Randomness

Voting Saga

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this first Wednesday of November? I’m writing this on election day, so I have no idea how everything is turning out. Fingers crossed for a bunch of blue. Probably not here, but maybe in other states! Anyway, we’ll find out. (Update at 11:49PM 11/3: Holy fuck. It happened here.) But I don’t have anything else to ramble about, so I guess I’ll share my Voting Saga. If you follow me on my personal Facebook, you’ve seen all this. I’m too lazy to write everything out in a cohesive rant, so here are the copy/paste versions of the three real-time Facebook posts I made.

Post 1: October 22, 2026 at 12:00AM

Tried to vote by mail. My ballot was rejected because I missed a tiny check box saying Dad didn’t get compensated for helping me stuff the envelope and put it in the mail. My bad.

But there’s a Corrective Action Form! However, according to the Early Voting Ballot Board Presiding Judge, there is a “NEW LAW: Assistant must indicate whether they received compensation or other benefit from a candidate, campaign, or political committee in exchange for providing assistance. Incomplete information about an assistant cannot be corrected and will result in a rejected mail ballot.” and so, “I am not able to send you the Corrective Action Form because that from (sic) cannot be used to correct the “assistant compensation” part of a carrier envelope.” Even though I found the form on the Secretary of State website and the “Notice of Defective Carrier Issued by the Early Voting Clerk” form (6-15), which is dated 2026, clearly indicates that this issue is correctable under the Defect Correction Process by Number, specifically Defect #3 (Incomplete Information with Respect to an Assistant). So, this “new law” is highly suspicious and unfair. If you aren’t going to let people correct their mistakes, then don’t put it on the form. It’s misleading.

In other words, I tried. I made a mistake. My vote doesn’t count. Whatever.

Post 2: October 22, 2026 at 7:40PM

Voting Update!

I got annoyed yesterday and sent the information about the Corrective Action Form I found to the Early Voting Ballot Board Presiding Judge. She wrote me back today. No apology, but a number of thank yous for the information I sent about the 2026 Corrective Action Form. She apparently had absolutely no idea it had been updated (this is literally your job and you don’t keep up with it?) and they will put it in the mail today. It makes me wonder how many other people made my mistake and just took her at her word.

Moral of the story: NEVER assume someone in a government position knows what they are doing. Do the research. If what you find contradicts what they say, confront them. Be the Karen you hate so much, but do it with proof. Because we all know people doing government and government-adjacent jobs are either inept or they believe we are. Advocate for yourself.

Post 3: November 03, 2026 at 6:52PM

Voting Update 2:

It took USPS 9 days to get the Corrective Action Form to me from roughly 25 miles away (the other side of Dallas). That was the 30th. According to the rules, as long as it was back by the 9th, my ballot would count. I had little faith in USPS, but I filled it out and sent it back on the same day. I also informed the Early Voting Ballot Board Presiding Judge of that and politely shared my thoughts on how everything went down.

Today, election day, I received a second Corrective Action Form. There’s no way it would make it in time with USPS, so I didn’t plan on returning it, but I did email the Early Voting Ballot Board Presiding Judge to basically ask WTF? only nicely. Anyway, she wrote me back to let me know that she checked my ballot status and it has been marked as “Good” and will thus be counted, so I don’t have to do anything else. It will take the ballot tracking system about 24 hours to update and say my vote was accepted, but supposedly it is done. I count. The saga is over and I have bitching rights no matter how this shit turns out.

Wheelchair Saga Part 11

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are usual. I was planning to toss up a picture of Mardi because she got groomed on Monday and the wheelchair guy came out today (Tuesday), so I didn’t expect to feel up to blogging, but I feel mostly okay and this post will be pretty short anyway. So, first you get cuteness! Then, an update on the Wheelchair Saga. You can parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 10.5 at their respective links.

Mardi says woof grrrrrr yip. You can translate that however you want. The other two are too skittish for grooming and we don’t want them snapping in a panic, so that’s why you don’t get to see them with little ghostie bowties. Plus, they run away when we try to get pictures. They’re around, though.

