I frequently log into my work network from home to compose an e-mail or finish a project that I didn’t get to while I was at the office. And for whatever reason, the word prediction on my on-screen keyboard doesn’t work with my employer’s web interface. As a result, I have to type out e-v-e-r-y l-e-t-t-e-r of every word I’m writing. It slows me down a bit, but my neck muscles are getting awfully buff. My ginormous head doesn’t feel quite as heavy as it once did. Girls can’t resist a thick, muscular neck, right? Or, at least, a neck that is slightly less scrawny than the rest of me.

A few months ago, I wrote an article for a newsletter called Ventilator-Assisted Living describing my own experiences as I transitioned to the vent life. You can find it by going here and then clicking on the article entitled “A Life Less Ordinary” (it’s a PDF file). And I need to Photoshop the accompanying photo; that earring is starting to look a bit dated.

Media coverage of the Olympics is likely to crowd out news of other world events for the next couple weeks, including the escalating war between Russia and Georgia. After years of turning inward (and becoming increasingly authoritarian), Russia seems ready to flex its muscles again. It will never regain its former superpower status, but with its substantial stockpiles of oil, natural gas, and nukes, Russia can still throw its weight around; a fact that is probably causing plenty of Western diplomats to lose sleep tonight.

I was returning home from a walk this afternoon when I noticed several emergency response vehicles heading towards the riverfront. Curious, I headed down there myself to see what was going on. I couldn’t see much from where we were standing, but my nurse said he witnessed a rescue boat in the waters near the Stone Arch Bridge and someone being placed on a gurney. I checked the local news sites for any mention of the incident, but found nothing.

Just another day in the big city.

Via The Gimp Parade, here’s a Houston Press article discussing the challenges facing young adults with disabilities who are aging out of the pediatric care system. While this really isn’t a new phenomenon, the piece does a good job of explaining the institutional biases that are still the norm in many states. For example, many state Medicaid programs will not provide private duty nursing services after age 21 and will only cover the costs of institutional care. Families are suing states like Texas in efforts to get the services that will keep their sons and daughters in the community and not warehoused in facilities.

The article goes on to describe how some hospitals and clinics serving kids and teens with disabilities are doing more to prepare them for the transition to adult lives of independence and employment. I could think of a few Minnesota-based hospitals that might want to consider implementing similar programs. But the real changes will have to come from the bureaucrats. And speaking as a bureaucrat, I can tell you that we’re not always ones at the bleeding edge of social change.

Further evidence that the world is astonishingly small: Steve Elliot, the attorney interviewed for the article, was one of my mentors when I clerked at the Minnesota Disability Law Center many years ago.