Keeping My Aides

I've asked a couple of my aides if they will stay with me after I move, and they're willing.

My case manager and team leader are aware I want to keep my current staff, and the new place is only 10-15 minutes from here, so hopefully I'll be able to keep them all.

Success!

The snag mentioned yesterday was quickly overcome.  I'll be able to stay here until my new apartment is available in November.

It's a huge relief to have that settled.

Snag

We found out yesterday that the apartment I want isn't available until November, so now we have to see if I can stay here till then.

It's always something.

A New Home?

Jeff and I went apartment hunting again today, and we may have found my new place.

It's a nice apartment only 10 or 15 minutes from here in a complex called The Masters.  Since it is so near here, if I get it, I'm hoping I can keep the same aides.

Odd Capital Improvement Approach

My brother Jeff and I went apartment hunting today.  We found some nice places, but they weren't really handicap accessible.  I thought such places had to be accessible nowadays, but Jeff tells me the way the law works is that a renter can file papers to put in needed improvements at his own expense.

Why should a renter who has no equity in a property be expected to make capital improvements in a property just so he can live there?  That unjustly takes money from the renter-- he has no ownership stake in the property after paying for a permanent improvement-- and unjustly enriches a property owner who failed to make the investment.

Dark Monon

Yodit and I took the Monon Trail to Marsh again last night, and didn't head home till around 9.  By then, it was getting dark, and the Monon is lined with bushes and trees, which makes it even darker.

When we got back to my place, Yodit told me she'd been scared coming back.  I wasn't scared, but I could see where she might have been.

Condo Option

Michelle, Janeka's direct boss on my case as I understand it, suggested yesterday we might look at buying a condo for me.

I love the idea.  Buying a condo has been my goal for years, if I ever got the money to do it.  I would finally own my own home, a place I could count on having.  The particular condo Michelle found looks really nice, too.  If everything works out, I'll go see it Saturday with Janeka and my sister, Kim.  I'm really excited.

Shadeland Station

Shadeland Station is a nice apartment complex.  They've obviously put a lot of work into landscaping the property, including building duckponds and at least one small lake stocked with fish.  The interior of the buildings is attractive, too.

We couldn't see the apartment I would get, but they showed us one with the same floorplan, and I liked it.  Maneuvering my power chair in there might be a bit tight, but I could be wrong about that.  We're going back tomorrow to see the actual apartment, so I should know more then.

Apartment Hunting

We start looking for another apartment for me today.  First up-- the Shadeland Station complex.

Keeping My Aides

When I move, one factor I want to keep in the decision-making process is going somewhere I can keep all or most of the aides I have now.

We've established a small group of aides who are here regularly.  I trust them.  I don't want to start all over with a new bunch.

Accident

I had my first big accident in my power chair last night.  I was on the sidewalk, and frankly distracted-- I was thinking about having to move-- when I missed a corner and drove off the sidewalk.  I was able to avoid falling all the way to the parking lot pavement by pushing with one hand against a car.

Luckily, Matthew, my aide, was with me.  He's a strong young man, and he was able to wrestle my big power chair, with me in it, back up onto the sidewalk.

Getting Out

My lease here is up at the end of September, and we're trying to move me out by then.

The alternative would be to sign another lease out to March 1 of next year when, it seems, the new age rule takes effect here, but nobody, including me, wants to be moving me in February.  The weather could be horrible.

Bad News

I'm getting kicked out of my apartment.  New ownership of this complex is making it a HUD rules property, which means residents have to be at least 62.  I'm 58.

It's extremely frustrating.  All I want is a calm, quiet life.  That seems to be too much to ask.

New Aide

An aide I'd never met before did the morning shift this morning.  We got through it okay, but she said a few times how this or that or the other thing should be changed.

She may be right about some of it, who knows, but I always find it interesting how a certain type of person feels perfectly comfortable telling me how things should go in my life after spending five minutes with me.  I don't know if they do that with everybody they meet or not, but it seems to assume I don't know much and that my regular aides aren't as good as this person.  It seems to be a mindset some people need, for whatever reason.

Nighttime Accident

Last night when I had to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, my aide helped me into my wheelchair, and somehow the thing flipped over backwards, hitting the floor.

It was no big deal-- I'd forgotten it even happened until I started typing today and felt a little sore-- but I'd like to know how it happened.

Yodit's Advice

Yodit gave me a little talking to last night, telling me I should ask more of my aides.  She noted some aides at the nursing home where we met did the bare minimum, and sometimes worse than that-- which I saw myself.  She said an aide should do for a client what that aide would do for themselves, and I shouldn't be shy about asking them to really work while they're here.

She's right, of course.  I'm satisfied with the aides I have now.  Many of them do work here on their own initiative, but I could ask them to do more.  I'll have to work on that.

Being Sociable

The state, in its bureaucratic wisdom, uses some of the money available to those trying to live independently to encourage them to be sociable, to be engaged in their communities.  Of course, arbitrary rules define what being sociable is for the purpose of accessing that money.  It turns out that if, for example, I leave my apartment, get my mail, and say "hi" to whoever might be there, that counts for being sociable and getting the money for the aide hours I need.  If I talk to my aides and get to know them, that seems not to count.  If I email people all over the world, engaging in discussions with them to accomplish a social good, that is not as sociable as saying "hi" to random strangers.

This is what happens when bureaucrats and politicians get too much time and too much power.  Its also what happens when individuals can't figure out ways to support themselves.

Hawaii Conference III

A conference in Hawaii next year examining ways to settle and industrialize the Moon is gaining people in the group trying to make it happen.

Better yet, that conference may be the first in a series that would seek to lay a phiosophical foundation for humanity's expansion into space.

Shopping At Marsh

Yodit and I took the Monon Trail to Marsh grocery again last evening, and this time I bought some stuff.

I didn't keep track of how much I was spending, and it turned out I could've gotten more than I did.  That's okay, though.  Now that we've established I can go over there, I don't need to get every last thing every time.

Controlling Public Money

Congress and the President still have yet to address Medicare/Medicaid reform, even though they all say doing so is essential to the long term economic vitality of the United States.  When-- if-- they finally get around to it, the safest bet is to assume, to pick one program, that money helping people live more independently, out of institutions, will be cut.  Penny wise, perhaps, but pound foolish.

That route would bring us to how the public money spent should be overseen, to have a minimum of waste and fraud.  One way would be to allow bureaucrats to write lots of rules for the recipients of the money to follow.  Politicians and bureaucrats are comfortable with that approach, and it's not unreasonable.  Another way, however, would be to write fewer rules, allowing more flexibility at the case level to tailor approaches to meet the needs of each individual client, as far as possible, with fewer dollars, and fewer bureaucratic resources.  We'll see which approach wins out.

Finding Marsh

Yodit and I went out on the Monon Trail last evening, and I finally found a Marsh grocery store and the several eating places Laura had told me were near the Trail.  It was a Christopher Columbus moment.

So, now I have more options I can reach in my power chair without fooling with getting the power chair into and out of a larger vehicle.  Getting there and back takes a while, so finding the time to shop at Marsh is a problem, but I now know it's possible.

Pirate Power

My beloved Pittsburgh Pirates are on a roll, having beaten the St. Louis Cardinals four straight games so far.  The fifth and final game of their series is today.  Currently, the Pirates have the best record in the major leagues.

I just wish I could see them play more.  Neither Fox nor ESPN has carried many Pirate games this season.  Presumably, if the Bucs keep winning, that will change going down the stretch of the season.  And then, hopefully, there'll be the playoffs.