Breaking out of the groove...going to the Hub

I am liking my new 4/10 schedule with Fridays off.  My supervisor at the Special Olympics was out of town Friday, so I had a day to myself to fill up.

Jodie had a meeting at the district office, so I dropped her off.  I came back home. I had a few hours to kill before my lunch downtown with Sam.

Last February I had gone to a meetup in Portland to learn about search engine optimization from Mr. SearchCommander himself, Scott Hendison.  Scott use to coach Eric's baseball team a ftew years back.  

At that meetup I met Haley from Lewis Creative.  Their job is to brand your image, which I think is really fascinating - "Mad Men" type of work.  She gave me her card.

Haley invited me to come to a meeting that she and cohort Sarah (of Garrison Marketing Solutions) host on Friday's from 10 to 2 in Gresham.  It is called the HUB - a place for local business owners to meet and collaborate.

I have been leery of going to the meeting.  I am not a business owner and I am not a professional.  I have way more to learn than I have to share.  I know a little about everything but not a lot about anything.  Even so, I am learning what I can about creating websites with WordPress, and about promoting websites.

I nearly talked myself out of not going to the meeting.  Lately I have been experiencing anxiety when I am confronted with new situations.  I don't know why.  With my disability I seem prone to stay in my defined world.  I have a life in my own little world that is totally accessible to me.  Why venture in unknown territory where I might run into people who might not understand me or my disability?

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

I am finding a lot of inspiration from Einstein these days.  A genius, yes, but he knew more about failing than he did about succeeding.

I made my way to Park Place Coffee.  There were lot's of people inside.  I went to the front of the shop and bought a cup of coffee.  I asked the barista to bring the coffee to my table when she finished helping the customers who were in line behind me.

There was a bunch of tables pushed together with people who all had laptops set up.  I set up at a table behind them.  When they realized I was there for Hub, they invited me over to their table.

Haley was with a client.  Sarah came over to find out what kind of projects I was working on.  I told her that I was working with WordPress and that I could use some advice.  Sarah told me to talk with Al at the end of the table.

Al was talking  to the barista, helping her with internet marketing strategies for the cafe.  It was nice to hear how business at the cafe has gone way up on Fridays since the Hub has been meeting there, way beyond the Hub members themselves, leading us to wonder if a busier cafe draws more business.

When I was able to talk with Al, he wanted to see some of my work.  I had him look at wittren.com.  Al said it was a nice, simple and clean site.  He read some of what I wrote and he said to me, "Wow, you are really a good writer!"

The compliment was very nice - it really surprised me.  Al had some helpful hints about the projects I am working on.

It was a very encouraging being around other creative people.  It reminded me of my six month stint on the magazine back in 1988.  The idea of talented, creative professionals coming together to help each other rather than compete against or one-up each other is such a positive environment.  No bad ideas, just better ideas...letting the creative juices flow.

I am still a novice in the world of WordPress, SEO and other technical matters, but I have dreams of learning what I need to know to become successful in such a world.  I have further dreams of one day helping other people with disabilities find economic self sufficiency using these kind of skills.

I may not ever get there, but it is really more about the journey rather than the destination.  It is nice to know there are people like the people at the Hub to help along the way.

Sometimes it rains...

I have been sorely neglecting this blog...I know.  I think of stuff to write, but the words do not come to me.  Maybe if I pound a few keys, the juices will flow and melt my writers block.

For the last month and a half I have been driving Jodie to Salem for a special project for work.  I have been working remotely from Salem on a very slow connection.  It is nice that the district allows me to transport Jodie and that my manager is supportive of that.

It has also been nice to work with Jodie again.  Jodie and I use to work side by side twelve years ago.  We worked well together.  My weaknesses are her strengths and vise versa.  I used to tell people "Yeah, we work well together.  She does everything I say!"

Last week was the final week of the first phase of the project in Salem.  No more three days a week in Salem, except for one week of phase two of the project next month.  It will be nice to be back in my office this week.

For the past couple weeks, the highlight of our life has been seeing our son's baseball team, Portland Christian, take second place in district.  They did so by beating Gaston 14-4.  Eric pitched well, the boys were hitting and fielding well - a beautiful game.

A week later, last Thursday, we were at Kiger Stadium in Klamath Falls for game one of the state 1A/2A playoffs against Lost River.  The game was at 5:30.  The team left at 7:30 in the morning for the six and a half hour drive.  It gave the boys a couple hours to unwind from the drive and to prepare for the game...perhaps not long enough though.

Jodie and myself, along with Jodie's mother and sister, Denise, drove our van, Jet White, down to see the game.

Observations from our road trip:

• The Oregon 58 cut-over to US 97 does not have many accessible restrooms along the way.
• It was snowing in the pass on the way home. 
• The closer we  got to 80 mph, the more our van starts to shake and rattle.  I'm not sure how we figured that one out ;)
• When you are leaving a motel at 5 in the morning and you see a guy hot wiring a sports truck as you are turning around in the back parking, you can stop and tell the girl at the front desk, but there really isn't much she can do.

Hmm...seems like I'm forgetting something...

Oh yeah...the game...how did it go?

Eric pitched well, we thought. The ump did not concur with our assessment.  He was calling "ball" on everything Eric threw unless it was dead center in the zone.  Our fielding and our bats were off.  Perhaps car lag?  I'm not sure.

Our throw-out at home mysteriously became a "foul ball", much like the foul ball by Gaston mysteriously became a "grand slam" off of Eric earlier in the season.

We lost to Lost River 10-2.

Pastor Mike had the wisest words: "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains."  I Googled it.  The quote is from the move "Bull Durham".  Great quote!

It says everything.

First day at SOOR

My first day in my volunteer position at the Special Olympics of Oregon.  I pushed and held the button to open the small, open top, elevator door.  Instead of the door opening, the elevator went up.

Arthur walked by and asked me if the elevator was working.  He went upstairs to help send it back down.  When I made it upstairs, he showed me how to jiggle the door so the contacts meet.  An elevator with a personality disorder.

I made it to to the cubical where the interns and community partners sit.  My supervisor, Ryan, helped me to sign into their system.  They use Microsoft Outlook for their email.  I found that interesting because at my regular job with the State they just changed us over from Groupwise to Outlook email, so I am now familiar with Outlook.

Ryan wanted to know how I take notes.  Basically on the computer...or memory.

I was having trouble with the computer keyboard.  It was one of those Dell keyboards that don't have much of an edge to it.  He offered me an ergonomic keyboard.  I don't do well with those either.  For people without the dexterity issues that I have, this is hard to understand.  I need time to get use to computers...the keyboard and the mouse.   My unruly fingers need to learn where to go and where to not go on the keyboard.  I also need to get use to the sensitivity of the mouse.

I don't do well with people watching what I am doing.  I get nervous and my CP really acts up.  Ryan was really patient with me.  I know it sounds weird, but I hate when other people have to deal with my disability.  I fear that I look awkward, or even incompetent, as I figure out  how to do things in a new environment.

 I asked Ryan if I could bring in my netbook to use.  I do really well with the small keyboard and room for my hands on the side.  He said that I could, and that other people do that.

Ryan gave me the assignment of finding the right WordPress them for the website, and then  to send him an email with my top picks.  It was a really good assignment.  I found four themes that I liked and I pitched them to Ryan in an email.

My mind went back 23 years ago when I was a volunteer with the State.  The office drama when I started was burnt popcorn in the microwave setting off the smoke alarm.  Yesterday at SOOR the office drama was a dead refrigerator in the break room.  People were trying to figure out what was still good and what wasn't.  The Drumsticks in the freezer were now Drumstick shakes according to one guy.

After my four hour shift, I headed out to the van.  Ryan was not there because he had a lunch meeting with a group.  Ryan saw me at the van and came over.  He had a chocolate doughnut from Starbucks for me...so nice!

It's invigorating to do something new outside my routine.  I like working on websites, but I have not had much success at it yet.  Eventually I would like to make more of a career of it.

Week one down.

New title: Intern

With humility and joy I would like to announce that I am taking on an additional title for the next couple months - intern.

I'm sure that when Ryan posted the craigslist as looking for a web intern that he was thinking more college student...not a guy 25 years past that.  We emailed back and forth.  He wanted to make sure I wanted to do this.

