Accessible Caves

Source

This reminds me of when Wifey and I went to luray caverns in VA.  to us it seemed accessible even the some ramp we steep. I think we were more amazed that underground everything was ramped and not stairs.

Nation’s most inclusive park to celebrate grand opening Saturday in Palo Alto

I would be stuck at the air harp, become a master like that pan flute guy.

http://kron4.com/2015/04/14/nations-most-inclusive-park-to-celebrate-grand-opening-saturday-in-palo-alto/

Posted by King Gimp - Dan Keplinger on Monday, July 6, 2015

Evil Geniuses

I am finally getting around to tell about Brooks and me getting the stair lift installed.  To remind you this is the stair lift from our other place. Most people act like they would not think about transplanting a stair lift unless the fit is right. Tom was willing to rebuild our current stairs so it could fit as a straight shot, but he was nervous about cutting the rail.

We asked a lot of people if they would help us install the stair left and cut the rail since our new steps are shorter. Most people said that it was not a good idea to cut the rail. If you cut it in the middle, you mess up the connection of the two pieces. Then if you cut off end, you loose the chargers at the top.

So the stair lift sat unplugged for about a year and that is not good for medical equipment.  Until these two hippies said we can do this. Brook got it all installed and plugged in. Nothing happen plus it would not charge!

We kept adding to things that we had to trouble shoot. The first step was to cut the rail off to size and put the cap back on the end. While Brooks was during that, Wifey and I were able to find the remotes. The remotes worked, brooks finished up on the end and even re-drill the wholes for the charges so the next step was to fix the controller on the seat. I was like take it apart, I bet a wire is loose and sure enough it was.

Now we got two problems solves and the biggest one was still to come, getting this thing to charge. There were 4 contacts for the charger, but only two wires. No matter how we connected wires it would not charge. I am sure we spent two hours on the web looking for manuals and videos to show us how to connect the chargers and we never found anything.

I asked Brooks, if he could see how the contacts line up under the chair? To do this, Brooks had to take off the end cap and ran the chair half way out of the rail. By George, it work then it was a snap to the chargers working.

So far it keeps working and has not blown up yet!

An Exception To Ever Rule

As most of you know my Wifey helps out Miss Julia, who is 100 and ½ years old.  To me she is trapped in her own home and to make it worse the HOA is not will to make any exceptions for her.  To me there are a few issues.

The biggest problem is that drive my Wifey crazy is that they want a 100 year old to parking in the visitor parking and walk 10 minutes to what they call an “accessible” entrance. The HOA does not want any care providers to park in the residence parking, but there is a whole section of parking for trade person and it is never full.

If Wifey does not want to walk all that way with Missy J. the HOA said drop her off at the door then go park in the visitor section, in the front of the building, while Missy J. sits around back unattended waiting for Wifey.  In addition they would always have to be home by 7, since the lot is locked at night.  When they do come home late the doorman and front desk has to open the gate and door to Mrs. Julia’s own building.

The HOA will not give Missy J. a key, remote, or parking space because she has no ID.  Come on knuckleheads, she is 100 and that should be a given.  If she is paying her bills and fees, she has the same rights as everyone else in the building.

In my own observation, none of the three building’s entrances are accessible.  If you go in the front door the lobby is sunken. Yes they do have a ramp outside down to the lobby, but there are about four steps up to the elevators.  Once you get over the parking issues, there are two doors in the back of the building with ramps. No way they are up to code and most of the residents are elderly.

7 Slade was built in 1971, and it’s posted as private property.  Another thing neither of the parking sections have any gimp spaces; I do not know what rights of Miss Julia’s are being broken.  Once again its frustrating that people choice guidelines over being human.

Maybe we could start a partition to get a gate clicker and a parking space, which would be a start!

=

Another Fork in The Road

As you may be aware of, Wifey helps her friend who is 100 +.  Dena is worry about what she can do for her next job that is why we got into the jewelry business. That is going good, but would be better if we had a store. Dena also loves auctions and thrift/consignment stores. She found a place in Towson/Parkville that could be a store and home.  It would be cheaper then living here. The house/store was built in the 70's, so I'm starting from scratch as far as accessibility.

I have been full of emotions, because we have done a lot to make our current house accessible.  I finally have my perfect shower.  I do feel a bit guilty, because a lot of people help us get the accommodations that have been done.  I do not want to seem ungrateful for their time and effort. I also do not want to seem greedy and assume every time I move, there would be funding to make another place accessible.

On the other hand I do have a limited income and can only contribute so much and the rest is up to Wifey. If we stay in our current place she will not be home, in order to pay for the house. That is not what we want as a couple and would take a toll on any marriage. That is why we are always thinking of businesses that we can start, so we feel as equals.

As Wifey started to describe that the living part is in the basement. She says, the bathroom already has a walk-in shower, but the kind with a door.  My hopes are that this chair will fit into the shower. Also the stairs are narrow and curved. That is downer that the stair lift that has been put in could not work. Could we buy different piece of track for it, if the stair way is not too narrow?  Could another option be to put it out side, would it need to under cover or enclosed in? These are the things going through my mind as Wifey is talking. At the same I am feeling excited, guilt, scared and nervous.

