The chair, the chair!

I’m in such a welter of emotion. Clark called about two hours ago from the medical supply company to tell me that my wheelchair is in and can I come in tomorrow to try it out, see what might need adjusting. I’m crazed. I can’t name what it is that has me in mild hysteria. I was not quite expecting Clark to call for another week or two, just assuming that payment was made only a month ago (long story, and one I cannot explain completely but Medicare paid for the basic chair and not the tilt seat and there was always the co-pay to deal with but that went in a mere four weeks ago, so I wasn’t expecting this phone call.

So I’m in freak out. This weekend we need to seriously clear paths from bedroom through living room. We need to TRY to get the second bedroom at least started on its way to being the office so I can move this computer – a project begun and ignored for months. Piles of CDs and piles and boxes have to get OUT OF THE WAY. This is something we knew needed doing (and is a reason we offered to host a “Vanguard” in a couple of months since we will need to continue to keep things tidy. It’s just um, well, we weren’t quite ready yet. Heavy denial man.

We also just spent a chunk of money. The tv gave up its ghost a couple days ago after warning us, but warning us in a language we didn’t understand. After debates on repair, accepting the gift of a tv, trying to figure out how one gets a tv to the repair dudes when one doesn’t have a car etc. the tv, a nice nice Samsung which had belonged to Anna Vargo gave us 3 ½ years of valiant service. We are very peeved to be spending our “stimulus $*!#@*?!+$#@* checks” on the large ticket item they wanted us to spend it on but Stu watches tv as relaxation, and I can’t imagine not getting ESPN for the WNBA and the Olympcis are coming and….so well, we bought a tv. (by the way, we bought it on line, using Stu’s new “live search” account and got a rebate. Really we did. I feel like such a sell-out (Google is god!) but hey, $10 is $10 folks.

So we splurge on this damn thing and suddenly there I ream remembering that oh shit I have to pay for wood for the wheelchair ramp that I need Right Now. It’s a sigh of how I’m doing that I’ve had trouble focusing and getting more than one thing done on any give day, so I’ve let this matter slide. That lack of focus meant it was 2 weeks before I realized I hadn’t gotten the phone call I was expecting from the agency that builds ramps for free. I wanted to take their offer if possible because the fact that it’s a group effort and they do it a lot would mean expertise in building. However, when I did finally call a week ago, it turned out that it could mean months before they could get around to me. I then put in the call the the volunteer from the MS Society who had a bit of experience. This was before the call from Clark telling me that well, um, I need that ramp NOW. Stay tuned. I’m hoping the gentleman will be able to do it still – he was all ready to go when we met, but at that time I still hadn’t spoken to the landperson about the whole thing. I do have her okay but she doesn’t want anything “permanent” which means part of the design we discussed won’t work.

And I will owe the guy for the wood he uses. Which we just sort of committed to the new tv, which might seem foolish but dammit, having a television is a good thing chez Roscoe and I don’t want it to be an either-or.

So well, but here’s the thing. If you’re reading this and you’re local, do you have any interest in giving me an hour of your time this weekend to help me figure out where stuff should go? I’d love it, but I understand not wanting to. First off, it’s Father’s Day. Second, it might mean schlepping and none of us is that good at that any more.

Then there’s the second thing, which was suggested to me by a friend. That I ask for help paying for the ramp. I’ve tried really hard never to do anything like this but I’m thinking it’s going to be an outlay of something between $60 to $100 to pay for supplies. If you were so inclined – and oh god, I hope this isn’t in horrible taste to ask – and wanted to help, $5, $10 or $20 toward the Andi Ramp would be so hugely appreciated. I have a paypal account under our email address.

If you are local and do attend Vanguard, you’ll see both the chair and ramp at the August meeting. Along with the new spiffy tv.

If I could only figure out if I’m having mild hysterics for good or bad. It’s a good six months already since I knew this was coming, so why am I freaking out now? It’s that ambiguity (see my April 29 blog post). I’m excited, it’s going to help, but there’s so much to get done and energy is in such short supply chez Roscoe (Stu’s still coughing after weeks of a nasty sort of generic bug that’s about 80% better but far from over. He’s got tons to adjust to here as well – don’t think I don’ t know that.

It’s a DAMN GOOD THING I got that Squishable on Tuesday (see squishables.com. ) There’s a new squish. It’s a hedgehog. Be afraid, be very afraid.

And now back to my hysterics and attempts at organizing, already in progress.