I was excited about having the chance to work for a great organization: the Special Olympics of Oregon.  Their life affirming mission rates high with me.  Jodie and I participated in some Special Olympics events as kids at Holladay Center, years ago.

I met with Ryan yesterday at the Oregon Special Olympics headquarters down on Macadem.  It was a bold step for me.  I have been dealing with a lack of confidence lately.   I have been working on websites for years as a hobby, but success has been eluding me.  I have been making free websites for years, for people who don't quite know what they want...and giving them exactly that!

Ryan told me that this is not a paid internship.  I told him that was okay, that I am just wanting to get experience.  We shook hands.

I will be working on the Bite of Oregon website.  Ryan wants to move it over to WordPress.  I have been working with WordPress lately.  There is no guarantee that the website that I make will be the one that is used in the end.

I need to step up with ideas, make my pitch, and produce.

Somehow I am going to move my work hours so that I can be at the intern desk down on Macadam.  I look forward to the challenge and the opportunity to learn.

My hope is success for that success to open doors for me in the future.

Prayers and well wishes would be really appreciated for me in this endeavor.

;)

A shout out to some great people

My scooter wasn't charging.  We replaced the batteries last summer, so I didn't think it was those.

The shop close to our house wanted $50 just to look at it...money we don't have to burn.

We called our friends at All in One Mobility.  It was a fuse...no cost to fix.

They remembered us...and called us friends.

A great business!

All In One Mobility, Portland, Oregon, wheelchair vans, accessible roll-in shower, handicap, wheelchair lift, walk in bath, ramps, wheelchairs, ada shower, stair chair.

Chest pains...go to the ER...

I was not feeling good at work yesterday.  I wax working on an adoption assistance case that had been held up because of bugs in the system.  I just wanted to muddle through and git 'er done...and get to 5 o'clock.

Jodie was home on furlough, so I drove straight home after work.  I came in and told Eric and Jodie I wasn't feeling well.  I went down to the bedroom, went to the bathroom, then I was going to lay down.  The pain in my chest was pretty strong.  I have been down this road before.  I did not want an ambulance ride.

I went and told Eric and Jodie that my chest was really hurting.  We all decided I should go in to the ER. I asked Eric to load us into the van and drive us.

We went down to Providence Hospital.  There was a crowd in the lobby, but when they heard I had chest pains, they got me right in.

The nurse tried to get my blood pressure.  He wrapped the thing around my arm.  The machine was having trouble getting a reading.  He told me to be still...not the thing to tell a cp'er because it makes us all the more nervous and makes us shake all the more...but I tried.  I was surprised because I have had my blood pressure taken before with no trouble.  They hooked me up to the ekg machine and everything appeared normal.

Jodie wanted to be with me in the intake room, but there was not room for her power chair.  It seemed funny to us, because last time they made room.  Jodie and I feel that people are used to seeing disabled people with able bodied helpers, but not two disabled people together.

I was hooked up to oxygen...good stuff!  They took me back to one of the ER rooms.  They hooked me up to all the machines, and gave me an inhaler to breathe in.  They x-rayed my chest.

All that was found was some inflammation on the walls of my lungs.  I have bronchitis they think.  It is viral, so there is no meds to prescribe.  They did prescribe an inhaler...and ibuprofen for pain.

I have been sitting out too much in the cold, wet, Oregon spring watching my boy play baseball.  SisD says I need to where a hat and a scarf.  Yeah, right!  So uncool!

Yes, I am going to live.  The pain seems stronger this time than it was last time.

Two days off work, then back to Dilbert cubeville.

;)

"No money...just please, pray for me"

Jodie's birthday is coming up soon.  Yes, she will once again be the "older woman."

Her list of birthday wants is short.  One is this side bag for her power chair - one of the velcro straps tore off the bag and needed to be sewn back on.  It had been sitting on the dresser for a long time.  Jodie wanted to take it to a seamstress shop she knew about in downtown Gresham.

I decided to take it down to the shop and see what they could do.

I parked the bus around the corner, took out my walker and walked a couple blocks to the shop.  With our bus, I prefer to park further away and have more room to pull out than to park in a closer but tighter spot.

I was winded by the time I got to the shop.  The door was propped open.  An older lady was leaving as I walked in.  The seamstress had me sit down and she asked me what I needed.

I pulled out the side bag and showed her where the strap was coming off the bag.  I explained that I could leave the bag and pick it up another day...that it was not a rush job.

The seamstress said she had black thread in here sewing machine and that it would not take long for her to fix it.  Sure enough, she took it back behind the partial wall and had it all sewn up in very quick time.

She came back out with the bag and tried to put it on my walker.  I said  "No," and I took that bag.  Me being winded, with my cerebral palsy, and she had an accents - it  made communication tricky.

I offered to pay her.  I really wanted to pay her, because even though it did not take her long, I realize shops like hers are struggling.

She told me, "No money...just please, pray for me."

Her request did not seem flippant to me.  I sensed there was a real need to pray for.

As I walked back to our bus, I felt determined to keep that seamstress in my prayers.

I know that blessings will come to her.

My greatest discomfort - total brain freeze

No, it's not the back or neck pain that I occasionally feel that causes my greatest discomfort.

Yesterday I drove down to Salem, walked into an unfamiliar office, walked up to the front desk and said, "Hi, I'm here for and interview."

The guy at the front desk handed me a sheet with the interview questions on it.

The first question is the shortest, but I am stymied by it. I skip it an go to the other questions.  I figure out answers to them.  I go back to the first question and I still cannot think of a good answer.

My greatest discomfort - total brain freeze.  Writing and editing words is a gift I have; thinking quick and finding the right words to say is not.

The supervisor came and got me.  She led me to the star chamber.  Four other people we waiting for me. The supervisor said that I could read the questions myself or have them read to me.  I asked to have them read to me; gives me more time to think.

The questions are read and I start to talk.   Words are coming from my mouth, but I cannot tell if the questions are being answered.  I  don't know if the train is on the track or off the track.

"Why am I so darn spacey?"  I wonder.  Is it my cerebral palsy?  Is it my type B personality?  Is it just my overall spaciness?  I don't know.

The supervisor walks me out.  She is chatting with me and made me feel comfortable.

I get back to my van.  I start beating myself up for being so darn spacey.  Why do I do this to myself?  Before I deliver the fatal blow to my ego, another thought pops into my brain - whether or not I get the position, they saw the real me.

And that, my friend, is a good interview.

To fail or to succeed...

I worry to much...ask anyone who knows me.

I love quotes.  Among my favorite:

Thomas Edison: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

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.”

Oh, and Uncle Ed (I need to paraphrase this one): "You set your eyes on a goal. You end up somewhere else. One day you realize that where you have ended up isn't that bad after all."

All this I share as I give birth to a new website.

My idea is that everyone has a story to tell, and a blog is a great place to tell it.  WordPress is a wonderful blogging and website cms (content management system).  I have found a great local company to host my websites.  The owner, Scott Hendison, use to coach my son's baseball team several years ago.  If I get into technical trouble, I know who I am working with...I am not on my own to flounder.

With givemeastory.com, I am offering people a chance to blog without committing to their own blog.  I think it would be neat to see a totally eclectic blog...different authors, different ideas.

I also want to offer to set up and host WordPress blogs or websites for people.  As an extra service, I want to offer up my writing and editing skills to help people write and/or edit their own blogs.  I am thinking there are people who want to have a quality web presence, but who need help to make it a reality.

Will I succeed or will I fail?

Wrong question, Uncle Ed would say.  I will end up somewhere, and it won't be that bad of place.

A little pot for my pain?

Yesterday I had just left the doctor's office and I was headed to our van.  No disabled spots had been available, so I parked on the far end of the lot to give me more backup room for my big rig.

I was walking down the long breezeway with my walker, doing my wild man walk.

A woman walked up and gave me her card.  Happens all the time, what can I say.

"Do you smoke?"

"Uh...no."  I didn't tell her about the Swisher Sweets I use to smoke with Dan up on the forest roads in our college days.

She gave me a card that says: "Medical Cannabis Community OMMP Resource Center".  It also has a website: www.nationalgreenfriends.com.

She proceeded to tell me the virtues of medical marijuana, that it would really help me, but that doctors would not tell me that.

I think medical marijuana is fine for people in pain.  Bad pain can destroy your disposition.  If a little pot helps, where's the harm.