As for the wheelchair, Universal ordered new armrests like the ones on my current chair that don’t flip back and they have two posts that sit in receivers, so I feel more stable even though I know they aren’t (brains think weird thoughts). They’re what I was hoping for in the first place, but I guess John West can’t read since I specifically said “No flip up. As close to what I have as possible.” on the list I gave him when he came out to get the order ready. Dude can’t use a tape measure, so I don’t know why I expected him to be literate. And now, I’m just being a dick, so moving on!

Gustavo (the tech who knows the most about Quickies and lives in Florida) came out on the 20th and spent a few hours tweaking and adjusting things. Quickly found out that Sunrise (the makers of Quickie) didn’t include the receivers with the new armrests. So, he tried to adjust the current armrests to work for me. It’s so close, but the joystick mount keeps everything just out of my reach. The mount with the new armrests is supposed to do what I need, but we won’t know for sure until the receivers come in. The new armrests should also make mounting my headrest easier. There’s also a problem with the joystick that requires a new module so I can control everything the way I want. So, more parts to wait for. But Gustavo got the footrests back far enough I can use the ugly hangers. I got in the chair again. I still can’t drive it, but it was much better than last time. He even has a fix for the cushion problem which is great because I don’t think I can adapt to the seat that came with the chair. And that’s the update!

It’s been almost 3 months, so yeah.

I think Gustavo is hoping the parts come in before he goes back to Florida. We’ll see. But yeah, the update is basically that more waiting is in my future.

Bad Blogger

~ shawnaborman ~ 2 Comments

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I didn’t have anything to ramble or rant about. Well, nothing that I would do online anyway. So, luckily (for me, not for him), Dad had a blah day and we watched TV all day, thus giving me an excuse to avoid blogging. Hopefully, he’ll feel better tomorrow. It’s probably just his weekly reaction to Mounjaro (it helps control his blood sugar). The first two days after he takes it are rough. He’ll be talking to the doctor about other options because he won’t be able to afford it next year anyway! But hey, that random $90 the administration sent out really helped get those big bad insurance companies back in line, right? It’s really improving Medicare, right? Ugh. Anyway, here’s something pretty by Yuumei for stopping by! See you next week.

Random Updates (Including Wheelchair Saga Part 10.5)

~ shawnaborman ~ 5 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful first Wednesday of October? Things here are about the same as always. I don’t have much to talk about. Everything is monotonous. I don’t have much in the way of options to do things until I can use the new chair. I can’t trust the one I’m using to keep a charge if we leave the house, plus it’s missing the headrest, so being in the van is weird and I feel super unstable and I don’t want to go anywhere without it. Yes, Dad can transfer it back to this chair, but I don’t need need it at home so I just keep waiting. Anyway. Life is boring. So, I thought I’d just list a few random updates and let you go back about your business.

1. Wheelchair Saga mini update: After some radio silence and a few Karen-ish emails insisting on an update, Mohamed has passed me onto someone named Arnav who is supposed to be the manager of the department. I got a little snippy because I also found out they already charged Medicare for the chair despite the fact that I can’t fecking use it yet. Arnav replied promptly to assure me that I can still refuse the chair if they can’t get it to work for me. But they’re getting different armrests and mounting gear for the joystick. Then, they’re going to make Gustavo (their most experienced tech) schlep all the way out here from Florida to work on the chair. He’s also supposed to “adjust the footrests” which means he’ll make the tiny adjustment possible with these footplates and it will do nothing, but at least he will be able to see if he can figure out different hangers or something that they can order. Anyway, who wants to start a betting pool? Will the new chair be useable by Thanksgiving? Christmas? My birthday? Will I just give up and refuse it and find a different chair that I’ll secretly loathe because it’s so slow? Who knows!

2. Writing: I missed a few days in September because Dad and I got our Covid and Flu vaccines. They always kick my immune system into overdrive for a day or two, so I feel like crap then need another day or two to recover from lack of sleep and general blahs. But otherwise, I’ve written every day since August 1st. I haven’t been going for a specific word count, but usually do between 150 to 250 a day. It’s not a lot, but it’s slowly adding up. I’m about 30 pages away from the midpoint of my book.

