My personality is huge. I’m really hard to ignore even when I’m quiet,(which I will admit is a rare thing). It does happen though. This cartoon was inspired by multiple real-life events. The most memorable time that it occurred was on a date with a friend. When taking our order, drinks, and entrée, the waitress would ask my friend what she wanted and then say and then say “and for him” I  of course, told her what I wanted the first time making it clear that I was not a statue.

When she did it again my friend became livid, I laughed it off because this is my life. It comes with the territory and I deal.. She was so angry on the other hand that we couldn’t even have a decent conversation. After about 10 minutes she went and got the manager. When the manager saw the problem, he gave the waitress a good talking to. At the end of our meal, she came over and apologized, and then got down to look at me eye to eye, and said in a voice that was fit for talking to a two-year-old “you have a nice day okay”.

This, of course, did not make my friend any happier and as I remember it, there was lots of cursing out in the parking lot and in the car.

Another instance occurred when I was on a trip with a very good friend to Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The airport staff was great about helping me, so much so that it made me want to travel all the time. However, anytime a question was asked, they would ask my friend what “he” while pointing at me would be needing. Finally, after the fourth person, my friend pulls me aside and says” dude why don’t they just talk to you?” I said because they are afraid I won’t respond and will be embarrassed or if they say or do the wrong thing it might cause a seizure, or tantrum or something.

That seems absolutely absurd, but I truly believe in this day and age lots of people do very strange things in an attempt not to be offensive to anybody ever.

So what should you take away from these stories? First, don’t be afraid of someone who is different than you. Being afraid of someone never leads to anything good. Second, most people are smarter and more capable than they may appear. If you meet someone and you are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing, treat them like you would treat anyone else. They will probably surprise you,

This has been how to deal with specials 101. There might be a test later :-). As always thanks to Evie for comic greatness.

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Having my own personal chauffeur is pretty cool. The downside to not being able to drive is always having to rely on someone else. When I was younger(this was before Uber. Can you even get a wheelchair accessible ride from uber?) My mom always got me where I needed to go.  She would drop me where I need to be, go run errands, and pick me up after. It worked very well unless she was grocery shopping and got stuck in line.(That happened a few times. My mom always sees someone she knows. Every year at Christmas I would go to the movies while she did her shopping for the year. When you are shopping for Christmas is very easy to lose track of time. This was before I owned a cell phone. I had two options I could either borrow someone else’s phone or ask to make a call from wherever I was. Neither option why is really appealing to an independent guy. Most of the time I just waited. Sometimes it was 10 minutes, and sometimes it was an hour and 10 minutes. The waiting was never bad except for the fact that every third person I saw, who saw me waiting, what ask if I needed help or a ride somewhere. They all meant well, but you can only say, “no I’m fine just waiting for a ride” so many times. It was also very hard to estimate how long it would take to do something. There were many times that my mom had to wait on me because I would give estimated time and the movie would start late, or I will see someone I know(or a girl I wanted to flirt with) and mom or dad would be stuck waiting on me. It happened a lot with my dad because if I gave him a time, he would show up early and whatever I was doing would run late. it was a major source of frustration for my family in my younger years.

When I got into college I found a bus service that would come to my house and pick me up, take me where I needed to go, and bring me home. (This worked great until they dropped me off and forgot to pick me up twice)

Needing a ride everywhere made things like dating extremely tough because the length of a date is extremely hard to predict. If it was a good date, my ride was always waiting on me. If it was a bad date, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and was always waiting for my ride. Things are different now because I have a cell phone and can make a call, or send a text right from my wrist

I also have Jane now. I’m her only focus when she is at work so I rarely have to wait and I am rarely late for anything. However, I think the dating situation might still be a little awkward. I can swing by and pick a girl up now less awkwardly than I could when my parents were driving, but I think it might still be awkward for her to have to sit in the seat behind me, with a third person in the car, who is also driving. Not exactly the best environment for a first date. It might be a little different however if I owned a stretch limo instead of a minivan 🙂

As always thanks to Evie for gracefully putting my life in comics.