Marijuana for me?  I wondered if she thought it would help with my wild man walk?  Even if I were at home with no where to go I would be afraid to use it because when I had to walk somewhere, like the bathroom, I might be too stoned to safely get there.

Plus, the woman has not seen what one beer does to me.

Anyway, it made me laugh.

What is God's view of disability?

Ridiculous question, I know.  God loves everyone.  His forgiveness is available to all of us.  None of us is lesser or greater in His eyes.  The intellectual side of me knows all this.

Sometimes though, in the midst of struggle, in the darkness when I feel weak, I wonder "why am I disabled?  Why do I need to deal with this?"

The stories of the healings that Jesus performed in the Gospels have always inspired me and bothered me.  I am inspired by the hope that at anytime Jesus could speak a word and heal me.  I am bothered by the thought "Why doesn't he heal me?"

WHEELIE cATHOLIC: Scripture reflection on disability

Wheelie found this treasure of a reflection  on disability in Scripture.

I am not inferior because I am disabled.  I am not lacking because I am disabled.  Whether or not I am "whole" is not dependent on my disability being miraculously stripped away.

Rather, disability is  part of my identity, part of who I am.  No different than black, white, male or female...it's a key part of who I am.

I agree with Wheelie:

"I love the ending where it notes that the paralytic and his friends were never seeking healing, but a means of access to join the crowd and hear Jesus preach."

I need from God the same thing you need from God - His love, His grace, His mercy, His salvation.

I need from God what you need from God - no more, no less.

The greatest birthday conspiracy of all

I turned 48 the other day. Dang old - you got that right!

Jethro Tull put it so well - "Too old to Rock 'n' Roll, Too young to die".

Middle age blues, maybe, but I am not depressed.  The good Lord puts us all here for a purpose...I just want to make sure that I do everything I can to fulfill that purpose.

You get to a certain age and the end starts to come in sight.  The question "Have I done all that I'm supposed to do" starts to gnaw at you.

Jodie and Eric took this big box of writings from my college days.  My dear mother-in-law took my writings and, with the help of Eric, sister-in-law Denise, and nephew Vance, made a huge two volume set of scrapbooks of my writings.

In the mid '80s I was a feature writer for The Daily Barometer, the student newspaper for Oregon State University.  I was also a copy editor.  My favorite job was that of columnist.

I only got $7 a column.  It came out weekly and it was called "Witticisms".  The money kept me supplied with Pepsi and cookies, but the real payoff was that I had a voice.  I learned that in order to make people laugh, you need to make them  feel.  Make them laugh, make them cry, make them mad.  We all have preconceived notions about everything.  The easiest way around that is through a person's heart.

As I thumb through the scrapbooks, I am amazed.  I wrote a lot of stuff!

"Kerr legend appears to be a little more of a myth."  The namesake of OSU's library was not a crook, but as a president of the early Oregon Agricultural College, he bent rules as far as he could without breaking them.  Anyway, this was my first story that made the front page of  The Barometer.  That  was a big deal in the day.

My columns. Wow!  I wrote a lot of sappy stuff!  I wrote a lot about how being weird, going against the norm, is okay. I wrote many columns about My Buddy (myself) with a disability dealing with every day challenges.  I will need to figure out how to share some of these columns with you.

There are also many issues of "In Pursuit", a newsletter I edited for the Campus Ambassadors group I was involved in.  We had writers, and a great cartoonist who was in high school.  We worked hard and produced a pretty slick newsletter with the goal of getting people thinking about God.

The greatest thing about these scrapbooks is that it has my juices flowing again.  I was a prolific writer in my college days - some of it good, some of it bad, but some of it great.

The great birthday conspiracy has me believing I can get back there.

Jethro Tull was wrong.  I am not too old for rock 'n roll...and I am way to young to die!

Walk...Walk...Walk...Crash!

I drove to downtown Portland today to have lunch with Sam.  We were roommates at Varsity House down in Corvallis 29 years ago.  We meet up downtown for lunch twice a year, around our birthdays, to catch up with each other with what is happening with our families, our jobs, and, my favorite...politics.

I usually pick Sam up and we drive down Barbur and pick a restaurant.

Today I  was early.  I kept driving around Sam's office at the Oregonian Building.   I don't like just driving around downtown, so I finally found a place to park about a block from where I meet Sam.

I pulled in behind a car and parked, and a car pulled behind me and parked.  With our massive van, I felt boxed in.  I got my walker out and walked down to meet Sam.  We walked about 3 or 4 blocks down to McDonald's.

Going all that way on a walker is a chore.  Much of the challenge was navigating the curb some are really steep and some are more like a mini step.

After lunch, after I said goodbye to Sam at his office, I was crossing Columbia at Broadway on the East side of the intersection.

I was watching the sign: Walk...Walk...Walk...Don't Walk.  My walker hit the curb cut.  My walker tipped forward and I landed on top of the walker.  My shin hit the bar pretty hard.  I  was so embarrassed!   I was hurting a bit, but I moved as fast as I could to get up.  I did not want anyone to stop to help me.  There was a line of cars going by.  I was thinking, "Please, nobody stop."

Nobody stopped.  I struggled and I got up.

There are good curb cuts downtown and bad ones.  But why so random?

I know, there is not enough money to fix all the curb cuts downtown.  But the City of Portland needs to acknowledge that real danger exists for the disabled downtown as long as that investment is not made.

A champion's heart is not always rewarded...

...but sometimes it is:

Special needs teen sinks varsity 3-pointer | kgw.com Portland

Cerebral palsy - birth complications or genetic?

Jodie and I both have cerebral palsy...in case you have not figured that one yet.

Jodie was a premie, weighing less than two pounds. I had always thought that my umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, cutting off oxygen to my brain. Mom told me last week that was not true, though there was reason to think that some oxygen had been cut to my brain at birth.

Cerebral palsy has always been thought to have been caused by some complication at birth, until now. Last week it was reported that most cases of cerebral palsy may have genetic causes, just like other developmental disabilities.

It is not hard to see why people would believe the complications at birth theory.  Birthing is such a complicated miraculous process - there  is always room to say this or that could have happened to cause cerebral palsy.

According to Medscape, the rate of cerebral palsy has remained the same in the last 40 years.  You would think that with the vast advances in medicine over that time,  that the rate of cerebral palsy would have gone down under the complications-at-birth theory.

When Jodie was pregnant in 1995, we checked with her doctor to see if we had an increased chance of having a baby with cerebral palsy.  Under the prevailing thought the cerebral palsy was not genetic, the doctor assured us that the answer was "no."

Today,  the answer to that question might be different.

Sad day for Peek users

You probably don't know what a Peek is, and therein lies the problem. Mine stopped working two days ago. I sent an email to customer care.

Peek axes first-gen emailer service in favor of cloud - SlashGear

A Peek is a pocket-sized gadget with a full keyboard that handles email and text. I used it mostly for texting my son, Eric, and to read hourly email summaries of my tweets.

I paid monthly for my service, though they offered lifetime service for around $250. I was tempted to buy the lifetime service, though I never really expected that it would last a true lifetime.

Dear Peek user,

Since we launched Peek in September 2008, we received amazing accolades for the product and the support of many, many Peeksters like you.

Since 2010 the business has been taking off in a direction that moved us away from these devices -- putting our cloud platform and software to work bringing smart apps to simple devices made by other mobile phone makers.

We have been winding down the US service since late 2010, and at the end of 2011 this email address was connected to one of a few Peek devices still operating in the US. At the end of January, this last batch of devices was decommissioned.

I'm sorry to report that this

As our Peek cloud powers increasing millions of devices around the world, we hope you'll find yourself using our apps for services like mail, chat, picture sharing, and cloud backup. Indeed, we were just honored by the global mobile industry association with a prestigious Best Technology award nomination. You can read more about this and where we are heading at http://peek.ly/blog

All the best,
Amol
Peekster-in-Chief

I am surprised that I was not warned of Peek service ending. I have a cellphone that I can text with, but with the telephone style keyboard I have a hard time texting with it. I have not decided whether to upgrade to a smartphone. I can't really do that until December when my current contract is up.

II wish that T-mobile, the carrier that handled the Peek email service, could offer us dumped Peek users. T-mobile is also my cellphone carrier, but I know if I went into the store and tried to explain this to them they would not have a clue what I was talking about.

