Wheelie Blues No More..Permobil c300

OK I've jumped through all the correct rings.  I'd spin around in tight circles if I could count on my chair to make tight turns.  The batteries are quickly dying and I will not replace them in a chair that is to be replaced.  Because of the batteries and the faulty steering, I have had to be pushed into my Van on occasion.  Oh the humiliation! I'm a free spirit that deserves to be free!  It rubs me the wrong way to be tied down.  Yes, I know be thankful for all your blessings.  I am, I really am, but I yearn to be more mobile.  So much for my gripping and my impatience.

I started this several days ago.  Something told me that I needed to check on how the order for the chair was coming along.  So I called the Health Care provider to see what was happening. I talked to  my contact there.  She said that they had not ordered it yet, because they had not gotten all the paper work from my doctor's office.  She also said she had called and left a messages for me at work and on my home phone.  There were no messages left.  She had not bothered to call.  I called her boss and she immediately took charge.  Thank goodness I called or I would still be patiently waiting for weeks more.  I've always been patient but I really need this chair.  I have been totally amazed at how callous people who work at Home Health Care Facilities are.  Maybe I'm more sensitive because I know what having a working chair means to the individuals; however, don't these people have any empathy?  If I was a health care provider, I would expect the people who worked for me to be on the ball.  If certain documents were missing then I would expect them to be all over it making sure that everything was in line.  She let down the business as well as the client.

After checking and complaining, I think I've finally gotten my chair ordered, after 6 weeks of trying.

 The new chair has been shipped.  I can not wait, however, my part after medicare is $3800 wow!  Being handicapped is expensive at least I have Medicare who pays 80%.  My son gave a customer a good deal on a few items saying Mother needs a new wheel chair.  Between my credit card and the shop we will make it.  Hopefully this is a Cadillac of a wheel chair!  I noticed going down the aisle of the shop that I was making a real racket with the old one.  At least that chair is moving!  I am expecting it either Monday or Tuesday.

This was first published in February 2011.  It is now May 2016.  I have had a few bumps in the road and I have had some work done on the chair but it is still sturdy.  I had to have the seat plate replaced, and when I did I decided to get a raiser for the chair so that I can adjust my seat so it will go up and down.  This was well worth the cost which came out of my pocket.  I can now think about going someplace and staying in a motel/hotel.  Most beds in these were not standard 19" to 20" height any more as they thought the up grade to pillow tops made the place look better.  this made it so that people who could no longer stand could not easily find a place to stay with a bed that they could transfer into.  One time my son actually had to drag me unto a bed that was too high for me to transfer to.  Now I can cook without worrying about fat popping into my eyes, and I can see into taller pots.  Also I sit behind the counter at my shop and I can get myself up to a better level there to work the computer and to wait on clients.  I can highly recommend this power chair, Permobil c300.  By the time my other chairs have gotten to be this age, they were in bad shape and barely working.

 More bumps in the road.  The company from which I order the chair originally has decided to close down their service department.  They now say that they have someone who will come to us.  I live off the beaten path and would prefer  to go where there is a service center.  I have called around and most do not know how to work on Permobils.  Plus they prefer to work on ones that were ordered from them.  I thought that I had found the answer until I got an email saying that they could not work on Permobils.  What the heck?

But I am a Real Artist

I remember meeting one of my good friends for the first time.  We started talking and discovered that we both pursued the art of painting.  I told her that I was an artist and she replied that she was a REAL ARTIST.  This took me back.  I can imagine that my mouth hung open.  Was she insinuating that I was not a real artist.  Now that I think about it some 15 years later, what she meant was that she took art seriously as a full time pursuit, not just some hobby to be replaced with another. There are so many people who play at art.  Neither she nor I played at our art.  It was serious business that we both pursued with a passion.

We have grown with our art in very different ways.  I have tried to continue painting not matter what my circumstances are.  There have been times when I could paint with out interruptions as a full time job.  During this time I grew and produced a great number of works.  There was a show in Richmond where we both took our paintings to be displayed.  The show was judged and awards were given.  I only received one ribbon during that time.  I'm not sure that my friend received any.  It did not matter. The shows were once a month,and  we continued to try.  This gave us the incentive to paint more and more.  We are as different as night and day, but we are and continue to be REAL ARTIST despite all odds.

