Archive: October 2003
Fairness
Wheelchair racer’s win raises issue of fairness
This is an interesting one. My first impulse is to say that wheelchair cross country is a different sport from able-bodied cross country. Does cross country have the concept of an exhibition competitor? I’m very sports-illiterate, but when my kids were swimming competitively some meets had “no faster than” [...]
Weather
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it…
Yesterday it was 85 degrees (with scattered wildfires). Today I’m walking through the parking lot in a freezing drizzle, admiring the ice-encased cars, trying not to die by slipping on the slick floor with wet crutch tips.
I just love these weather plots.
Car rental firms settle disability probe
Two U.S. car rental firms settle disability probe
Diogenes of Bread
Twenty years back in the United States, and I think I’m cracking. There’s no decent bread to be had anywhere. If it wasn’t for the bread we make ourselves, my kids would think that stuff in the stores and the bakeries was bread.
I drove all over Longmont this morning looking for bread - and don’t [...]
Oh, for crying out loud!
Town threatens to ticket boy for using wheelchair.
Updated 21.Oct.03:
Lawmakers May Get Involved In Dispute
Wheelchair flap sparks outcry, calls for fairness
And well done to Patricia, who has posted phone numbers for the town’s City Hall and County Attorney!
Updated 22.10.03:
Iowa Town OKs Wheelchair on Streets
Notice - “If 14-year-old Bryce Wiley puts a safety light on his motorized [...]
Good eating
There was good eating at my house today.
I’m feeling very energetic, so in honor of the DVD release of Bend It Like Beckham, I made aloo gobi, dal saag and basmati rice for dinner.
In the meantime, Youngest Son whipped up a batch of strawberry-banana jello.
At the same time, Eldest Son was making two pumpkin [...]
Everything in moderation
Two of the online communities I read frequently are currently embroiled in controversy (must be something in the water).
At WheelchairJunkie, it’s inappropriate religious proselytizing. At the braintalk.org MS Forum, it’s the moderators’ attempts to cut down on vast amounts of off-topic posting.
Tom Coates’ blog Everything in Moderation is about creative ways to manage online communities [...]
Shop without a man
I’m not getting this at all:
Men happy at adult kindergarten while wives shop
Husband gets bored while shopping, leaves wife
Why are these people shopping together?
1. She doesn’t drive, so she needs him to take her shopping?
2. They’ve never heard that there’s nothing in the marriage vows about being joined at the hip 24/7?
I’m seriously, seriously confused.
Friday Five
Ok, it’s Saturday. I’m not very good at following instructions.
1. Name five things in your refrigerator.
Asparagus, wheat berries, pesto in a tube, salsa, eggs
2. Name five things in your freezer.
Homemade lasagne, whole chicken, frozen-gel icepack thingie, peas, coffee beans
3. Name five things under your kitchen sink.
409, Simple Green, some orange cleaner stuff, silver polish, stainless [...]
Love my IB students
Most of you probably don’t have an International Baccalaureate student in your lives (much less two), but trust me, these are really funny, and so true.
The funniest one was:
It takes you 3 days to get this joke:
A: you know what?
B: no, introduce me.
at which my two IB students stared blankly at me and said, “What?”
I’m still here
…but my husband’s been out of town for two weeks, so between the full time job, the three teenagers (and all their activities), the dog, the cat, the little stomach virus and the new web job I’ve got, I’ve been…busy.
I knew it before but I really know it now - the reason I’m still able [...]
Falling
Two falls today, one real and one almost.
In the Safeway parking lot, my crutch tip slipped on somebody’s freshly leaked antifreeze and down I went, complete with groceries. A couple of people looked around, but nobody stopped, which I guess was just as well because it would have been more embarrassing.
Went to a concert this [...]
Anger
I went to lunch with a new acquaintance yesterday, and as I unloaded the wheelchair, he asked, “How long have you had this affliction?” (He’s 75, I forgive the phrasing.) I told him a little about my disease, and he said, “But you’re not angry,” in a wondering tone.
I paused for a minute, because, no, [...]
