elizilla

I didn’t manage to post very much.

But the big activity this summer has been car shopping. The goal: I want to be able to go places alone. The problem: I can’t load and unload the wheelchair by myself. So I said, let’s buy what we need to buy, to make this work, whether it is a different wheelchair, a different car, different lifts/ramps/equipment, or all of the above.

What followed was many hours/days/weeks of research and shopping, resulting in complete failure.

Ramps were the first thing we tried. There are ultralight telescoping wheelchair ramps that are widely available. I bought a pair. I can deploy them and stow them. But I own FOUR power wheelchairs and none can go up the ramps, because the wheels are never close enough to being in the same track, to fit in the ramp channels. Single track ramps without channels are all too heavy for me to deploy.

We ruled out any system that carries the chair outside the vehicle. Because we live in Michigan and all chair warranties are void if the chair gets wet. And because these systems screw up the backup cameras, the sensors, etc.

I found a lift that looked easy to operate. The Bruno Joey. It is like a fork lift. You mount it in the car. When you run it, a platform rolls out the back like a drawer, then lowers to the ground. You put the chair on the platform, and it lifts up then rolls in. It looked great but the list of supported vehicles is short and doesn’t include anything I would want to drive. I am not without resources to figure things like this out, so I ordered a secondhand one off eBay figuring we could solve this.

Because, on the car front, we really really really don’t want to go back to gas cars, or even a hybrid. For everything but the wheelchair carrying, the Bolt has been fantastic. And there are now dozens of EV choices available. Unfortunately almost all have one thing in common. Teeny tiny rear hatch doors that prevent the Bruno Joey from operating. The vehicles that don’t have tiny hatch doors all have front seats that are too high for me to easily climb in.

If I give up on the Bruno Joey, the second-rate lift solution is a lift like a miniature crane. You attach a strap to the folded chair and winch it up, and move the arm to set the chair inside. I think I could do it, but it would be a hassle. If we go this route, the vehicle I liked best is the Kia EV6. Unfortunately the only dealer I found who has any, is unmotivated and unhelpful. All other Kia dealers ignore my interest in the EV6 and push gas cars. It’s like talking to machines. It makes me reluctant to buy anything.

If I give up on EVs, there are gas minivans that are all pretty unappealing. I keep looking at them and trying to like one, but, ick.

At this point we are waiting for the 2027 cars. Or perhaps the 2027 small pickups. It is a really kludgy and inelegant solution, but at least truck caps can be fabricated. Expected future trucks are the Telo, the Slate, and the Ford Fathom.

My fave is the Telo, and I have a reservation for one, but I don’t see it as a likely bet to actually arrive.

The Ford Fathom well, normally I sneer at pickups with beds too short for motorcycles or plywood. But if you are going to permanent-mount a Bruno Joey you won’t ever carry anything else anyway, and the short bed is right-sized for that application. And since I would have preferred a car, I like the cab-four, the longer range, and a few more creature comforts.

If Ford finds a way to screw up their truck, or cancels it, at least the Slate can do it. And a Slate wheelchair truck can be remodeled into something else useful, when a better wheelchair carrier comes along. (Unlike the Fathom, which might as well carry wheelchairs forever since it is too short for normal truck things.) I do expect Slate to actually arrive, so I have plunked down a little more money to upgrade my Slate reservation and claim a 2027 delivery date.

That is where I am at. I was hoping to solve this before the convention in January, but I think I will just rent a van again.

I can see why BraunAbility survives and gets the big bucks. It is total overkill for my level of disability, but at least SOMEONE ELSE is working this stuff. All you have to do is raise huge sums of money and drive a vehicle that is the car equivalent of tape on your glasses. In the world of disability stuff, that is a win.

Clara always seemed pretty easygoing. As the youngest of our cats she adapted. She has never been a demonstrative cat. She doesn’t compete for lap time the way Scotty and Carmello do. She purrs quietly, sometimes, but she doesn’t give head bumps to anyone but Scotty. She adores Scotty. She seems very self contained.

But I think Carmello stresses her out. And then Steve’s daughter was here a lot over the summer, with her dog. And we have a lot of people in and out. Recently she has started hiding a lot. And twice, when the dog was here, she peed on the floor. And then, even though she is a short haired cat she has started getting matted spots in the fur on her back where it is hard for her to reach.

SoI have become concerned about her. She had her annual wellness visit at the vet yesterday, and we are having them do bloodwork just in case they find a health issue. The vet thinks it may simply be anxiety/depression, and suggests we could get her a kitty Prozac prescription.