3. Reading: I’m barely on track with the review book for October. I like to be a little ahead by now, but I’m a few percent behind (yes, I track review books by percentage, like I need to read 5% five days a week aka 25% a week to finish in time to write the review of this one). And I’m even struggling with my “for fun” book right now.

4. Getting Universal to do their job, respiratory division: I recently got a new breathing therapy machine and it’s annoying. But there’s supposed to be an app I can put on my phone to make it less annoying. The problem is my machine doesn’t mention anything about the app. I contacted the manufacturer directly and they said I need a software upgrade. I told Ursula (a respiratory therapist at Universal who we love and who is absolutely the only reason I stay with this company) what was going on. She tried to get Universal to get the upgrade for about two weeks before she decided we needed to pull out the big guns (Dr. Lucifer’s (not her real name), my pulmonologist, office). Since then, I got instructions on how to set up the app, which still don’t work because my machine doesn’t mention the app at all. When I pointed that out to whoever emailed me, I didn’t hear back. So, I told Ursula because nobody keeps her in the loop. She pushed the people at Universal, and the next day I got another email saying they were working with a rep from the manufacturer on figuring out how to get the software upgrade for me. We’ll see how that goes.

I could keep rambling about stuff no one cares about, but it’s late. I think I’m just going to finish this up and watch tv or play games depending on what Dad’s doing. See you next week!

Wheelchair Saga Part 10

~ shawnaborman ~ 1 Comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are usual. I called Medicaid again yesterday because I was still waiting. It seems like it worked, though. I haven’t received the official acceptance letter, but the renewal disappeared from my benefits page and both my end dates (I get Medicaid and a Medicare Savings Program from the state) have switched to a year from yesterday. That’s one less worry for now. Now, I just have to keep worrying about the wheelchair. Which is what this post is about! If you want to catch up on the Wheelchair Saga, here are the previous parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. I’ll try to keep this latest installment short.

On Friday, September 18th, Universal sent Ricky (a different tech) out to work on the chair. He doesn’t know anything about Quickies either, but he’s a little more willing to experiment with things than Randy was. He spent like five hours here trying to get the joystick to mount directly to the armrest with what he had on hand. It didn’t work. No matter what he and Dad did. But he did want to see me in the chair, so I finally got to sit in it! I learned a lot. I think Ricky and Dad did too. Plus, Ricky got Gustavo (the most experienced tech they have who happens to be in Florida) on a video call. Gustavo mentioned maybe getting a Quickie rep out here who knows what they’re doing and what kinds of modifications are possible. Dad’s been saying they should do that all along, but honestly, Universal is the kind of company who will exhaust every one of their techs and the client before they’ll shell out money to bring in specialists. Even though it probably costs them more in the long run. It’s annoying.

Anyway! Here’s a revised list of things that need to be fixed/adjusted/tweaked before the chair will work for me.

1. Joystick issues. It needs to be mounted directly to the armrest instead of six inches away from it. The button still needs programmed. And I need to figure out the best mounting places for the two button boxes.

2. Footrests. Those hangers that I hate because they’re ugly? They also stick out way too far, so my toes barely reach the footplates. I need swing aways because I can’t straighten my legs to get my shoes on/off or my pants off, so we have to be able to flip the footrests back out of the way. Otherwise, I probably would have tried the behind the knee model that’s standard with this chair. But my feet also sit fairly wide apart, so don’t think that model would work for me anyway. I just need hangers that go straight down instead of jutting out. Tried my old ones on the new chair, but the part that goes into the mount is too small. Boo.

3. Armrests. They’re too high. That’s always been a problem with my Quickie chairs. Even when they’re at their lowest, we have to put a piece of wood under my seat to get me where my elbows can both rest comfortably. Hopefully these go lower (they’re completely different from my old chair, so maybe), but it’s not a problem that really worries me as much as the first two issues.