Trying to get comfortable
A not-so-good MS day. I’ve been in bed most of the afternoon, but everything seems to burn and shake and I can’t get comfortable. I’m hoping that some mindless websurfing will help. Got the font size way up because this go-round seems to have some sort of visual tracking problem associated with it, which is [...]
Headlines
OSU and OHSU land grant to research air travel for disabled
New wheelchair course inaugurated
AirTran settles $125,000 disability suit
NBC correspondent talks about his ‘disability planet’
Childhood
Recent search queries have me thinking about Nigeria. We moved there, a German/American family with four children between two and nine, towards the end of the Biafran War.
I was young enough and had moved around enough to accept life in a diplomatic community in post-Colonial Africa as just another version of normal.
We lived in Lagos, [...]
First Monday in October
And that means the opening of the new US Supreme Court term, although the court will not hear oral arguments today because it’s Yom Kippur - the first time the court has taken the holiday into account.
The case to watch this term is Tennessee v. Lane, in which two disabled defendents charge that Tennessee courtrooms [...]
Searches, again
Excellent set of search terms yesterday (although I’ve got to wonder about the cockroaches):
#reqs: search term
2: juden herkunft
2: rehhof polen
1: bartels marie
1: polnische vornamen
1: gerhard dexer bruder
1: coefficient of friction
1: reston
1: twin seven seven nigeria
1: obituary lagos
1: back to school katja
1: home design with ramp to second floor
1: website criticism
1: openwave systems boulder location
1: faigaux
1: [...]
Yea!
redtails.org is back online! I’m so relieved. Probably nobody noticed but me.
MS
This made the rounds a while back and seems to be popping back up:
The residents of Silicon Valley are more confused than usual after a
billboard campaign by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of America
used this line in an ad slogan.
“MS: It’s not a software company.”
Seasoned IT professionals will have no trouble telling the two MS’s [...]
Disabled in Boulder
Disability activists spin wheels: Making all of Boulder accessible a slow process, from the Boulder Daily Camera.
Cocktails
My stepfather is a cocktail man. When we visit, he always offers a drink before dinner, and breaks out the salted peanuts.
My father was a cocktail man, too, before it went out of style. He was a Foreign Service officer, and I remember watching the cocktail parties (complete with engraved invitations!) from the top of [...]
Feeling Stupid, II
Ok, now I’m pissed. Here I am waiting for my nameserver change to propagate, and it turns out that Network Solutions’ fancy new Account Manager website doesn’t work if you’re using Opera! My nameserver change never happened.
So I hauled out Internet Explorer and changed the nameservers again.
Feeling Stupid
The last time I moved a domain to a new host, I changed the nameservers with the registrar, waited a day or two, then went happily to work on the new website. I didn’t notice (until the bill came) that the previous host was still charging me.
So this time, I changed the nameservers and dropped [...]
More Headlines
I can see that subscribing to Google News Alerts is going to be a problem… (it’s all Out of the Frying Pan’s fault)
Upgrade boosts access to Australian courtroom
Baltimore teen honored for effort to improve council access
Movable Type Conversion
I’ve done my first conversion of a non-blog website over to using Movable Type.
First I read up on it:
Beyond the Blog
Doing your whole site with MT
Touch of Hope: A Technical Colophon
Results first:
Previous, non-MT version
New, MT site
What I did:
This is a fairly static website with a flat navigational structure, so I decided to make each page [...]
Thinker Quiz
Via Becky, What kind of thinker are you?
You are an Interpersonal Thinker
Interpersonal thinkers:
Like to think about other people, and try to understand them
Recognise differences between individuals and appreciate that different people have different perspectives
Make an effort to cultivate effective relationships with family, friends and colleagues
Like interpersonal thinkers, Leonardo had lots of friends and contacts, [...]
Coping
Seen on WheelchairJunkie.com:
For a while I mourned each new loss. That consumed too much time, because something changes every month.
Amen!
Headlines
Livery cabs to be more accessible to wheelchair-bound people - Back in May 2003, News 12 The Bronx first reported about Super Class Radio Car Service, a Bronx livery cab company accused of refusing to pick up wheelchair-bound passengers.
School Decides on Student and Motorized Wheelchair - A Lafayette school has decided that a student needs [...]
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