We have already spooked with the owner and he said we could build a ramp outside. Be sides that the owner really would like to make the property ADA friendly even thou it is grandfathered.  So Friday are meeting with Eric from http://accessiblehousingservices.com/ to do an assessment. I already told Eric, the equipment we cannot use I hope he can pass on to other people.

This is just another adventure to keep our lives interesting!

search local office here http://www.sba.gov/content/find-local-sba-office and call them about ADA tax breaks/loans.

http://www.ada.gov/taxincent.pdf

http://www.ada.gov/taxcred.htm  

15 Lives Later Follw Up

Brooke and I got off to a late start on Friday, plus the traffic was insane.  If there was not roadwork, it was an accident. So we got to Kennedy Krieger institute an hour late.  From the start, we were working against the clock since Brooke had to work that night.  While we were waiting a Spanish mother comes in with her two boys.

The older boy was about 5 and kept looking at me like what the...  At first I had my back to the family and Brooke was enjoy the faces that the boy was making.  I turned around and put my hand out so he could give me five.

We finally went back with Susan to start working on the new head sticks.  Time starts flying by and only one head stick is partly done.  Brooke and I start thinking of alternative plans. Maybe I could stay and Wifey picks me up later.

We told Susan of our dilemma, it so happen that her daughter was in a holiday program by our house.  Susan offered to drop the head sticks by our house after the program.  I went a head and road to work with Brooke and Wifey picked me up from there.

Sure enough Susan comes by our house at 11:30 and it fit as soon as I put the head stick on!!!!

15 Lives Later

Tomorrow I am going to get new head sticks, the last I got new one was in ’05, or ’06.  I also wait until they are totally trashed and held together with tape plus cardboard. This drives Brooke and Wifey crazy.  It is like turning in your car for a new one.  The less you get for trade in, the more of a badge of honor it is.

When I do get new head stick, there is a breaking period. As when people need to use their favorite pen.  This is the first time both of my head sticks broke, or fell at the same time.  That is why part of it is purple, Brooke and I took two head sticks and made one.  Glue would not hold alone, so we added the plastic ties too.

It we kept adding plastic ties; I could look like those guys from High Lander 2.  The 2 guys with the porcupine hair on the flying “skateboards”. As always Camden has to check out everything I do.

Family Man

We are taking a family vacation this summer. Of course being the artistic, hippy type we need to be different. That just makes it hard to find a place that fit all of our needs, to be a family and have accessibility.
We want to go stay at a cabin in the smoky mountains. It is not a problem finding a cabin that would fit all of us, but non that are accessible. The cabins that are accessible would only have one bedroom.
Now that I look it up again, I found accessible cabins with multi-bed room in the same price range. At least I will know for next time.
http://www.awesomemountainvacations.com/cabins.htm
http://gatlinburgcabins4u.com/98/handicap-accessible-gatlinburg-cabins/

Is Society Ready For Our Relationship?

Hell no!

Dena and I have been together for 5 year and every time we turn around it is another obstacle. If it is fear of my service getting cut, it is finding affordable accessible house. Why would our Gov. make Dena be our sole provider for everything, think of how much stress that would but on us? It is just setting to fail before we could start to enjoy each other in our lives.

I alone use to live in HUD subsidized housing because of my limited income. It was accessible because of a walk/roll in shower. I made it even more accessible by installing a keyless lock, a push button thermostat, and remote ceiling fan/light. If they knew that we live together there we would have been kicked out. We do not want a hand out, but our Gov. should

look at the whole picture and just guidelines and income. Three years ago we moved into our current place own by Bozzuto. First it take us 7 months for them to put a walk way from the parking lot to tour porch. The only way to get it done was to get producer Susan Hadary of King Gimp involved, they put the walkway in the next week.

Our next challenge was the bathroom, it has a tub instead of a walk/roll in shower. A year after we moved here the complex had to replace the tub, because of rusty drain. Dena and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for management to but a shower in. they would only install it if we splint the cost. At the time we could not afford it, so we got another freaking tub. Being who I am, I started to go through my network and finally got connected to Baltimore Co. Office of Community Conservation. Hal that work come out for the site visit and wanted to do the project the next day. 3 months later after all of the application were done and Hal got approved on his end. The big wigs at Bozzuto said go a head with the project, but only if we restore the bathroom when we move, there is not a demand for accessible units. Can someone please explain this, on top of this our rent has gone up 4 times within the last 7 months.

Dena and I are in the process of looking for a new accessible, affordable place.

Some information to share:

http://www.accessibleproperties.net

http://www.gosection8.com/

http://www.mdhousingsearch.org/

barrierfree.org

http://www.socialserve.com/

National Accessible Apartment Clearinghouse- 1-800-421-1221 or http://www.accessibleapartments.org/website/article.asp?id=4.