Now Peek invites us to use their app for cloud services? I don't think so!

Thank you bud!

We were up at the hospital today.  We feared that a "funny feeling" Ma2 had could have been a bad thing.  Everything turned out fine.  We all went to her house afterward to rejoice.  We shared the birthday cake that she made yesterday.  Life's little scares have a way of redirecting our attention to the important stuff.

I didn't know if I was going to be able to leave the hospital.   I got myself stuck.

When Jodie and I got to the hospital, I dropped Jodie off by the front door.  I went to look for a disabled parking spot.  There was none available in that lot.  I  saw a car pull out of a regular parking spot, so I pulled our oversized van into that spot.  The thought crossed my mind that pulling out was not going to be fun.

When it came to leave, I climbed the hill with my walker.  I got some funny looks.  It was a pretty steep hill.  I put my walker in the van.

I backed out, then pulled up over to the left.  I needed room on the right to swing out.  I have a backup camera, but I have trouble telling how close the back corner of the van is to the cars in back when I am trying to turn out.

This guy was waiting for my spot.  I kept pulling forward and back to try to give myself enough room to swing out.  The guy waiting for my spot gave up and drove on.  He came back around and figured  out what I was doing.  I looked at him and he started to give me hand motions to show me how far I could back up.

Now, I know the guy helped me because  he wanted my parking spot, but he really saved my bacon.

Thank you bud!

Lawsuit challenges sheltered workshops for Oregon's disabled | Reuters

I heard this story at lunchtime on the radio and I was intrigued:

Lawsuit challenges sheltered workshops for Oregon's disabled | Reuters

After my college days at Oregon State University, where I worked on the student paper as a columnist (Witticisms...imagine that!) and a copy editor, I worked six months as an assistant editor for World Christian magazine, I had to move back home to look for a real job...one that paid.

For a year I sent out resumes. Zero response. I want to a job seekers class through the Hillsboro Chamber of commerce. I had a vocational rehabilitation counselor named Art. He was an awesome guy. He tried lots of stuff to help get my foot in the door. Truth was. I was hard to market.

Truth is, I am hard to market. My cerebral palsy affects the way I walk and the way I talk. Getting a job depends heavily on your book cover appeal.

It was not until I met a couple visionaries who looked past my disability to give me a shot at proving my ability. Don Bougher ran the state volunteer program in Hillsboro. He had an Apple computer sitting on the floor in his office. He did not know what to do with it. He asked if I could write a spreadsheet in Lotus 1-2-3 to track volunteer hours. I volunteered and created the spreadsheet. Don was a visionary; he saw something in me and gave me a shot to prove my ability.

When I was going to move to California to pursue what looked like better job training possibilities, Don spoke with Gary, the child welfare branch manager. He told Gary the only reason I was moving to California was to look for a job. The next day Gary offered me a temp clerical job. Gary was a visionary. That was over 22 years ago. I work as an eligibility specialist now.

I think about the sheltered workshops. I never worked in one, but it seems like I easily could have ended up in one. I was intrigued by the example at the end of the article, 23 year old Eleanor who got a job at a grocery story after a "strong advocate" helped her get out of a sheltered workshop.

It takes visionaries - disabled who have the vision to believe in themselves when few people do, employers who can see past disabilities to see abilities, and advocates who can help both sides to vision the possibility - to make a successful job match happen.

Whether a lawsuit can make all this happen, it will be interesting to see.

A birthday card and a givers heart

We usually fail to honor people when we ought.  We wait until they are gone and kind words are the order of the day.

Tonight we were honoring the 20th birthday of our dear niece Manda Jo.  I remember seeing sis-in-law Pam over at Portland Adventist hospital as if it was yesterday...but I digress.

We were gathered around the table at Old Spaghetti Factory.  Pam and Logan were lighting the 20 candles and trying not to set the place on fire.

My mother-in-law (Ma2) started to hand us each a card.  She was watching me as I opened mine.  A piece of paper, nice cat and dog stationary, was secured inside.  It read:

"My seventy-seventh birthday card to you -

Troy,
I thank God every day for giving me you as my son-in-law.  I am very proud of you and honored that God chose me to be your favorite mother-in-law.  Love ya lots, Pat."

As I contemplate her kind words, I realize that her own words reflect the kind of person she is, always giving and preferring not to be recognized.  Who hands out birthday cards on her own birthday?  My dear mother-in-law does.

Her goodness has made and continues to make this world a better place for so many  people.  Her words reveal the kindness of  her heart.

Tomorrow is her birthday.  I won't say how old she'll be...just wouldn't be appropriate.

Happy birthday Ma2...much love from your favorite son-in-law.

;)

The Wonderful World of a Former Hoochie Mama

Awesome title for a blog:

The Wonderful World of a Former Hoochie Mama

For some of us life is one idyllic episode after another. Perfect spouse, perfect kids, perfect job...

For other's of us, life is not quite so perfect. We need to open our eyes and, with God's grace, search for the perfection in our life. For people like Former Hoochie Mama (Mel) and myself, we need to write about our life to bring the perfections in our life to light.

I am a born again Christian, and I struggle daily to be a decent person. Many people think you have to be perfect to call yourself a Christian - fact is there was only ONE decent and worthy person of being a Christian and His name is Jesus. The rest of us need only to try to be Christ like with his love, mercy and grace.

I am FAR from a perfect Christian, but I am a perfect example of His love, mercy and grace. I will NOT preach to you or at you - I will simply try to display HIS love through my actions and life as much as I can. I will also fail at this at times and I ask for your forgiveness before hand. :)

Please add to your list of must reads!

A "No" to transplant because of cognitive disability?

Yesterday I blogged about the ridiculousness of questioning whether a person with a cognitive disability has the ability to understand and accept God's love.

Today I came across an article about young Mia, who needs a kidney transplant to live.  The problem is that the doctor would not recommend Mia for a transplant because of her cognitive disability.

Mia's mom, Chrissy, writes:

"I begin to shake. My whole body trembles and he begins to tell me how she will never be able to get on the waiting list because she is mentally retarded.

A bit of hope. I sit up and get excited.

“Oh, that’s ok! We plan on donating. If we aren’t a match, we come from a large family and someone will donate. We don’t want to be on the list. We will find our own donor.”

“Noooo. She—is—not—eligible –because—of—her—quality– of –life—Because—of—her—mental—delays” He says each word very slowly as if I am hard of hearing."

Please read her post by clicking here.

Takes me back to sixth grade values education...is that what we called it?  You know, 12 people need to be saved and the rubber raft holds six.  I always figured I would not be one of the six who would saved.  I never understood the value of this exercise except to make me feel like junk.

Little Mia...a life not worth saving?  Doctors playing God?

It makes me feel uneasy..

Does God's love depend on cognitive ability?

This is an interesting yet ridiculous debate:

Is the Gospel 'Closed' to the Mentally Disabled?, Christian News

The notion that God's love is only available to people who can hear and cognitively process God's love in a prescribed way really bothers me.

Who of us has perfect enough thinking to fully understand God's love? Jesus welcomed the children to Himself and said that we too should

¹⁴ Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” ¹⁵ When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

If God's love depended on cognitve ability, space cadets like me would not stand a chance!

If we are going to say that God's love is only for those with perfect understanding, then we are serving a god who is in our mind. No need for God the Father who is in heaven, Jesus His son, and His Spirit within and among us.

Troy...step away from the soap box!

;)

You know you are getting old when...

I have had issues with dry, itchy skin for awhile, but lately it has gotten out of control.

Yesterday I visited a dermatologist for the first time. I smiled when I saw a basket of mini candy bars at the reception window. "A way to encourage repeat business," I wondered.

I was thoroughly surveyed...my visit was long overdue.

"You know," the doc said, "you will have to deal with this for the rest of your life."

My mortality flashed before me. "The rest of your life." Yes, I will turn 48 soon, and yes, I am not as flexible and pain free as I use to be, but to hear the doctor say that drilled it home to me: I am getting old!

Holladay Center alumn

Part way down on the left side of this blog I have a section called "Calling all Holladay Center alum".

Response has be quite underwhelming. It has been up for three years and I have gotten three responses. Now that there is a Holladay Center page on Facebook, my attempt to gather the names of alumn is pretty much useless. Even so, when an alum fills out my Google form and I get the notification by email, it is a bit like Christmas to read their story.

