Day 2 With the Bot

And I'm still loving it!

Botted up the the school again to pick up the kid.

We stopped by the grocery store on the way home and
I was able to reach the top shelf. That's something
I've never done before.

Pretty soon I will be going back to school where I'll
be going up to the 2nd floor. Woo-hoo! I'll post video
tomorrow.

Great youtube video

I just found this on youtube.

My very first outing!

Wowee wow wow! Oh my gosh, it's so great! I'm
really, really happy with the Bot. No buyer's
remorse going on here!

I spent a good 5 hours in it today. About 1:30
I left to pick up my daughter. Her school is
about a 3 minute car drive from my house. Although
I could push myself in my manual chair all the way
there, I've only done that once because it's a killer
on my shoulders. Today I drove the Bot there.
I started out in balance mode, but it was just too
slow. I don't remember what the top speed in
balance mode is, but I think it is about 3mph.
So I went down to standard function. I think
top speed for standard function is 6 or 8 mph.
I didn't go that fast because I didn't want to
run over any small children or anything. I
probably went there at a speed between 4 to 5 mph.
It was a beautiful sunny day and it was so incredibly
nice to not drive in my car to pick her up. I can't
even tell you how fantastic it felt... Okay, so
then I got to the school and I went into Balance
Mode. That's when the crowds gathered. All the
parents and the kids thought it was super cool.
Parent's jaws were hanging open. Kid's eyes were
popping out of their heads. Normally I don't
like attention, but I was really happy to show
it off. A few people had seen it on TV, but
most people had no idea such a thing existed.
People were in awe.

After talking to people about it for quite a
while, I put it into 4 Wheel Drive and I went
through the field. That was great. It was
a bit bumpy, but not too bad.

Then my daughter and her friend and I went
to the Farmer's Market. I was in Balance Mode
and I saw a few people I knew and they were
very excited for me. Most people didn't pay
much attention - to my surprise. I heard
people talking about it and some people said
things like, "That's really cool" to me and
"wow!", but mostly people didn't seem to even
notice. One thing about getting this iBOT that
had me concerned is that I thought I'd be a
freak show everytime I was in Balance Mode,
but I didn't feel weird at all. In fact, I
felt LESS weird than when I'm in my manual
chair because I was as tall as most of the
adults. THAT was major cool. Oh man, I
can't get over how nice it is to not be
at butt level! Another thing that was neat
was being able to see things better. For
example, we stopped and got some goodies
at a bakery booth, and I could easily see
the things displayed on the table. I could
also talk to the vendors without yelling
to them, and that was great. I wish I
could describe better what it was like.
I just don't have the words to explain how
wonderful it was.

Okay... after that we walked my daughter's
friend to her house. At one intersection
there was not a curb cut, so I put it in
4 wheel drive and I went down a curb! That
was neato. I didn't have to go looking
for a driveway or a different corner with
a curb cut.

So then we hung out in the driveway at my
daughter's friends house for a bit and I
went back into balance mode and I rocked
back and forth and I spun in circles. It
spins in a very tight circle when in Balance
Mode and I made myself dizzy. I kind of
felt like a little kid spinning in circles.

We headed for home after that. I showed
it off to some neighbors. One of my
neighbors really wanted to see me go up
and down stairs. I don't have the technique
down quite yet, so it was bumpier than it
should have been, but I did it. Here are a
few photos of me going up the neighbor's
front steps.

Here I am preparing to go up the first
step:


I know video would be nicer here, but I haven't
figured out how to upload a video yet. I will
soon though!

In this photo, you can see the tires in front
going up and over the back tires which then landed
on the first step.


And in this photo you can see the wheels have landed on
the first step.


I'll be going up a flight of stairs this evening and I'll have my
daughter do a video of it so I can post it tomorrow.

The following photos are in Balance Mode.







I do think the Balance Mode is my favorite feature.

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Time of arrival - 10:15 am
Weight - 287 lbs
Height - 48 inches

Pictures to follow.

Currently in active labor

Breathe Shannon, breathe.

Delivery delayed

until tomorrow morning.

The need for the iBOT on Thursday

Hopefully things will go as planned and I will get my iBOT tomorrow. This is just in time for an "open house" in my daughter's classroom on Thursday. My daughter attends an old elementary school that does not have an elevator. Her classrooms have been on the main level up until this year, and so up until now, getting to her classroom hasn't been an issue. This year she is upstairs. Parents are invited to see the classroom, meet the teacher, hear about the curriculum, etc. sometime near the beginning of the school year... this year it will be on Thursday of this week. I'm so happy that I'll be able to go! Without the iBOT, I wouldn't. My daughter is really happy about it too. I just hope I get the stair climbing technique down by then because right now it still takes quite a bit of effort for me to do it. There is a technique and once I figure that out, it will require little effort on my part. I was
hoping my daughter's dad would be able to come and he could assist me if needed, but he has the flu! Isn't September early for the flu?

BTW, in case anyone who is reading this is thinking, "Why not just ask to have an elevator installed in the building?" The answer is, I tried that years ago. There's simply no money for that. Period. "Reasonable accomodation" does need to be made though. I could have asked that they move my daughter's classroom to the main level, but both the 5th grade teachers have been in their classrooms for years and I wasn't about to ask them to do that for me.

