I’ve written before about my Asshole Neighbor. After last night, I’ve decided “Asshole” is too kind of a term. Yesterday, I received another phone call from the concierge stating that neighbors were complaining about pounding and banging noises coming from my unit. Completely mystified (I might have been vacuuming, but that’s it), I decided to go next door and try to work things out. AN opens the door—in his underwear, no less. I politely ask him if I’m making too much noise. He claims that he didn’t make the complaint, but that he was about to. Then he lays into me and accuses me and my nurses of making noise at all hours and being completely inconsiderate of everyone else on the floor. He says he’s tired of coming home from work and hearing the beeping of my ventilator. I try to explain that sometimes the ventilator alarms when a tube disconnects, but he clearly does not give a shit. Anyway, he finished by threatening to complain about me at the next association meeting and other people would as well.
Fucking asshole.
I’ve concluded that there are a lot of lonely people in this building who direct their misery towards other convenient targets. And I’m convenient. I’m amazed at how petty and self-absorbed we humans can be. But I refuse to feel like a trespasser in my own building. Life is too short. And of all the things I need to worry about in my daily life, Fucking Asshole Neighbor is at the bottom of my list.

October is a busy time for those of us in disability pollicy/advocacy. The federal government marks October as National Disability Employment Month and I have a series of trainings, events, and assorted happenings for which to prepare as October quickly approaches. It’s good to be busy after a quiet summer, but it’s also a bit stressful because I’m always afraid I’ll forget to do something or let something slip past my attention. Fortunately, I think my past experience as a law clerk has given me the organizational skills necessary to stay on top of multiple projects. I also have a Palm Pilot, which is helpful. If you look in the bag I carry to work, you’ll find my Palm, iPod, digital tape recorder, and cell phone. I never thought I’d turn into a total gadget slave, but I suppose it was inevitable.
Huh. I start writing about disability stuff and it morphs into observations on my geek fetish. My mind scares me sometimes.

I read quite a bit. To the immediate left of my desk is a bookcase crammed full of paperbacks and hardcovers of assorted genres. Mostly fiction with a dash of history and current events. And I read pretty fast, which means that every couple minutes my nurse or whoever has to turn the page for me. Nobody has ever complained about performing this minor task, but I do wish that e-books and readers had been more successful. I know I can download some titles onto my PC, but I don’t want to be chained to my desk whenever I have the desire to read. I’d love someone to invest a small electronic device that has the resolution of paper and would allow me to turn pages with a simple switch interface of voice command. I’ve tried mechanical page-turners, but they’re big, clunky, and unreliable. This theoretical “BookPad” would have to be lightweight, have a decent battery life, and preferably use an existing open-source OS to keep costs down and make it affordable for everyone. Any bored inventors want to take a stab at this?

I spent a few hours today trying to squeeze a few more Mhz out of my processor. It’s a 2500+ Barton and I have it running a little over 2.0 Ghz but I have to keep an eye on the CPU temperature. I don’t want a repeat of my last debacle.
I see that one of my favorite authors, William Gibson, has stopped blogging to work on his next blog. I can understand the view that, for a writer, blogging can be a little like eating junk food while trying to stick with a diet. But while I’m not a successful writer, I think I would continue to blog even if I’m published. It’s a good warm-up (or cool-down) to the much more demanding task of writing something that is actually supposed to be interesting. Here, I can be completely and mind-numbingly boring without fear.

Today, I was greatly relieved to learn that my independent nures received their first paychecks. The billing process is complicated and if something gets screwed up, you have to wait another two weeks to get paid. And since I’m the one handling the billing for right now, I was terrified that I would screw something up. I didn’t want to let my staff down by messing things up the first time around. But everything appears to have gone smoothly and there’s a certain satisfaction in knowing that I successfully orchestrated all this. From the initial decision back in May to do this to guiding all the nurses through the paperwork to advertising for and bringing in new nurses to setting the schedule and doing the billing, this has been all my doing. Once my last couple remaining staff become independent, I will be entirely in control of my own care. And everyone is here because I want them here. I’m lucky to have such a cool and dedicated staff and I’m absolutely thrilled with the two new nurses who just started a couple weeks ago. And once we’ve been doing this for a while, maybe I can use my position within state government to make it easier for others to do this.
But for right now, I’m just taking a moment to relish my minor little achievement.