The other day was Christmas. Jerry Pattee went to Holladay Center from 1958-1964. When I responded to Jerry I could not help but note "1964...that is the year I was born!"

Jerry had the same doctor I had, Dr. Cottrell. He has been a volunteer with United Cerebral Palsy for 26 years. He had a 30 year career with Quest Communications. I am impressed because I would guess Jerry has 10 years or more on me. My road to getting employment was not easy. His must of been challenging as well.

Jerry said in an email to me that it is always good to know an older person with cerebral palsy. Our disability does not worsen, but as we age, the way our changing (aging?) bodies respond to our cp changes. Jodie and I are dealing with some of this right now.

We plan to meet with Jerry sometime in the near future. Jodie and I push so hard during the work week that on the weekends we relish our veg time. Jodie and I want to try to put ourselves out there to make valuable connections.



;)

Howdidwemeet.com

I was contacted by the website howdidwemeet.com to share our story, so I did:

I was three and she was four... - Miscellaneous - How Did We Meet

;)

How we met up again

...You need to share it

Yesterday at work a caseworker/friend of mine came over to where I sit doing my nerdy eligibility stuff.  I told him about my new baby, wittren.com. and the desire Jodie and I have to share our story with others.  As I explained our message of overcoming barriers and never giving up, he seemed a little off guard by what I said.

I chalked it off to my uncanny ability of talking too much and annoying people.

Imagine my surprise when that same worker came over, sat on my walker, and told me "You do have a message and you need to share it."

Turns out he had a sister who had very severe cerebral palsy, who was hospitalized at age three and passed away at age six.  After all these years he still had some raw emotion over this.

I hurt for his pain.  I was thankful he shared this part of his life with me.

It also made me thankful for the life Jodie and I have.  The smallest change of circumstances could have made the life we have together impossible.  Without the love and support of family and friends, we would not be where we are.

We all have abilities; we all have disabilities.  It's about focusing on what we can do rather than what we can't.

Yes, we have a message to share.

Observations of the day

A resolution I have for this year is to blog more.  I feel I dropped the ball last year by not blogging much.

It's easy to blog when life is moving fast and a lot is happening.  When life is mundane, not much happening, blogging is difficult.  There did not seem to be much that  happened last year, so I did not blog much.

This is a bad excuse for me.  As a writer, I am a life observer who should be able to take the most boring of days and turn it into fine art with the right words.

Today was Jodie's first day back to work after two and a half weeks off.  I went back to work today after five days off.  This morning, Jodie and I were getting ready to leave for work, and Eric was getting ready to leave for school.  Before we left, Eric gave Jodie a hug and then gave me a hug.  With a 6''5" teen, that does not happen everyday.  A wave of joy came over me considering what a great kid we have.

The news of the day is that Romney won the Iowa caucus by eight votes.  It makes me laugh  to hear the big deal people are making over that.  I like to follow politics. I am a moderate...a moderate what I am less and less sure.   I really am  not sure which party contains the majority of my ideas anymore.  Both sides seem more interested in self promotion rather than getting the right things done for the people.

Jodie sent me a message toward the end of the workday that she wanted to go to the midweek church service tonight.  Eric was going because the youth we having a white elephant exchange with the youth afterward  I was surprised  to see the Christmas decor still up in the sanctuary.  Pastor reminded us that Epiphany is Friday, and intern Ray shared more with us about what Christmas means to us.   Jodie and I are hoping to make the midweek service a habit.

I will try to be more observant this year, and will put more effort in making this blog more interesting for you.

Making the world a better place

Jodie is a speaker and I am the writer.  Jodie and I have known that from the beginning.  You can tell that from the video we just posted here on this blog.

Video blogging is kind of weird.  Staring into my netbook's eye and talking.  No contact with the audience, no questions to answer - so one dimensional.

When I was in junior high, I was asked to speak to my sister's first grade class.  I can't begin to tell you how empowering that was to me.  These little guys, who perhaps would of laughed at me had they first seen me outside the classroom, we listening to my story and beginning to understand me.

Four or five years later I saw a young boy as I was riding my big yellow trike through the elementary school grounds.  He said, "Hi, remember me?  You spoke to my first grade class."  I was use to kids teasing me.  I would do what I could to avoid  kids because of this.

This little guy empowered me by showing me respect.  I was even more struck by the thought that my speaking to a first grade class years ago produced a boy who probably not be so quick to judge people because of the way they looked.  Seeds of what I said helped make this world a better place.

Making the world a better place - that is why Jodie and I want to do public speaking.

Please look at our new website, wittren.com,  How many people do you know who have their last name as a domain name?  Kind of geeky I would say...

Read our story.  Maybe you are in a group at church, at work, or in an organization who could benefit from our message.  Maybe your child has a class that needs to hear our message - that people who are different are okay.

Making this world a better place...

Jodie and Troy video - public speaking

Holladay Center

Video journey day 2

Hi...I'm Troy...and I'm Jodie!

The bird on my mom's window sill is real...

Mom called me today and told me this robin had gotten in the house:

a picture of mom trying to get the bird out of the house...now that would be a classic!

Two Coke trucks...the real thing?

I drove down to Safeway this morning to get a few things for breakfast.  I parked on the side of the store because I wanted to use our lift to get my scooter out.  Our lift is in back.  I like to park in low traffic areas so I am not blocking cars while I unload my scooter.

I thought I was in a low traffic area today, but a Coke semi came through as I was getting my scooter out and I had to fold the lift back up so the truck could get through.

What was really strange was that when I came out of the store and was loading my scooter, another Coke semi came through and I had to hurry up and fold the lift so he could get through.

Made me chuckle..a run in with two Coke trucks during one shopping excursion...and I am a Pepsi guy!

Laying back with shades on...

Like an old friend, I stop in to see her every six months...and we chat.

Today she sat me down in the chair, leaned me back. She offered me a pair of shades to wear; I accepted.

She saw Eric last week. She was happy to hear how well he is doing in school and in sports, how tall he is and that he is driving. I tell her about the new computer system at work and how it is making Jodie and I go nuts.

She shared with me that she had just returned from a trip from LA. She had been there for two weeks with her daughter, who had to have a double mastectomy and was fighting an aggressive form of cancer.

I did not really know what to say. I really could sense her pain. I started to pray for her daughter. I babbled on so as to not let the conversation drop. I then told her "One day at a time." It is really the best we can ever do, but sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that we have a semblance of control over life.

As she cleaned my teeth, yes, the dear lady is my hygienist, I noticed my lower jaw was doing the cerebral palsy shake thing. I wondered how often it does that without me knowing it. I realized that I am likely this hygienist's toughest patient that she sees in a year. My inward complaining "Man! This always takes so long!" turned to "Man! She she really treats me with patience and grace."

I got back to work. I had several IM's going in no time...all work related, of course, I had a "dear John" email for a job rotation I was really hoping for. I told Justin I didn't want to open it...but I did.

Made me realize that things happen for a reason, or don't happen for a reason.

We are just called to be there in the moment...even if it is laying back with shades on.

Off the bus!

A local uproar is being made about a local lady who was kicked of the bus for failing to quiet her crying baby.  The driver has been disciplined, though Tri-Met cannot disclose what the discipline was.  It is probably a letter in the driver''s personnel file that stands to be removed upon appeal if the driver cares to do so.

Many passengers got off the bus with the lady and the baby - a sign of solidarity against the bus driver's unreasonable demands.  I think it is wonderful the support of the other passengers, all the media coverage and the public outcry.

At the same time, I am bothered at all the attention this story is getting.

Twenty one years ago...Jodie and I were newlyweds.  We were living in those old brick apartments behind Carr Chevrolet in Beaverton.   I was working for the child welfare office in Hillsboro; Jodie was working for for the Center for Hearing and Speech up on the hill..  I would race home from work in my '70 Nova (they can go fast...I've been told)  and I would wait for Jodie to come home on the bus.

Jodie would take the bus from up on the hill, to downtown Portland, and transfer to the Beaverton bus.

One day I was home waiting for Jodie.  The phone rang.  Jodie was calling from downtown on a pay phone. She was crying.  "The driver won't let me on his bus.  You need to come and get me."  I hopped in the Nova and drove downtown.  Jodie was waiting on the corner, shaking with anger and tears.

