Happy Easter!

Today was a bright, sunny, warm Easter Sunday. The sky was azure and the horizon limited only by the cerulean shadows of the mountains to the east of the city. I wanted to attend services with my parents at Saint Gregory's today, but could not make the arrangements through MTS Access. Even though the church is a 10-minute drive away (in Scripps Ranch), MTS requires a commitment of two hours each way. This is because they perform a transfer to North County Transit in order to reach Scripps Ranch. This happens even though Scripps is a neighborhood within the city of San Diego. At the minimum, I would have been gone from my home five-seven hours in order to attend a one-hour mass. That was more trip time than I could stomach, I'm afraid.

My last writing class went well. We had a nice turnout of about 8 people on a cold and rainy night. There were four stories to read, and mine was one of them. A lot of people seemed to like it the best of all that I had submitted. One student asked me if there was "anything [I] don't write." "Not really," I replied, "I write all over the place." Then a bit later I made an offhand comment about how I had written the story one Sunday afternoon, which prompted Judy to say "You told me you are a fast typist, but typing is not the same as writing." Then I answered, "Well, for me it kind of is..." Then she said, jokingly (I hope), "Now everyone in the class hates you!" I guess it seemed to her that I was bragging. But for me it's like Mohammad Ali once said, "if you can do it, it ain't braggin'."

I got a lead from Aleyda Turuno of PAI about the Medicare problem. She gave me the number of another agency, HICAP. We'll see what they have to say tomorrow.

Last night I tried doing the chair-to-bed transfer with Minda. It started out well. When she picked me up, it felt just like it used to. But as we pivoted, I started losing altitude and she had to put me back in the chair. Luckily Harold was present to bail us out. Tomorrow morning I will try bed-to-chair with Minda and we will see if that goes any better.

I'm off to watch the season finale of Carnivale. I will write more tomorrow!

-- David

News of the Week

This week continued the activities and aggravations of the past month.

First, on Tuesday I attended the penultimate Read & Critique session. I got to read my "extra" story, "Ghostwalkers," for the class. Coming into this session, I thought that most people would have a problem with the non-linear plot. "Eh, what did happen and who dunnit?" But perhaps this class is savvy enough to "get it" without a lot of extra explanation. Still, valid points were made about believability issues and characterization. I will have fun putting the rest of the story together and trying to gain some editor's attention with it.

This week I will present a new story to the group. It's an SF/Horror crossover with a touch of satire. Satire is supposed to come from a Latin word meaning "mixed" and indeed this is a mixed work. But I think it's funny, and humor is a great reading companion.

I called everybody and their brother about the Medicare/Medi-Cal issues and still got nowhere. I finally called Aleyta at Protection and Advocacy and hope to hear from her on Wednesday. I need a better idea of what my rights are and what the available programs are; the state workers don't know or don't want to know. I am also dealing with DoR (Department of Rehabilitation) regarding my van. The state inspector wants an estimate of AC repair before any work can be done on the tiedowns. But AC estimates are not free! I called City Chevrolet and A&D Auto Electric (recommended by Jaime, the state auto inspector) and both companies want to charge $100-200. This is because they must first fill the system with Freon and pressure-test it. That involves labor and material costs. The Rehab counselor doesn't understand this and refuses to commit to paying for the estimate. So we are back at square one again.

On a positive note, I am doing all pivot transfers this week and I plan to disembarrass myself of the hospital bed and Hoyer lift by the end of the month! Yes, I am almost back!

Still Here

Time has flown by in the past month. I have been really busy with the Read & Critique class. Each week I read and mark up papers, sometimes as many as five. I have also been writing a lot, both for the class and for myself.

I am a judge for the San Diego Book Awards and have six books to read before April 10. So far, I've read two! They are fun and fast reading, and I have no doubt I will be able to adequately evaluate them all.

Interminable hours have passed while I made calls to the state, trying to get my health insurance switched from Cigna to Medicare. I want to get on a program that will pay for my Medicare premiums. Nobody in the state Medi-Cal offices seems to be able to give me a straight answer!

Tomorrow Harold will take my van in for an estimate of what it will cost to install a manual tiedown system to hold my wheelchair. This will allow me to ride as a passenger in my van. Yay!

I do expect to be able to drive again. My legs are growing stronger each week.

Don't forget to watch Carnivale and Deadwood on HBO!