After Katerina by S. Drake Streetman

Apple Tree Painting by Leigh Lewis Trimble

Recently, I have been working full time with my son, Lewis.  Running an antique vintage decorative arts shop both on Main Street and on line is exciting, but leaves me little time to paint.

Handicap Blues

I don't like to complain.  I don't admit to being handicap except when I am desperate.  As long as My chair works and my van works I'm "A OK."  Occasionally everything goes bad at once.  I'm playing the waiting game for a new wheelchair.  I called the company to ask how long only to be told that my doctor's appointment had been too far away to work and that although I had been fitted for the chair a doctor's order and visit was necessary.  As my Mom says this is ridiculous, "You have been in a chair for ten years!  It's not like you'll magically heal and not have to use a chair."  So why does medicare not have a provision for people who have a chronic condition?  Why do they want to pay for a Doctor's visit that is not at all necessary.  Go figure.  That's the way things work.  People don't always think.  My doctor says that she hates filing out the forms for someone who already has a chair and she has to justify that they still need a chair.

At any rate a new chair is on the way.  On to problem number two.  The handicap van door.  The Ramp Van doors are and have been erratic ever since I purchased the vehicle.  Last fall I took the van to have the doors fixed again.  It seems that every time I  have the automatic ramp door fixed it breaks again. The trouble is it is erratic, some times it works just find and other times especially in very cold or nasty weather it just does not close at all.  So, when I took it to be repaired the bad news was, "Oh, gee we think you need to by a new vehicle, and here is our salesman to help you out."  This does not wash with me.  To say the least if you start hard selling me, my ruff goes up and I will not be sold.  The alternative was to have it fixed for a tune of $1,800.  Well, this seemed better than buying a new van for $50,000 to $70,000 that they quoted.  My van had less than 80,000 miles on her.  Why is it that the handicap adaptable parts wear out much sooner than the vehicle? The long and the short of it is I bit the bullet and had the van repaired.  It worked for about a month and has been a pain in the neck ever since.  Right now in February, I can't get it to close most of the time and I feel as though I have to take someone along with me to help with the door.  Last week mother and I were rushing to make a dental appointment and I lost patience with the door reopening when I put the car into drive, so I slammed on my brakes and the door slammed shut; however, when we got to the dentist Mother got out of the front seat and I tried the ramp door.  It would not open at all.  I had jammed the door.  I called my son, Chris, and took the car over to his shop where he had to use a crow bar to get the door to open.  Then he had to position the door on it's runners so it would at least be able to be closed manually. What does one do with out someone to help them.  I've always said that the Good Lord knew what he was doing when he gave me 3 sons.  Even though I thought a daughter would have been nice.  Thank God for my sons.  So now I have to figure out how to get a good second hand Van.  I've done some research on the web and it turns out that not all handicap vehicles are 50 to 70 thousand, I found a few newer ones for 30 something and older ones even less expensive.  I can tell you this, I will not be buying a new Van from the same people , who fixed this one.  I hope with trade in I can afford a good van.

If anyone out there reads my blog and has any advise, I sure could use some help here.  Please comment or email me.  Thanks

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Keeping on Track and Keeping Order

New business plan in order.  I don't have children to take care of but now I have my Mother living with me.  Lewis has been camping out at my house to help with Mom and with finances.  We have tried to spent as little as possible on ourselves.  Starting up a new business takes funds.  Fortunately Mother helps us with household finances.  We have lived on a shoe string for the last two years.  This past month January 2010 has seen us coming ahead in the business, maybe we can pay ourselves.  Because the business is teetering on the edge of becoming big, we find ourselves overwhelmed at times.  We have less walk in business, but tend to be extremely busy with the internet.  I answer emails, phone calls, attempt to find shipping quotes talk to customers and hurry up and wait.  Sometimes decorators especially the famous ones tend to take you for granted.  The hard part here is keeping track of everything at once.  My office has been behind the checkout desk, but we are beginning to find it necessary to establish another more extensive desk.  Mother serves as a greeter, she does a great job, but sometimes she tries to help with straightening.  This can be a disaster, because she will throw things away or misplace items that we need.  I get distracted when she starts moving around shuffling items on the counter.  Then I have problems keeping on track.  Because I need to keep track of what is going on I  get brain overload.  After work and after dinner when I could possibly find time to paint, I tend to have no energy or creativity left.