Jodie was walking with crutches at the time.  To get on the bus, she would hand the driver one of her crutches so she had a free hand for the railing.  Most drivers easily complied with this, but this one driver refused.

We called  Tri-Met to complain.  They wanted to witness the driver not letting Jodie on the bus.  They stationed a supervisor where the drive could not see him.  The driver refused to let Jodie on the bus.  They tried this again, and the driver refused again.  The third time, with a supervisor visible, the drive still would not allow Jodie on the bus...he was not going to be told what to do.  The fourth time, with a supervisor stationed where Jodie got on the bus and another stationed where Jodie got off the bus, the driver complied, shutting off the bus and making as big of show as he could.

Jodie and I went to a meeting with a special disabled committee with Tri-Met.  Jodie shared what happened...and they did not really care.  We were laughed at.

I was not blogging at the time.  Facebook and Twitter was not around.  I may have written a letter to the paper.  There was not a way to get the story out...and all the avenues we took to get the story out were met with apathy.  The only real comfort we had were other drivers who knew who this driver was did not have good things to say about him.  He was a bad egg.

The story about the lady with a  crying baby getting kicked off the bus is getting the viral social media treatment.  She is getting the attention that Jodie never got.   In the end, however, the driver gets a slap on the hand.

Similar stories, much different public attention.

In the end, the outcome is the same.  The status quo is met.

Another milestone - a newly licensed driver in the family

For 16 years I have been driving the little guy to daycare at grandma's, or to school. A year ago Eric got his driving permit, so we switched seats in front.

Yesterday morning he took his driving test here in Gresham....8 o'clock...first thing in the morning. His driving tester was named Mary. When he got back, all the other workers in the DMV wanted to know how Eric did. They were surprised..."You got a 95% from Mary?" They said that Mary was the toughest tester in the office.

Eric drove us to McD's for some breakfast, then he dropped me off at work and drove our Sprinter to a friend's house. There can't be too many 16 year-old's out there who drive Sprinters. We are still trying to figure out the vehicle situation. He wants a truck...something about boys and trucks.

Last night I had Eric pick Jodie up at work, then come get me at my office, then we drove and picked up his friend, yes, the girl type, and I drove them to the bowling alley.

Today Eric drove us to the Beaverton Olive Garden for a birthday celebration with my side of the family. On the way home, Jodie wanted to stop to buy Eric some new duds for the homecoming banquet next Saturday. It was nice to be able to tell Eric to drop me off at home and just have him and Jodie go.

Our "Little Guy" is now 6'4". I still can't believe it!

Telling our story

At back to school night a couple weeks ago, Jodie told Eric's health teacher that she and I would be willing to come and speak to her class about our experiences as people with cerebral palsy, Ann, Eric's health teacher (also basketball coach when he was very young), said that she was doing a unit on brain injury and that a presentation from us would fit in well.

Yesterday, Jodie and I took the day off work to go and speak to Ann's three health classes, including Eric's.

My prior experience doing this kind of thing was when I was in junior high I was asked to speak to my sister's first grade class. I was such a hit that the teacher asked me back for a couple years. Young kids...so innocent and honest with their questions...I was able to tell the kids how much like them that I was, how I became disabled, and that I could do most of the things they could do, only differently.

Jodie use to travel for a non-profit group called "Breakthrough" speaking to church groups throughout the U.S. to promote disability awareness. Jodie has a lot of speaking experience and has thought for a long time that she and I could travel and share our story with groups. She is a speaker and I am a writer...one of these days it will come together.

Ann wanted us to talk about our cerebral palsy...what it is and what caused it. We know the cause - Jodie was under 2 pounds at birth, and I had the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, choking oxygen to my brain. It was funny, Jodie and I don't know much about the technical aspects of cerebral palsy, so we were surfing the internet trying to learn more about cerebral palsy.

Jodie talked about her birth, how the doctor was not sure how she would survive her first night. and her early life. I talked about how my grandma, a nurse, could tell that I was not holding my head up right when I was 8 months old, and that shortly after that I was diagnosed as having cerebral palsy.

Jodie shared about the early school days we spent at Holladay Center in Portland, the intense therapy we went through, and the special kind of baseball we use to play.

It was hard to tell what the kids were most interested in hearing about. One boy wanted to know how I could drive.

After the first class, Ann encouraged us to share more about God in our life. Jodie shared about going to her room as a child and praying for God to heal her. Years later she told her pastor. The pastor explained to Jodie the many ways that God had healed her and brought her through life.

I shared about how people have prayed with me for healing, and how I have felt bad for them when I have not been healed by their faith. I shared about how Paul prayed for God to remove his thorn from his flesh, thought to be weak eyesight, but God chose not to. "...for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Anyway, Jodie and I are open to sharing our stories to other groups, kids or adults. You can find more information about us at wittren.com. We are willing to answer any question and we want to do whatever we can to promote disability awareness.

The barrier of intellectual ignorance

As I read Glenda's blog post about Cayleigh, I found myself getting angry.  Cayleigh is a four-year-old cp'er in Texas.  The Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services would not provide a communicative device for Cayleigh until she started school.

Cayleigh is non-verbal.  Would you send your child to school before they were able to communicate?

Over the summer, Cayleigh's mom and dad bought her an ipad with the Prolouquo2go app,   Glenda has blogged extensively about what a premiere communicative device this is for the disabled at a much lower price than what the traditional devices cost.  Cayleigh's mom worked with her over the summer to master the device, but Cayleigh's teacher was not impressed:

"She started talking about a study that happened in the late 80's early 90's when facilitators were starting to be used. A facilitator is someone who supports the non-verbal person's elbow so that they can use some sort of communication system. This isn't new news to me, but I sat listening. Apparently the study found that when the non-verbal person was the only one who could see the object in question there were all kinds of errors, but when the facilitator was involved and was aware of the question the answers were often correct. Basically, subconsciously the facilitators were giving the non-verbal person some sort of signal. She then proceeded to tell me that because of those findings that she could not test Caleigh using her iPad the way that she currently uses it supported in our lap. She feels that Caleigh needs to be able to communicate independently for her to properly do her assessments. The sooner we can get another device the better."  -- Cayleigh's Corner

There is a intellectual arrogance when it comes to educating and training people with disabilities.  Jodie and I both spent our early school years at Holladay Center in Portland, a school for children with disabilities.  The school was a boot camp of sorts for us.  Intense therapy - physical, occupational, speech - as well as working with other kids with disabilities, gave us a base of skills and confidence to jump into the real world.

We tried to explain this one time to a cousin of mine who had earned her masters degree in special education.  She was pretty much appalled that Jodie and I would advocate any kind of segregation.  Our point was not that the disabled should be segregated from the non-disabled, but rather that there are times when the disabled can be together, pool their strengths and be a support for each other.

Through the years Jodie and I have heard stories from mother's with disabled children who get some services through the public school system, but not nearly enough to help them achieve the kind of independence that Jodie and I have attained.

I am not saying that Cayleigh's teachers mean to harm her by taking away the communication device that she and her family had mastered, or that all disabled students should always be together.  I am not saying that the experts on disability are wrong.

The disabled and the families that deal with disabilities have experiential expertise that should be at least on par with the book learned expertise.

We have enough barriers to overcome; intellectual ignorance should not be one of them.

Amazing garage sale

If you are out and about in Portland  tomorrow, stop in and check out:

The Amazing Garage Sale

Low prices...the family appreciates your support.

OR-Kids

Last week, the state agency I work for,  began using a brand new, very comprehensive, SACWIS system. The information a child welfare agency must track is huge.  OR-Kids has been years in planning and development, and it replaces our FACIS system that has been around since 1994.  Yes, I was around for that...man, I am getting old.

The new system requires much more data input.  It is labor intensive up front, yes, but as an eligibility specialist who mines data to gather enough  information, it is a bit of a dream.

Last week was hard for me though.  I wanted to get through at least one determination.  I kept running into bugs.  Flustered a bit, because I like forward progress, but not really surprised.  Soon me or the system will get whatever me or the system has to get and forward progress will be made.

Because my job is a unique on done by a small  group of us across the state, I started a wiki page for us all to report issues we are having with OR-Kids and posting solutions as they come through.  My hope is that we can use each other's issues and successes to speed our forward progress as a whole.

