work.

Classic Neil...shivers down my spine.

"Ordinary People" is an 18 minute epic. Awesome lyrics!