Keeping on track

Sometimes it is hard in life to keep on track.  That is keep doing all the right things at the proper time.  Sometimes life throws at you more than you can handle.  It is easy to become overwhelmed.  Believe me I have learned all about this by the school of hard knocks.  The best thing to do is to slow down and take several deep breaths and then keep on going hopefully with some sort of order. 

I jumped into running businesses several times in my life.  Actually I believe that this is part of God's plan for me, why else would I find myself thrust into being in a business?  I love dealing with people particularly chatting and visiting with the public.  I never much liked or felt comfortable going to big parties where I knew very few people.  But being in my shop is like being in my home and it is easy to be gracious to people who come into your home, shop. 

Our first shop was a gift shop that I ran with my husband.  I was responsible for ordering the merchandise for the shop.  We had bought a preexisting shop and I was able to use the example of what was previously purchased in order to figure out what would sell.  I soon was connected with the various salesmen who represented these companies.  Then I relied on my up bringing and personal inherent taste.  Being a Virginian I was aware of the type of items that Virginians would buy. Unfortunately I never had any training in business.  Perhaps, I should have taken a course or two in Business.  My Art History background helped me with buying.  It taught me to look for quality and good design. Where I had problems was keeping up with the book keeping.  I ordered items for resale and projected sales.  As long as I was the only one doing the ordering I was able to keep up.  When my husband started to order framing materials we began to run into some problems.  I kept records in my head, that was not a good plan.  I still tend to have this bad habit.

All the while that I was running the gift shop, I had small children at home.  Lewis was a baby when we bought the business, Chris was eight years old and Scott was five years old.  Some how we maneuvered running a business and a family at the same time.  Actually,  I ran the gift shop with help from the ladies that worked for me and my husband ran an extension of my father's art gallery.  I took Lewis to work originally in a baby seat  and play pen, years later people would come in and asked about the cute little baby.  Thinking about this now I have to stop and wonder that I could do all this.  Some how I did manage.  I would leave work and head home in time to be there for the boys to get home from school and pick up Lewis from baby day care.  Then I would start dinner and help the boys with their home work.  There were bullies to deal with hurts to heal, swim team and soccer practice. Games to go to.  As I write this I am marveling at how I could have done all this. 

I have to admit that at this time I was only restricted to wearing a brace on my left leg and I walked with crutches.  I guess I could have done this from a wheel chair too.  You never know what you can do until you have too.  My motto has always been to do whatever is needed to be done come what may.

I think that when I consider how much I had done at that point in my life, that it helps me deal with the now.  I still have another type business to deal with.  With this business, I learned not to go on credit and not to gamble on projected sales as much.  We prepay everything that we purchase so that our inventory is paid for.  But we still have to gamble on the amount of business we might do.  We started out as an Antique Mall renting spaces and selling other people's merchandise with two or three part time employees.  I had four or five ladies working for me at the gift shop.  The great thing about this business was that we purchased a program for our computers that made keeping track of everything easy.  As long as we wrote up the items sold, correctly, all we had to do at the end of the month was to push the right buttons and the computer did the rest. Oh, I do love computers.  I would never be writing this if I did not have the ease of writing on the computer and God bless spell check!  Now I have less and more to deal with.  Life would not be interesting if everything went along easily. 

So now we changed our business from an Antique Mall to a partnership.  Lewis and I decided that we would do much better going it alone.   The economy sort of dictated it.  With the drop in the economy we realized that the dealers were leaving and we could not easily find new dealers to replace them that carried the type of merchandise that we required in our shop.  We did not want to go the way of many Antique Malls who allowed their dealers to sell anything including flea market type items.  We wanted to be a real antique shop.  We began slowly to take over the spaces in our shop.  As the dealers left we would fill their spaces.  We finally mid 2009 got a load against my house and stared buying for real with the idea that we would have a single shop.  We also bought a van and designed a logo and picked a new name our name.  The die was cast.