You Know You Are A Redneck ...

The batteries in my camera are dead. Which is way too bad because if they weren't you'd have a sight to see this morning. My couch, on stilts. Well, not exactly stilts but four huge bricks. Joe worked extremely hard hauling bricks and getting the couch lifted onto and into them (the feet fit into a hollow) so that I could have access to the front room again.

It all happened a couple of months ago. I simply lost the ability to get up and out of the couch. When we bought it, all those years ago, the fact that it was long and low was of no issue. We were both more than capable of climbing in and out of our furniture. But that ended one day when I tried to stand and found it difficult. I knew that soon it wouldn't be difficult, it would be impossible.

That day came quicker than I thought it would, as it always happens with these things. And then, suddenly, no more couch. This meant that the only chair I had that I could get out of in the house was my wheelchair. It also meant that I watched television from the office seated at my desk just behind Joe's chair in the front room. We were faced with a dilemma.

I looked at the chairs that stand up for you and besides looking a bit frightening, they all look very 'old manish'. So we just went along. Then someone mentioned that you could buy these furnature lifts just for this purpose. I was startled into realizine that my needs are not entirely unique - a realization both comforting and disturbing. We investigated and found that they were all too small for the size of the feet on the couch.

Then I arrived home from work to find the couch half up on stilts and Joe busy about getting the other side lifted. Now our front room looks quite odd. If rednecks have their cars up on blocks, I got them beat.

So last night I was back in the front room, easily able to get on and off the couch, and life proceeds apace.

Life with a disability is kind of like life without one ... a constant adaption to present circumstances. Figuring out how to live the life you've got is the primary challenge each of us faces. Others might find sitting on a couch up on bricks to be a step down. No, No, really, trust me ... it's a step up.