I am anxious to see how this experiment works.


 

Labor Day Weekend 2011

Jodie, Eric & Troy at Brad & Lori's

Raising money for a good cause

I am not supposed to mention the cause out of respect for privacy...so I won't.

Open hearts, open wallets, great stuff at a huge yard sale.

If you are anywhere on the eastside of Portland today, please check it out:

http://www.yardsalesearch.com/yss-garage-sale.jsp?id=20989620

Bye Diana...

Tomorrow we will gather at Willamette National Cemetery to say goodbye to a family friend.

Fred and Diana were friends of my Mom and John. They came over a lot with their daughter, Danni, when I was in high school. We were at her mom's beach cabin when Mt. St. Helens spewed ash everywhere.

Fred was a vet from the Vietnam war. Not a bragger...a kid doing what he was told to do he would say.

Diana was the girlfriend waiting at home.

Life was never that easy for them. Jobs came and went, health issues came. They never gave up and their zest for life never died. They went on trips and they never quit figuring out ways to have fun.

Fred died a few years ago...I think it was cancer.

This past year Diana put up a helluva fight against lung cancer. The cancer spread. I saw her last fall while she was staying with Mom and John. Diana was not shy about showing Eric and I how her head had been stapled together after doctors had gone in to remove what they could of the spreading cancer.

Diana will rest with her love, Fred. tomorrow.

I asked Danni for a favorite song of Diana's. Of all the songs, this is the one that popped into her head first:





Goodbye Diana. We mourn, but thought of you will always put smiles on our faces.

:)

Disposability...so ungreen!

We bought our last microwave nearly two years ago. A GE "Spacesaver"...considered a mid-sized microwave I discovered from my research today.

A nice microwave with lots of special buttons, including Jodie's favorite "popcorn" button. We really loved it...it did everything we needed a microwave to do...until a couple days ago. It would turn on, the fan and light and carousel ran...but no heat!

I did some Googling. It could be a fuse or a diode, but more likely it was a control something another. $92 for the part and whatever for labor...for a microwave that cost $119.

I was perplexed. A good microwave that served us well for nearly two years. It would most likely cost more to fix than replace. It seems so ungreen to replace rather than repair, but we did not want to deal with the inconvenience of taking it to a repair shop and risk paying more to get fixed.

We went to Fred Meyer. Two Sharp Carousel microwaves caught our eye. One was $99 and had a single special sensor "popcorn" button. Jodie would have been happy with that one. The other was $30 more with several sensor buttons. One was mid-sized and one was large. We went for the large one.

Now we have a broken mid-sized microwave to dump. Helping the economy, while thumbing our nose to planet Earth.

So ungreen!

A beautiful Saturday...

Jodie and I with a free Saturday. Eric is finishing up his mission trip to Las Vegas with the high schoolers from church.

Jodie wanted to go to the fair. The Washington County Fair has free admission, that is always a draw to us. Funny though, I think those six dollar corndogs probably covered the admission price. They were really good though - footlong, deep fried...not the kind the Obama girls would ever be allowed to eat.

Part of the fun of going to the fair for me is parking in the disabled parking lot and seeing adapted vehicles of all kinds. A guy who parked near to us had a small truck with a crane in back. He used it to hoist out a powerchair for his wife.

We usually take Eric to the state fair in Salem. We go pretty much every year. Jodie has her powerchair, I have my scooter, and Eric gets tired...;) He use to ride on my lap when he was tired, but now he is over six ft. Today, Jodie and I were free to go and not have to wait for our able bodied son.

Jodie and I watched a couple rides. This one ride raised the riders a few stories off the ground...and then dropped them...one time and the ride was done. The ride next to it was much longer and seemed like a much better ride for the buck. It was a roller coaster in a circle. The cars kept going higher and higher on each side until it went clear around the circle with the riders upside down.

We enjoyed a dog show. We kept hearing Clint Black tunes (no vocals) coming from the amphitheater area. We would have loved to have seen his show, but we did not want to stay that late.

We did take in a western show in one of the side tents - the Marty Davis show, The Legend of the Pioneers. He was very good! He did a great job with "Ghost Riders in the Sky." It was pretty hot outside. This guy moved a table for us so that Jodie and I could get in, then he offered us water...really nice!

We went through a couple barns to see the animals. Twice we saw cows relieving themselves. I guessed I had never witnessed it before, but with their rear ends pointed toward us, it was, well, gross!

Before we left, Jodie wanted to get some kettle corn. We circled the fairgrounds looking for it. Jodie wanted to give up looking, but I knew we would find it somewhere...and we did.

On the way home we stopped at Buffalo Wings for dinner, then we watched a Cary Grant movie when we got home.

It was a beautiful Saturday!

Pass around the blessing...

I was in my final years of college.  Annette, a dear friend of mine who helped me find Jesus and who took a bus up from Ashland just to go to my prom with me - she had come down with Hodgkin Disease, a form of cancer that had taken her dad's life.

I took a train up to Tacoma to see her and cheer her up.  I met a guy on the train named Wes.  We hit it off and we talked the whole trip.  He was going to Oregon State University also, and he was on his way to see a friend also.  Wes was from Hawaii.  When we got back to OSU, he invited me to a luau.  It was a beautiful production put on by the Hawaiian club.

I'll never forget the night that Wes came by with a buddy with his buddy's 4 by 4 classic black Cadillac.  It was four feet off the ground!  Needless to say, I was hoisted in!

Anyway, me dear friend Wes sent me a Facebook message with the video below.  Wes lives over in Hawaii.  He is a triathlete like the one guy in the video.   I am like the other guy with cerebral palsy...not quite as bad.

Wes always says that I inspire him.  That always makes me feel a tiny bit squeamish.  My foibles are many...just ask my coworkers who have all abandoned me, leaving my side of the building empty!

Wes inspires me.  He runs marathons and triathlons, but he finds inspiration in a guy like me for whom getting out of bed in the morning and getting to work is like running a marathon.

Watch the video.  The song it plays, "I can only imagine" is one of my favorites...it chokes me up a bit. Each man in the video is a inspiration. Together though, there is power...a miracle is born...there is blessing.

A very lovely first of July scene

On our way home from the baseball tourney today, we wanted to stop by the river and see the scenery. We tried to do this in Hood River, but we kept going the wrong way and could not find a place.

As we headed home, we stopped off at Cascade Locks. We found a boat ramp with people, all shapes, sizes, and colors - they were lining the banks fishing.

A very lovely first of July scene:

Jeez!

Our son has a baseball tournament in Hood River this weekend.  Today was day one.

The games are being played at Hood River Valley High School.  Other than having to maneuver Jodie's powerchair and my scooter (with a weak battery) over a bunch of grass to get to the jv field, accessibility was not bad.

After the game, we stopped at Shari's Restaurant to eat and, well, Jodie and I don't do outhouses.

Jodie went into the restroom.  The handicapped stall was not large enough to accommodate her powerchair.  She parked it outside the stall and went in to do her business.

As Jodie was making her way back to her powerchair, a lady came into the restroom and was mad because Jodie's power chair was blocking the other stall.

"Jeez!" the woman said, very upset.

Jodie hurried as best she could.  She was not able to wash her hands an that really bothered her.  We are going to get hand sanitizer for her to pack on her wheelchair.

Disability is inconvenience...there is no question about that.  We work hard to make sure that it inconveniences us only and not other people.  Sometimes we cannot pull that off.

If we were to stay home and go nowhere, we probably could pull it off.  God has blessed us with a rich life filled with many gifts that does not give us that option.

Next time we are in your way, blame God.

Curb cut, Mr. Mayor

Eric's baseball team had a game at Overlook Park in north Portland last night.  We played David Douglas.  Not sure why two eastside teams had a game way over there...

The parking lot was taken over by an outdoor festival.   We drove down Overlook on the north (?) side of the park.  We parked at the corner of Melrose and Overlook.  We were lucky to get a corner spot so we had room to let are lift down.

The baseball field was close, but there was no curb cut on the corner.  I thought about the pothole signs around the city that the Mayor had posted for people to alert the city of potholes that need fixing.  A public park should have curb cuts at every corner.  There should be a phone number for that!

Jodie and I motored wheelchair and scooter down Overlook, over the giant speed bump, until we found a driveway.  We drove on the sidewalk back to the field.  The sidewalk was old cement tiles crumple by huge tree roots.  One had a 4 inch drop!    I'm not going to complain...I realize this world is not made for us.