4. Headrest. It’s a matter of finding a new mount or clamp. The mount on my old chair is for a round pipe. The new chair is all boxy angles. Hopefully they can figure something out since it’s literally their job. But I also feel like it’s an issue Dad and a trip to the hardware store could solve if need be, as a long as everything else works out. So, I’m not losing sleep over this one. They don’t make side mounted headrests (I can’t be the only person who needs one, can I?), so it’s always an adventure rigging one up when switching chairs.

5. Thigh supports. Once everything above is taken care of and I can sit properly, we need to fit those to keep my fat ass from sliding around every time I hit a bump.

6. Ventilator. After we’re sure the chair will work for me, they need to move my vent over and hook it to the batteries of the chair.

7. EZ Lock. We need to figure out how to get a bracket for the new chair and install it so I can ride in the van. I don’t know if Universal can order the bracket or not. That’s usually done through the van modifications place and they charge ridiculous amounts to install one (they won’t just order it and give it to Dad for the cost of the part).

8. Seat cushion. My left leg went to sleep when I was in the chair, but I couldn’t sit normally, so it might turn out to be fine. We’ll have to see how I feel once I’m positioned properly. We may or may not need to get a Roho (my air cushion).

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. It’s still a daunting list, but there are really only a couple major issues that need to be overcome. The rest is either stuff we deal with every single time I switch chairs or just things that need tweaks. It makes me feel a little better. This turned out to be rather long. Oops. My bad.

When Authors Don’t Know: A Rant

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are still a waiting game. I had to push a wheelchair meeting back from last week to this Friday (my fault, not theirs). I called Medicaid on the 11th and was told my review should’ve been done by August 28th, so she escalated it so someone should finish it soon. I guess I’ll have to call them every week until it gets done. Anyway, I don’t really have anything to ramble about today. But I promised an actual post, so I thought about it and I’m reading a new-to-me series that is both great so far and annoying as fuck. I guess I can rant about the annoying bit.

I started reading the Fourth Wing books by Rebecca Yarros. I made it through Fourth Wing and am about halfway through Iron Flame. I knew there was also Onyx Storm, but I didn’t realize there are at least two more books planned. I probably would’ve waited for them to come out before I started the series. But that’s beside the point. First, I should tell you what I like about it.

It’s a romantasy series and there’s sex on the page, so if you don’t like smut, it’s not for you. But I’m fine with it, so it’s not a problem for me. The premise is basically that the whole continent is at war, so there’s a war college where healers learn medicine, scribes learn to record events accurately, infantry learns to fight on the ground, and riders learn how not to get killed by their dragons. We’re focusing on the riders here. But what if those in charge are more busy hiding the truth than actually protecting their people??? Dun dun dun… Yeah, it’s not exactly original, but it’s fun so far.

I didn’t realize the main character was disabled when I bought the book, but I’m okay with that. Violet has an unnamed connective tissue disability, but given that the author has EDS, I’m guessing it’s something akin to that. There’s also a deaf character and some people know how to sign while others don’t. None of it is really a big deal. Sometimes, accommodations need to be made for Violet, but considering she bonded with the biggest badass dragon of her time, people just allow the accommodations to be made rather than facing the wrath of Tairn. Even when she’s in denial about needing different things, she eventually gives in and realizes it’s not cheating or whatever to do things that make her capable of doing what everyone else is already doing. It’s just part of life. So, I enjoy that aspect of the books.

But I did run into something that makes me irrationally angry. Bladed weapons are a huge part of the book. Most characters have at least one knife or sword or whatever. It’s so important that care and maintenance of the weapons is used as filler during dialogue sometimes. At one point it was mentioned that someone was sharpening their knife on a leather strap. But a strop doesn’t sharpen a blade, it hones it. Honing is realigning the cutting edge. Sharpening removes metal to create a new cutting edge basically. I’m no expert, but I do know the very basics and it makes me weirdly upset when I catch an author who hasn’t done a minimum effort of research. It makes me wonder what else is wrong with the book. