Road Trip July '13

This was a multi leg road trip that was a mix of pleasure a business. In 11 days Wifey and I traveled 5000 miles and 13 states and it was worth it.

This was at the end of the first leg of our travel. I was invited to Galveston TX, to talk was a class of O.T. student at UTMB.  It only took us two days to get there, so sadly we did not get to stop in @PigeonForge. We love the flea market there, after a 2 day drive finally got to our hotel in TX. It was so worth it and had the whole next days to relax and spend time with each other. At the gig I found out that it was the last of class for the 2013 class of students. Maybe this why it was hard to  get the Q&A started.  This time I had an easy ice breaker. I asked, if you go to college at the beach, where do you go for Spring Break?  That just set tone for the rest of the conversation.
After the engagement we went with few of the professors and students to the "The Original". I was told this was the birth place of the Margarita. A movie star asked the bar tender for a drink that is sweet and salty.

Of course during our drive we observed many of these, it seems like we do most of our traveling later in the day. The only draw back to that is that we had to keep the hotel to let them know we will be having a late check. One time I book a room with those value hotels, I only did that once. when we did get the place, no one was there to check us into our room.

But the best sunset had to be this one:

 One night as we were driving, it was like someone put together a playlist for us. Every song that come on the radio fit us the T, here are the songs in order.
People In Sky
Once In A Lifetime - Talking Heads
Some song about sunset
The only song missing was David Bowie - Heroes

#heyjack as soon as you hit Alabama these duck fellows have merchandise all over the place. #heyjack the only thing I want is this cup for my real jack. You got that jack?

 While we were ending our stay in TX. Wifey and I decided to go onto New Orleans since it was only a six hour  drive. Who know when the next time we would be this close will be?  Before we even left TX, we got our Bourbon to drink on Bourbon street. Driving into the city we drive right pass the Super  Dome still lit up in purple. We finally made it, only 6 months later thou!  Our hotel was right on Canal Street, it turned out to be a great location to explore from.  We got settle, started to do laundry and had a few drinks so the exploring had to wait until the next day.

 I was really amazed at how accessible Canal Street was, all side walks had ramps. Even more impressive was that, I did not have to bump up any store steps and if the store did have a step there was always a ramp.  I really did not aspect to find this in such an old city. I wonder if this was part or the rebuilding effort after hurricane Katrina?

The next day Wifey and I had a whole day to explore New Orleans. This happened after we made our way down Canal Street, of course we took full advantage of the open battle rule. After we got our Maker's Mark it started to rain, so we went to the casino and broke even while we had  a few cocktails.  Then went to take fairy ride, but had a half hour to wait so we ended up finding this for me to ride. It was so FRICK'N AWESOME!!!!

I am a bit surprise the operator do not give us much trouble about me being able to do this. Maybe  they if Drunk people can do this, why can't a disable person be able to Try? After I was done my ride, we heard a band playing down by the River side. We met up with another cool couple that was from out of town. The four of us spent the afternoon and night listening, dancing, and drinking to the band watching the huge ships go by while we were enjoying life. I hate to report that we did not even see Bourbon Street, but that just gives us another reason to return to New Orleans!

There is last adventure to talk about from our road trip, on our way out of Louisiana some how Wifey and I got the idea to take an air boat ride. This totally out of the blue and come as a give from a stranger.  While we were in New Orleans listening to the band, a gentleman sent over a hundred dollars to our table and picked up our tab. I think he would happy to know we used the money for an adventure then food, or drink.

So we pulled of the highway and follow the signs to a gator park, where they also do rides. We had a half hour before the next ride and started to look at the gator. Wifey was excited and scared at the time especially when we had to walk down the bridge that was fenced in on both sides and gator could swim under. I said this is like Indiana Jones, but nobody is going to cut the rope bridge.  It a cool ride, the boat guide kept trying to go fast, but the water was too high.  The boat guide also kept stopping to call gators over to the boat and feed them marshmallows.  He also said, the last season of Gator Boys was shot at this park.  It was a great way to end our trip and a better way to spend the gentleman's gift.

Well This Sucks

I really liked this service, because one could use it through an IM app.   That way I could type the basic information I knew that I need to say, then I could cut and paste as needed.  To me this speed up the process for all.

SIPRelay® service will permanently cease on July 31, 2013
at 4 p.m. MDT.

We were grateful to provide the service for over 8 years and appreciate everyone who used SIPRelay. The new FCC compensation rates for IP Relay are too low to provide the quality IP Relay service our customers deserve. This is an unfortunate example of an FCC decision that was not based on the realities of the market and the needs of our SIPRelay users.

To continue using your SIPRelay number, you must port it to a different IP Relay provider. To find a list of alternate IP Relay providers, see http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/trs-providers.

This change does not affect SVRS®. If you use ASL, you can transition your mobile communications to ntouch® mobile!

If you prefer to voice for yourself, we encourage you to try CaptionCall.

Marriage Equality For People With Disabilities

I know there are tons of groups to #advocate for PWD as individual, but who advocates when one, or both of a #disability and wants to be married and live  as a couple.  I just received an email asking if I knew where a couple could find #accessible #housing?  I think if there is anything out, it will be very limiting, or exspensive since most of it is geared toward individuals.