We sat on a very high, steep hill over looking the field.  Coach saw is and asked if we were going to  come down the hill...with a grin on his face.

Turned out the son of dear friends of our were on the other team.  We had a wonderful visit with Barby and Larry, and her parents, Jim and Judy.

Big unit pitched an  inning.  One hit...then 3 outs...bang, bang, bang!

Onward, Elizabeth Hovde, onward

I am a fan of Elizabeth Hovde.  She is a conservative columnist for The Oregonian.  I am not exactly a conservative, for anyone who knows me.  I don't believe all truth lies in one camp.  I like to read all sides.

Elizabeth is a conservative with a heart and a brain.

I sent her an email last May when she wrote about how special that foster parents are.  I thanked her for making such an important point, and for the way her writing has of  making me feel and think.

My heart was broken when I heard of her skiing accident last January 11 that left her with a traumatic brain injury.  I have been praying for her since I heard about it.

Oregon Public Broadcasting interviewed her the other day. I missed it when it was on the radio, but I found it online:  http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/elizabeth-hovde/

I applaud her courage for doing a radio interview.  Life is different for her now.  Two young kids and a husband.  Life is different for all of them.  Something like this could happen to any of us at any time.

Elizabeth wrote back to me last May.  I think the words of encouragement she wrote me is a wonderful prayer of hope back to her:

"Keep up the writing, the humor, the love of life.  Onward,  Elizabeth"

Onward, Elizabeth, onward.

Barriers will not keep us from Eric's game

Eric's single A legion baseball team has been playing tournament this weekend.

Gilmore Field in Salem. Beautiful ball fields with berms around them.

Friday's game was at the varsity field. Jodie and I motored all around to find a way up the berm. It is just too steep. We did find a spot where we could get on top of the berm, but I feared that a homerun ball from the one field could nail us, so we went down into this little hole behind the benches. We almost feel like buying batters hard hats ourselves to protect our heads from foul balls.

After the game we gingerly motored our way up the berm, across, and back down. The feeling of driving a scooter and a power chair on a steep slope - it is scary. You feel like you are going to tip. I rolled my scooter once and it was not fun. Jodie in her power chair...the prospect of her tipping frightens us to death.

Today's first game was at the jv field, which sits down below a berm. Jodie and I stayed at the end of the right field line. I used my walker today to increase my agility to maneuver the berm, but it greatly decreased my ability to go very far. I told Jodie she could probably get over the berm at one place, but she did not want to try...and she wanted to stay with me.

The second game today was at the varsity field. I just muscled my way up the berm, across the top, and over to the bench. Jodie followed. She kind of freaked when she stopped. We were on top of a narrow, steep berm. Bob, the dad of one of Eric's school friends...and a friend of ours, was with us. He walked with Jodie, helping her turn around and go back to a low spot where Jodie could get down. People had a tent up and were watching the other game in the spot where Jodie had gotten up the berm. The people were willing to move, but Bob was able to guide Jodie down the berm.

Places we need to go to support our son in his sports are often not accessible. It does not stop us. We wish places were more accessible, but we realize that many places just aren't. I am thankful for the kindness of friends, like Bob, and strangers, who help us around the barriers we come across.

I just wish that the designers of kids sports venues would be aware there might be a kid playing with a parent in a power chair, a scooter, or a walker.

Ben Comen - CP'er cross country runner

You fall down...you get back up. Pretty much summarizes cerebral palsy.

The story of a true champion.

Thanks Kathryn for sharing this with me.

I am ready for the Rapture!

We saw the Weinermobile today at Wood Village Fred Meyer. I have now seen it all.

I am ready to be raptured!

From BLOG

Seth Reder, new artist with amazing voice

My work cube neighbor's nephew is out with his first demo. Great acoustics and vocals!

Please give a listen:

Happy birthday Bono!

I am an "Important Person!"

We husbands say stupid things all the time. It is part of our job description.

When Woman #1 is mad, you say nothing. Husbands know that. Total no-brainer.

Yesterday I slipped.

Eric's varsity baseball team had a game in Tualatin at Horizon Christian. We thought our favorite third string catcher might get to catch, but instead a junior was pulled in from the outfield for the catching duties.

Jodie likes to position her powerchair as close as she can to home plate.

Horizon has a beautiful baseball field. When we first got there we saw the team folding up the tarp that covered the whole field. Dugouts were nicely built with cinder block. There was a low cable fence separating the field from the parking lot. From the backstop to the outfield fence, it was a beautiful field.

Behind the backstop, the ground was rock and hilly. There was a eight inch curb. The only curb cut was blocked by shrubs at the top. There was no way for Jodie to get up to the spectator area.

Jodie was upset. She could not believe the lack of accessibility to get up to the field.


We parked in the lot down by third base. We could see everything from there except the most important part of the field - home plate.

I told Jodie, "This is terrible that there is no accessible way to the field. If there was an important person on the board or at the school that needed access, there would be access."

Jodie shot back "I am an important person!"

Ouch! I said the wrong thing!

A big fault of mine is that I can see many sides of things. Accessibility is spendy, and how many disabled come to watch baseball games?

Jodie totally did not share my sentiment.

I moved our van over behind the backstop, as close as we could get, which was not very close. We could see parts of the batter, depending on which way the crowd was moving.

Jodie was not happy not being able to see much of the game, but people watching is always priceless.

There was a couple dogs at the field. A lady brought her dog behind the crowd. The dog did his duty #2. The lady covered it with the bark that was covering the ground. She used her toe to lightly cover it. The lady looked up and saw Jodie and I watching her. She shrugged and giggled with a 'oops' look on her face.

We then watched a multitude of people walk over that spot and tried to guess who got the surprise on their shoe.

We lost the game to Horizon 5 to 3. Portland Christian's first loss of the season.

I don't think it's possible for a non-disabled person to understand a barrier of an eight inch curb. Until you are in a wheelchair and you can't get somewhere you really want to get, you won't understand.

Us "important people" understand.

Garmin...Google Map...where am I going?

Eric is on the varsity and the junior varsity baseball teams for his school, Portland Christian. He counts the hits, is the warm up catcher, and backs up first for the varsity team. He does not see much playing time for varsity, but Jodie and I don't miss a game.

Yesterday, there was a game at Western Mennonite High School. I put the address into our Garmin. It directed us to go over the Wheatland Ferry. I didn't want to go over a ferry with our big Sprinter van. I went to Google and got a map that directed us to take Highway 99, to 18, to 221. It seemed simpler. If I missed a turn, we'd wind up at the casino...not so bad.

I was not in the right lane for the Tualatin exit off I-5. I could not get over. I've gone that way many times...no idea what I was thinking. I took the next exit and made my way back to the Tualatin/Sherwood Road.

We made it down Highway 99. The Garmin kept telling us to turn everywhere. I left it on so that when we got close to the school, it would let us know.

We got caught in that bottleneck area on Highway 99...took us forever!

The school is on Highway 221, northwest of Salem, between Lincoln and Hopeveil, two small towns I did not know existed. Farmland, fresh air, a very beautiful setting for a school.

We made our way to the parking area. It was a grave lot, except for a couple cement slabs for disabled parking. I parked in one of the slabs. Jodie moved her chair onto the lift. I let her down. The gravel was a slight down hill slop. The lip at the end of the ramp would not go down. I had Jodie get back into the van and I drove to the other disabled spot. Save for the nasty mud hole I had to slog through to open the back doors of the van, I was able to unload Jodie in her powerchair and my scooter without trouble.

People were looking on with curiosity as we unloaded. I got the feeling the the disabled parking spots don't get used much at that school, and they probably don't see many lift vans there.

The boys won. Eric counted the hits. Jodie was not sure about letting Eric drive us home, but I knew he could do it.

We followed the team bus into Salem. We grabbed dinner at a Dairy Queen drive-thru, parked to eat, watched a guy bum some change from a gal sitting in her car a few spaces from us. We watched him go into the market across from us, come out with a brown paper bag, and disappear behind the Tru Value store.

Eric drove us home and did a fine job.

Now, I need to find LaSalle high tomorrow, Sherwood high on Friday, and Horizon Christian on Saturday.

Ahhh...baseball season...