Anyways, because of the mats, I have been having Steve pick her up and put her in my lap. I don’t constrain her in any way, just scratch her chin to encourage her to stay. And she does stay. Once she settles in I start brushing her, trying to gently disentangle the mats. She seems to love it. Not much purring, but she stays. She goes boneless and wraps her paws around my knee, and leans into the brush. Today I got rid of the last lump of matted fur. After I stopped brushing, she stayed on my lap for over an hour, just snoozing.

Maybe she just needs more love.

I am going to keep up the brushing sessions, and see how she does.

Today was my twice-annual neuro appointment. I wore the exoskeleton and it was a huge hit. Extra medical people came out of neighboring rooms to see it. My neurologist tried it herself and one of the others videoed her.

One of the tests they do every time, is to time me as I walk a short distance that is measured out by some tape marks on the wall. My time is usually about 15 seconds, but with the exoskeleton it was 10 seconds. My improved posture was noted, as was the increase in danger from the dragging left foot. She gave me a referral to Orthotics and told me to wear the exoskeleton to that appointment as well.

She said she is already making a mental list of which of her other patients would benefit.

The exoskeleton helps with the weakness, but it does not help with the awkwardness. I am still a huge fall risk. Maybe that will improve a bit, with practice, but for now I need something to steady myself.

I have this red rollator walker I use every day around the house, and for expeditions to places I can’t use a wheelchair. I like it because it is super lightweight and very stable. So I started with that. The problem is, that when the exoskeleton improves my posture, the red rollator is too low. And it is at its highest extension. There is a part that can make it taller, but back when I last tried to order that part, the pandemic supply chain snafus made it impossible to get. I need to try again.

I also have the Up Walker. This is a hand-me-down from a neighbor. It’s a rollator that supports under the elbows, specifically intended to make the user walk upright. It is a good position, but this particular unit feels rickety and unstable. I think it’s because I am at the very tallest adjustment point and this thing is old and beat up and was probably always flimsy. We improved the stability by tying a rope around it to brace it at the top, but it’s still iffy.

So I decided to try some arm crutches. The first pair I tried was awful, I felt like they pitched me forward. I sent them back to Amazon and got a different pair that let me bend my elbows. These felt great but I almost fell. I am going to keep them and try again if I get better at this. And perhaps wear a bicycle helmet.

I am going to go down to the local DME, one day soon, and test drive walkers. Maybe they have a larger and more solid version of the Up Walker.

I am also experimenting with AFOs for my dragging left foot. The best one I have found so far, doesn’t fit in my shoe. I am continuing to try other AFOs, but I also intend to look at some different shoes.

It’s easy to just give up when something fails to be a magic bullet. But adaptive devices are never perfect right out of the box. You have to work on it and figure out how to fix your problems. And I enjoy figuring it out, finding the right combination of things. I used to do this with my motorcycles. This is just a new focus for my urge to tinker with things and try out new gadgets. It is good to have a hobby!

Two weeks ago I ordered some candy from Amazon. It never arrived. Yesterday I checked on it and discovered that it’s one of those things where the seller didn’t contract Amazon for fulfillment, and they have one star rating with many reviews from people who never got their stuff. Not only that, somehow a second order had been created for the same item, from a completely different seller who had a similar one star rating and reviews complaining of non-delivery. I checked my credit card and both charges were on it. So I contacted Amazon support and they refunded both orders. But it is super weird that there are two of them, from two different sellers with the same reputation. Is this the new scam, create an Amazon seller that never ships and collect as much money as possible before they shut you down? How many customers fail to notice and let you keep the money?

And then today I have another Amazon problem. In February I returned a three pack of turtlenecks because they were awful. Stuff like this, they let you take it to the UPS Store, not even boxed. The UPS store puts it in a pile and sends it back in a giant box with everyone else’s returns. Amazon credits me before Steve even gets back from dropping it off. So anyway, today I got email from Amazon that I didn’t return the right item, so they are charging me again for the turtlenecks and refunding me for a hoodie instead. It’s only a few dollars but I like things to be right. Plus I am curious how they handle this, since I don’t know what happened to those awful turtlenecks and I am sure they don’t know either. So I contacted support and told them I am wearing the hoodie they say I returned, and I definitely returned those turtlenecks. They instantly refunded the turtlenecks again, and said I don’t have to pay for the hoodie.

Weird to have two such oddball problems back to back. But Amazon customer support has never failed me yet, though I have probably only had to contact them four or five times prior to this week.

I really shouldn’t order candy from Amazon anyway. It’s just hard for me to get around so I get in the habit of ordering things that are better to get locally. Or from a mail order source that handles foodstuffs more carefully. Meijer.com says they have my candy and it’s cheaper there too. I could order it for curbside if I get desperate.

Two weeks ago we had a new medical adventure. We took my dad in for scheduled cataract surgery and they refused to do it because his heart rate was half what it should be. They said he should go straight to ER and they would probably give him a pacemaker.

He did not want to comply. We did not think we could get him to wait ten hours at the big hospital so we took him to the small local hospital where you get seen quickly. They saw him immediately, then sent him to the big hospital in an ambulance, since they don’t do pacemakers in the small hospital.

He was in for two nights. His pacemaker is tiny! Just a large capsule, they insert it near the groin, then route it up the vein to the heart.

His heart rate is now perfect and his cataract surgery is rescheduled.

Our solar stopped working around 6pm on Jan 17and has not worked since. Since gamifying the solar is one of my main hobbies, I noticed very quickly that the app was not updating. I have seen the app stop updating before and by the next morning catch up, so I didn’t do any troubleshooting until it was still stuck on Sunday evening. Sunday Steve helped me run some troubleshooting scripts from the SolarEdge website, and I collected a log with some errors. I bundled up the logs and all the other clues I could find, and emailed them to our installer. They got on it right away and by the time I got up on Monday morning they had already reached out to SolarEdge and had an RMA to replace our inverter under warranty. I was amazed and very pleased at the response speed.

Unfortunately we have had no response speed since. This is week four and SolarEdge has not sent the inverter, has not said when they might send the inverter, will not say when they might be able to tell us when they will ship it, and will not say why the holdup.

Some trawls through the forums turn up a lot of SolarEdge stories like this.

I have the part number of the inverter and they seem to be readily available. I found two different places selling them for around $800. The past four weeks would probably have brought less than $100 worth of solar and we have excess generation bank enough to cover it. But by the end of March we should be banking for next winter. If they don’t get this going, it won’t be long before we spend more on grid power than the price of a replacement inverter.

Also, while the problem persists, we are without our battery backup. The battery is full but without an inverter we can’t use it. If we have a serious grid outage before they fix this, I will be even more angry. And spring is peak season for grid outages.

I have told our installer that if SolarEdge can’t get their act together, they need to just buy one of these and get us going. Still hoping this doesn’t turn into me just buying one, but if that is where we are going to end up, I would rather pay $800 now, than pay $800 after also paying that much in DTE bills.

I normally check our solar multiple times a day. These days I check our RMA multiple times a day, instead. If they want me to stop bugging them, they need to get this done.

I just want to share another story.

During my last neurologist appointment, she prescribed me a new drug. Nothing particularly cutting edge, it has been out long enough to have generic versions, even. But, specialized enough that the office sent it to the hospital pharmacy instead of my local pharmacy. The hospital pharmacy called me and said my insurance had approved it but the copay was $501 a month, and do I still want to fill it?

I asked how much if I pay out of pocket? They said they were not allowed to do that, but that it was a good idea to ask. They suggested they could forward it to a mail order pharmacy. I said, how about just forwarding it to the indi pharmacy in my town? So they did.

The local pharmacy called the next day and said my insurance had approved it but the copay was $501, and did I want to fill it?

I asked how much if I don’t use insurance and pay out of pocket?

$47.

Yes, that’s right. If I use the insurance I pay for, my drug will cost ten times as much as it does to just buy the drug out of pocket.

The reason I knew to ask the out-of-pocket price, is that this has happened before. Last time it was an $80 copay for a $19 drug.

I am sharing the story so that others will know to ask this question. The huge drug copay may look like a stealth denial. Or like insurance is trying to keep costs down as Big Pharma pushes them up. But it may actually be the insurance company grabbing extra profit while pretending it is Big Pharma’s fault.

It is working really well. Our electric bills dropped to near zero, last spring, and have stayed there.

When we got the extra panels in fall 2024, we seem to have got too many. Cutting those trees increased our production - we went from 20 panels to 34 panels, but solar production has doubled. Meanwhile our usage went down, due to the casita mini-split and less driving for eldercare. In 2025, we produced way more power than we used. DTE doesn’t pay us for our surplus, it just gets banked. But being so far ahead, I have high hopes that we can get through this winter without using up our bank. Last winter, we did run out, and had electric bills for a couple months.

I am wondering if we should try to reduce our gas bill by getting some heat from the mini splits in the main house? We already have them, after all. But I really like the quiet comfortable hydronic radiant heat, that uses the gas boiler. I guess it is nice to have options!

Friends with EVs are welcome to charge here. We have plenty of spare electrons.

With all these data centers going in around here, the solar should shield us from rate increases.

Carmello has discovered the litterbox. There was much rejoicing. We no longer have to push him out the door. Which is good since he very much resists going. He has also discovered that when company comes, he can hide upstairs or in the basement, he doesn’t have to dart out and run under the porch. And he has realized that the other floors are great for playing tag with Clara. It is super cute.

I took another fall this morning. Managed to get up without calling 911. Yay! I am not banged up, either, just tired. I should sleep well tonight.