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MacGyver was my favorite show growing up. How he could make something out of nothing to get out of a jam, always made my imagination run wild. I’m not a kid anymore, and if I’m being real honest I despise the new MacGyver. (they used to his first name in the first two minutes of the first episode. I had wait six years for that back in the day) but I digress. As I am getting older, I’m being forced to think outside the box to make a living,  just like MacGyver. My disability makes it really hard to go out and get a “real job” if I had a real job, how would I handle simple things like using the restroom on a regular basis without the benefit of a lift or getting lunch without help. There are a million things that able bodied person does every day at work that they probably don’t think about, I’m not saying there’s not a conventional job out there for me, but the circumstances would have to be just right.

In the meantime, I’ve had to find ways to make money from home. I have done video editing, audio editing, social media management work with musical artists online to give them a place to play, and I currently work for a nonprofit. All of these jobs have been part-time. Often I’m working more than one at a given time. All of this in an effort to make money so I can pay my bills. This is been ramped up since I met Evie. She actually invented the concept of MacGyvering a paycheck. She created this blog to help me a  book and she is constantly encouraging me to go get new opportunities and find better ways to make money in an unconventional way. One of the great benefits of MacGyvering a paycheck is that you get to be your boss, and work on your own schedule. To do that you have to be a self-starter, very organized and have a plan each and every day. If you don’t it Is very easy to take an entire week off.

This sounds great in theory until you realize that every day you take off, is a day that you’re not making money that you will use to pay her bills at the end of the month. If I want to eat or have any kind of life, I have to work everyday. What this means for me it Is that my days are never boring, because the only person responsible for my success is me.

I sometimes envy those of you who have “Real jobs” especially you’re reliable paychecks. Then I remember that if I had a real job I probably wouldn’t be able to go to work in pajama pants. I may not be rich but I have small pleasures.

As always thanks to Evie for giving me a Great comic to work with. If you would like to support us and the creation the book there’s a donate button on the right side of the page.

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As has been mentioned several times, I need lots of help, Even in the shower. When I was younger and my parents could pick me up they would give may baths. As any adult knows however a bathtub can be sometimes hard to get out of, especially if you have to lift someone out of it. After about the age of 15 a bath no longer became an option for me because I was just too heavy to lift out.

I am constantly amazed at how Evie’s mind seems to understand exactly how my situation works. What you see above is exactly what I sit in when I shower. (I don’t have a cat swinging from the curtain but I guess that could be in my future). The chair is on wheels and I transfer from my wheelchair to the shower chair, and it rolls directly into the shower. I tend to use a wand that I can hold to rinse myself and ask for help when I need it, for things like washing my hair.

My shower experience varies wildly depending on who is helping me. If it’s my dad, we don’t use much water because he’s trying to get me clean without much  mess so he will turn the water on as needed and then turn it off while I’m using a washcloth. This is not the most pleasant way to take a shower but it gets the job done, and he can go on about his business after wards without being soaked. If Jane is helping me it’s a completely different story. Much like most of you, a shower does wonders for my perpetually sore body, I take my time and use the water to relax some perpetually sore muscles. You would be amazed at the difference it makes to the way I feel.

I went through a phase in my life when I was younger and could still use the bathtub where I really enjoyed soaking. I think most of the joy came from the fact that for that 30 or 45 minutes that I was in there, I had to complete privacy. Complete privacy is a rare thing in almost every aspect of my life. Anyone who is in a wheelchair understands that this is a trade-off that has to be made to get the help you need, but I’m sure my mom found it strange that a teenager wanted to soak in the bathtub. It’s something that I miss these days. Especially when I’m having a particularly rough day physically. I do have some privacy in the shower. Jane is very good about giving me my space, but it’s not quite the same as soaking in the bath tub for 30 minutes.

Before Jane came along, I was able to shower about three times a week. The reason for this is that taking a shower every day the way most people do is a a lot of work for someone else to help me. Since jane’s arrival I’m able to shower whenever I see fit.

Why am I telling you all of this you ask? The reason is simple. I started this blog to allow anyone who read it, to get a glimpse of what my life is like. Simple things that most people take for granted every day, are a little more complicated for a man on wheels. I’m not complaining, it’s just a fact. Complications or not. I still get things done. Pro tip we are all more pleasant be around when we shower regularly. It may take more work for me to get it done but I’m pretty sure the people around me are thankful that I make the effort. To those of you with cats, I wonder if other handicapped people have cats who play at being Superman with the lift harness? I don’t blame her, but one day I might actually get stuck in there. Have a great week everybody.

As always thanks to Evie for another wonderful cartoon.

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