If there is separation of church and state, why are religious people so against #marriageequality? To me #marriageequality is about legal rights and benefits, so far nobody is asking God to re-write the Bible.

via Marriage Equality for People with Disabilities Some people who don't get the issue have complained about us calling this a fight for marriage equality! Equality is about equal access and any institution that discourages any legal, consensual couple from marrying for any reason is not an institution of equality. Until people with disabilities are not penalized for marrying we will continue our fight for equal access to marriage!

"My mother battled Multiple Sclerosis from the time I was 3 years old to her death 17 years later. Near the end of her struggle, I saw the drastic steps my family had to go through, even with my father's excellent healthcare plan, to get her the medical assistance she needed. A family should not be forced to destitute themselves, sell assets, even contemplate divorce, just to get the care they need. I am proud to sign this petition. I know the solution will not be easy, but policies that tear families apart in their desperate attempt to stay together can not be allowed to continue." - Chris W. Gooley

Computers Can Be A Bitch of A Mistress

I woke up yesterday ready for a full day of creativity on my video project. Wifey even made me a nice cup of coffee made with love.

To see how my project was coming along, I exported it as a quick time movie. I did notice it was a huge file compare to the previous exports, but this one had more layer and was longer.  So I opened they file and it was dragging and skipping so bad. I try to export it many more times and it was not any better. I even looked up what are the green and blue bars in After Effects, they have to do with RAM to preview/render your video. I started to flip out and getting frustrated that I do not have enough RAM, BUT I HAVE 9 GIGS!!!!

For fours hours, I was changing the RAM settings and it was not helping. So after dinner and snuggling Wifey for a while. I decided to give it another attempt to find the real problem with a free solution. In my search I typed export After Effects drags and whala I found what I was looking for at 11:06pm. The issue was my output settings were set wrong. After watching a clip, it ONLY took 2 clicks to fix the problem!

Do not even get me started about how many papers I lost during my first two years at TU. That was when my laptop double as  a communication device “attached” to a try on my chair. I will be rolling across campus and it will fall off crashing to the ground.

Can I be The Artist With The Missing Tooth?

For years everyone in my network have been trying to find a dentist that would be willing to work me.  I am taking about people from family, producers, my Dr., to my Service Coordinators and UC2.

Everything we tried always fall through. I remember the last time I tried to see the Dentist was at the UMAB Dental School. The producers of King Gimp set this up, because they are connected to UMAB.

So I got back in the exam room, in the chair. They looked at me and said it was to risky to even put a tool in my mouth since I move so much.

About two months ago my front teeth started to come very loose, so the dentist hunt was back on. Then my Mom discovered that there is a new dental school special patient clinic at UMAB. I hated the thought of trying another clinic; because they ripped my mouth up worse doing the work then the pain would be from the actual dental work.

I went anyway yesterday, although I felt that nothing would really get done.  I got in the chair and to my surprise they did an exam and they were willing work with me. Let take breaks when I got tired of keeping my mouth open. My Mom did let them know about the film of course, also that I not only have two B.S. Degrees and a M.F.A., but also that I ski black diamonds in order to let them know the person inside on this tornado of a body.

My Wifey said it best; my body is as when you put a racehorse in the gate. The longer the pin it up, the more is just wants to run wild. Even though the dentist was in his fifth year, he kept consulting with his instructor. So the big question was to go ahead and pull the tooth while I was awake. Their biggest worry was that I could inhale the tooth and it would go into my lungs.

They think the reason why my tooth came so loose is that the bone deteriorated. When the bone goes then the gum pulls away from the teeth.  Then stuff gets in there so the gum cannot grow back. I ask if this would happen to the rest of me teeth. They could not really say since it was not cause by decay.  Being that the gum could heal, it only took a second to decide to pull it.  I said at least I would have a new hole for me straws.

The moment I said do it, they changed out the dental assistant. Until now it was a female helping us, they knew my body would become a beast. So they started to give me the gas. I also said, it might help to cover my eyes so I could not see them working and they did.  Before the instructor came back in to do the deed, I told the guys they should pocket my tooth and put that shit on EBay.

So I had three people there to help hold me. Before the Dr. started, she even said ok we are going jungle style. As to say once she started pulling, there was no stopping. She did give me a double shot to novocaine. The whole process felt like it took seconds.

Even though, I just had a tooth pulled both my Mom and I said that was the most delightful dental visit we ever had! I do not know if, I want to mess around getting a fake tooth.  If Van Gogh can be an artist with missing a freak’n ear, why cannot I be an artist with missing a tooth?

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!

Medical Assistance Personal Care Services Changes

Today I had my quarterly meeting with my nurse from Medical Assistance Personal Care Services program from Baltimore County Department of Health, Bureau of Community Health Services.  She informed me that there are big changes coming to this program in the next year. To me how she explained it, the program sounds more of a waiver deal and there will be a few ways to manage the funds. I could keep it as now and manage the funds myself, or go with an agency to help mange the funds.  The big change will be that my PCA will be pay hourly, instead of a flat rate per day.  If there are funds left in the budget they could be used to  make accommodations around your house, or buy adoptive equipment.

Has anyone else heard about this? As with anything it sounds good in idea, but there are always bugs to work out. Just as when everyone got excited about the New direction waiver, as a way to give the recipients more control of their lives'. it was a good idea until you saw the break down of the funds and percentage really went to one's care.  When I looked into it, I had more questions then answers.