Keep On Moving Club: June 2018

[Howie]

I had an itch. I scratched it. Nap time.

[Virginia]

What are we going to do with Howie? He is just so ambitious about his activity that he shows all the rest of us up. He must be a man for sure.

Sunshine, great going!

Peg, I agree with Sunshine. Cut yourself some slack. You have had many problems.

If you guys recall I started exercising a little last week. Well, I did a very modified version of the exercise that had hurt my knee. Still, I am having problems with it again, so calling it off for right now and when I start back will not do that exercise at all - EVER AGAIN!!!

[Sunshine]

Good judgement Virginia.

[Sunshine]

Virginia, I have learned from multiple mistakes that providers are not the be all and end all. You gotta advocate for yourself and used your own judgment, which you did! Good work! It’s hard to not follow advice of the “experts”.

I swam 20 minutes today in late morning because it was smoky early. 560 Yards. After running two errands. After swimming, I even did some stand up closet work. It’s great to have made some gains on SPS and MS, modest as thy are. But still gains!

[Sunshine]

A doctors appointment made me swim in the heat of late morning. The pool gets almost too warm by then. I swam 1/4 mile 14.5 minutes, and stopped when the neuropathy and muscle stiffening began to fire up. Recovery was quick, luckily!

Later on, to add to time doing exercise, I lifted my 8 lb arm weights, four different exercise for a total of @10 minutes.

I read Dave Bexfields exercise with MS blog. He talks about the benefits to MS for high interval training. No way I could do that stuff. Just impossible. Wondering if one could devise a high interval training program that very disabled people could do....

[Sunshine]

Today I swam 20 minutes, 606 Yards, in early coolness of morning. That should do it for today.

[agate]

I don't think high interval training would be for me.

Yesterday it was 94'--I hope that's an excuse because my pedometer didn't rack up many steps--458.

I've been busy getting the housing recertification paperwork together for the interview on Friday. That's the first interview. There will be another one with even more paperwork in a couple of months.

I'm going to run the vacuum around today. At least I'm telling myself I'll do that.

[stillstANNding]

All those inspections and certifications sound like an awful lot of work, Agate. I would think that some people would not be able to do it or do it well.

ANN

[Sunshine]

Why do you need recertification? I know nothing abou that

[agate]

The barriers for quite a few systems set up to help low-income seniors and/or disabled people can be almost impossibly high. You're right--as I've found when I've tried to help people get into HUD housing. The paperwork for a process involving many steps (and 4 months) is pretty daunting. Those who have helpers (a family member or an employee) can enlist their help but some don't even have anyone to turn to. A good building manager can often smooth the way by taking care of a lot of the paperwork, and in recent years the two HUD buildings I know anything about have shown a great improvement in the quality of their managers.

Everyone who moves into one of these buildings has probably had to wait at least a year for the waiting list to get shorter. I've heard of 10-year waits in some places.

[Jeanie Z]

:) Agate I think of you as a very intelligent and helpful lady. You are an inspiration to me.

Today I managed to go to the grocery store and shop and through the drive thru to get my RX's. Jeanie :)

[Virginia]

Agate, nothing is what it seems to be I guess. It sounds like you have a really good place to live, but you have to fight to hang on to it. People who are elderly and can not think like you do and have no family and maybe not enough money to hire someone are really in a bad spot.

[Sunshine]

Gee agate, what a burden is placed on disabled people. So you have to keep proving you’re disabled and low income?

[agate]

Gee agate, what a burden is placed on disabled people. So you have to keep proving you’re disabled and low income?

The forms about disability are required mainly in case a person requests a "reasonable accommodation." For instance, they installed a special doorbell by my front door because I don't hear well. It rings very loudly and a light flashes. They need to document that you have certain disabilities in case you need something like that.

But I do have to re-establish that I'm still low-income every year. I can see why they have to do this--a person's finances can change drastically over time, and the rent is based on your income. Your income goes down--your rent goes down. It's a very fair way of charging for housing, I think--much fairer than having a landlord/lady who charges what he/she wants to charge.

Also, medical expenses incurred in the course of a year are deducted from your income if they're allowable. They're very strict about this part, and there are many documents that have to be exactly right.

If I want to include transportation to/from medical appointments, I have to make sure I have receipts for tickets for every one of those appointments, listed by day and destination.

I have known people who have moved out of here because they can't stand all of the rules and paperwork, the frequent invasions of our apartments.

In July there will be two alarm inspections, and the inspectors will enter the apartments and look into all closets--to make sure that we don't have anything stored less than 18 inches from the sprinklers. The chances are that they will start this process at 8 AM, and because there's a "dress code," we have to be dressed presentably at that time.

Not so easy for a creaky old person who isn't ready to rise and shine at the crack of dawn any more. There are people around here who are up and running at 5 AM. I'm not one of them.

[Sunshine]

This morning I swam 20 minutes, 606 Yards. So far, so good, just a bit rubbery. Soon is my third attempt to get blood test done at local lab.