I found a little note today in the IN Box from a young girl who worked in a printing company with me almost thirty years ago.

She was a very, very unhappy teenager back then and I was a barely-employable wanna-be artist struggling to pay the bills. And failing to do so! Well into my mid-thirties, I was extremely unhappy with myself for not being rich and famous yet.

She was having a much rougher time than I was, though. Sometimes she talked about the various forces pulling her in different and confusing directions. Troubled and trying to find her footing in a difficult environment on all levels, she had a lot to deal with.

Today she noted finding my listing online and wrote –

“Thank you for the encouragement you gave me at a very confusing time in my life…  you were not judgmental… just encouraged me to be independent and choose my own path.  You never know in life who you help along the way … your encouragement made a difference.”

What a sweet note! By all accounts she has done just fine since then and is now happy and successful, with a strong family life and a great career. And thoughtful enough to stay in touch with old friends. Good for her!

We finally made the jump and got one a them Easy Reader Tablet things.

But, being us, we shopped it to death first. We kept coming back to that $200 level, the Kindle or Nook device, since those are supposedly the only ones that can check eBooks out from the library. Or something like that. We are way cheap, baby, and we LOVE the library. Oh heck yeah.

We finally concluded we should start off cheap, BUT from a store with a decent return policy of 30 days or so. If we are not happy, take that little momma back and get the next step up.

Sure.

SO — we are wringing out our Nextbook and it’s not that bad so far. $100 or so before tax.

How about you? Any suggestions on the best deal out there?? Do tell.

I came across a file from some years back yesterday. It was going to be a newspaper column directed at disabled people, arguing for their rights and offering advice. No one was interested, so it went dormant.

Since then the Blog world just took OFF — so could there be a space for this now?? The rest of the space below is our first column…. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

ROLLING ALONG; Advice Column for the Disabled

By Diane Butler & Dennis Porter

HAND CONTROLS & TURN SIGNALS:

Hi Diane — A quick question on driving with hand controls. I can still drive fine, but other drivers probably think me rude when I fail to use turn signals. It would require me taking my left hand from the brake control to flip the turn signal — which obviously is not safe. Do hand controls with turn signal controls exist?? Any ideas?

RUDE GRANDMA?

Tipp City, OH

Yes, hand controls ARE available with other controls factored into their design, including horn and wipers. Nelson King, near you at Key Mobility in Xenia, OH (937-374-3226) said the cost of such systems varies widely with options chosen. There are also devices that let the RIGHT hand  flip the turn signals — we found one at www.adaptivedriving.com listed among similar providers with a Google search.

FREE PLUG: BOOK

If you’ve been trying to plan a trip to Europe and have been concerned with getting around with a wheelchair, check this out:

Rick Steves’ EASY ACCESS EUROPE, A Guide to Travelers with Limited Mobility  lists lots of interesting places with a

special focus on London, Paris, Amsterdam and Bruges (Belgium). Also info on Germany’s Rhine Valley. Listings range

from Level 1, fully accessible to Level 4, not accessible. Included are ratings on accessibility of bathroom facilities.

The book is available online at www.ricksteves.com (on the home page, enter easy access europe in the Search field.

It’s about $26 with shipping). We also found it at two public libraries in our area.

HEARING AIDS; RATINGS & OPTIONS

Hi Diane — Is there a central source for ratings on hearing aids? They are very expensive and you can NOT return them, right?

WAITING TO HEAR

Cleveland, TN

They’re getting better, smaller and more evolved. Bill Clinton has two, and who noticed? And, hey, surprise — some are cheaper. The website for NIDCD, the National Insitute on Deafness and other Communicaton Disorders at www.nidcd.nih.gov has a wealth of information and presumably no corporate influence. Options are enormous, from basic items at just over a hundred dollars per ear (some do have return policies, though restrictive) up to sophisticated items with wireless remote controls at over $5,000 per ear. Beltone is perhaps the biggest name in this industry. The store in Vandalia, Ohio, told us their hearing aids range from $1000 to around $8000 per ear. Beltone has a thirty day return policy for their shops in Ohio. Returns, however, may require a fee of up to $200 per unit. For detailed info online go to www.beltone.com. We were unable to find information on this through Consumer Reports. If anyone finds a great deal out there — or an unbiased central rating source for hearing aids — please let us know.

DISABLED PARKING SPACES

Hi Diane — I see lots of people parking illegally in spaces reserved for the disabled and very few tickets apparently being written. Should we report violations to the police, or do they not want to be bothered?

CRUISING FOR SPACES

Cincinnati

The police departments we spoke with indicated they DO want to know about such violations, but said we should NOT call 9-1-1 about parking issues. Call the police base number for that city. We recommend programming your cell phone with police phone numbers for the cities you drive in most often, and of course be gracious and patient. 

———————————————————————————————————————-IN OUR OPINION:  We feel no one has a right to use parking spaces for the disabled unless someone in that vehicle has a physical impairment requiring the space. Simply having the permit does not justify taking a space the next driver may need desperately.

———————————————————————————————————————-Diane Butler has multiple sclerosis and is disabled. She and husband Dennis Porter run their art business (www.drawme.com) near Dayton, OH. Email — dennis@drawme.com (subject: ROLLING ALONG).

This column does not accept commercial product placement or underwriting of any kind.

I miss the News.

I am tired of the current version of the News as seen on a television likely burbling someplace nearby as you read this, or simmering at the bottom of your screen for quick reading later. What you are being told via various media is likely to be way, way biased.

Either highly skewed to suit the current corporate needs of its distant and very wealthy owners, or highly slanted in the other direction to pull you towards that point of view. Both views are repugnant to any real news professional — the whole idea is to report what is going on with as little spin as possible and let the viewer or reader come to her own conclusion on that story, that politician, that law being debated.

We got here through a bit of backlash some time back against Politically Correct, the mindset that came into vogue (very briefly) aiming to make our language and attitudes more fair to those so often repressed and treated unfairly in our society. A worthy goal, but an awful tool to use toward that end, annoying almost everyone and leading to such unforeseen results as the right-wing screaming media of Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, “Loofa” O’Reilly and the whole Fox News Murdoch-Minions effort.

Not a good thing.

Unfair and way imbalanced by almost any measure, all the above.

BUT then we had the other end of the spectrum suddenly in our face on MSNBC and other media with those loudmouths, yelling that we are all wrong unless we go along with THAT point of view. I do not need Rachael Maddow, Mr. Ed, Ms. Huffington or the rest of that crew to tell me what I think. Neither do you.

Yuck. I am very, very tired of being Played. We are being manipulated, gang, like never before. These people are hitting our Hot Buttons, keeping us upset or frightened in order to keep our attention.

So. Give me another Walter Cronkite please. Another John Chancellor. Another Jeff Bruce of Dayton Daily News. A group of professionals that have enough respect for us to simply and honestly report what is going on out there, rather than what would serve their stockholders’ interests most effectively next financial quarter – and bring certain parties yet another shamelessly fat bonus.

Hey, is the year over with already??? Yow!

At this rate we’re gonna get old pretty soon. Let’s slow things down a bit, eh?

We had a really fun Christmas season, lots of parties and studio requests for surprise drawings from photos. That’s one of the most fun things about this delightful little business — you know someone, somewhere is going to get a terrific surprise. We have lots of lovely calls afterward, indicating “She Loved It!!” and so forth.

Here is one of them, from a super uncle a few states away, delivered JUST in time for Christmas –hey, a big thanks to the US Postal Service on that one!

With apologies, of course, to LucasFilm LTD!!