Which reminds me of something else I wanted to mention. Most people assume that every public place is wheelchair accessible. NOT TRUE at all! If I had a nickle for everytime someone has said to me when I question accessibilty, "Of course they're accessible! They have to be, it's the law!", I'd have enough money to buy two iBOTs. Or, at least dinner. For one. At Taco Bell.

Is this really happening?

A person who I cannot thank enough has sold me his used
iBOT. I take delivery of it on Tuesday.

I am extremely lucky to be getting this iBOT. $24,000
(the cost of a new iBOT) is something I could not
swing. Due to not having the opportunity to use his iBOT
much at this point in his life, and wanting to see someone
getting a lot of use of it, he has sold me his iBOT...
at a price I can afford!

As far as I know, there are only about 400 people in the
world with an iBOT. The #1 reason for this is that
not a whole lot of people can afford to buy one.
Most insurance companies will not pay for one. Medicare
says it's a "luxury", and other insurance companies
follow what Medicare does. The iBOT is an amazing,
life changing chair. It sickens me that the only thing
standing between the chair and people who would benefit
greatly from using it is money.

The opportunity to purchase one used is very rare.
The one I am getting is only the second used one
to be sold. The other one was sold a few months
ago. It was sold on eBay. The reason that one was
sold was because the iBOT user died. (The iBOT was
not the cause of death!)

So like I said, I am feeling extremely lucky to be
getting this iBOT. It kind of feels like I'm about
to give birth! My gestation period has lasted
about 8 years. : D

I'm feeling rather anxious. I've wanted this
chair for such a long time and now I am only
days away from getting it. I'm trying to not
get too excited because I don't actually have
it. I haven't even seen it yet. I totally
trust the man who sold it to me sent it in
working condition, but I hope that it didn't
get broken in shipment. Please send good
vibes my way!

This Old House

The history, charm, and character of old houses
is great. I can't imagine not living in an old
house. My house was built in 1924. Unfortunately,
I know next to nothing about the history of this
house. I am pretty sure no one ever died here
because I've never gotten the heebie-jeebies here.
Not that I believe in ghosts, because I don't.
However... at my old house there was one bedroom
that always gave me the shivies. I always thought
it was all in my mind, until... when I sold the
house my real estate agent told me that she didn't
like "that blue room". She "felt a presence" in that
room. I had never mentioned how I felt about
that room to anyone, so I thought it was a little
strange when she said something about it. Then
I had a cleaning lady come in and she refused
to clean that one room. She said there was
someone there and it scared her so she wouldn't
go in the room.

Yeah anyway, this old house of mine is falling
apart. The porch steps were really bad. The porch
decking was squishy.

I'm having new steps and decking built as I write this.
Sigh. All my dreams of any sort of vacation in the
near to somewhat near future have flown out the
door. I was hoping to go to Paris and Barcelona.
Humph. C'est la vie.

I built a lightbox. http://www.ourmedia.org/node/253481

Willy loves it.



I've had a bit of fun with it.




Have you ever wondered about the origin of "heebie-
jeebies"? It seems pretty certain that it was invented
about 1923 by the American cartoonist Billy De Beck. Its
first appearance, in a slightly different spelling, was
in one of his Barney Google cartoons in the New York
American on 26 October 1923: “You dumb ox — why don't
you get that stupid look offa your pan — you gimme the
heeby-jeebys!" De Beck is also known for coining other
slang, such as hotsy-totsy and horsefeathers.

This got me thinking about the words that have been
used and coined by The Simpsons.
D'oh!
Meh.
Okily-Dokily.
Yoink!
Jebus.

The way a wheeler trips in a hole

I took my daughter to a dog event. As much as I
didn't want to go, I did because my daughter really
wanted to go and I'm such a good mom. :D

It was at a dog park and it wasn't much of a wheelchair
friendly place. At one point we started to head over
to the opposite side of the park. All of a sudden I
was thrown forward and my back wheels were in the air
spinning to nowhere fast... Damn hole. Time slowed down.
Various thoughts ran through my head:

Oh shit, I'm going to do a face plant in some doggie
doo.

I hope I don't break any bones, scrape up my face, or
crack any teeth when I hit the ground.

This is going to be so embarassing. I hope people
don't freak out too much.

I hope this fall wil be as graceful as possible.

Why do I have my sweater, my daughter's sweater, and
free junk we collected on my lap as well as two dogs
at the ends of leashes while my daughter carried
nothing but the balloon hat on her head?

Why didn't I see that hole?

Gus is going to think it's really cool that I'm on
the ground and he's going to lick me like crazy.

And then, I realized that I was sitting there with my
front wheels in a hole and my back wheels off the
ground, but I was still in my chair. I threw myself
back, popped out of the hole, readjusted, picked up
the junk I dropped and looked around to find absolutely
no one running to my rescue. Only my daughter was
looking at me, and if her expression could talk it would
have said, "Would you hurry up?"

Having an iBOt would've made everything so much easier.

So then I was thinking about how now is the time in
my life that I would get the most use of an iBOT. In
just a few years she probably won't want to do these
sorts of things - especially with her stupid old mom.
A few more years and she for sure won't be interested
in doing those things with me. And then a few more
years and she'll be off on her own, at which point
my iBOT will be worn out. That's okay though because
I'll be living in some low income housing project and
I'll be staring at the four walls wondering what to
do next.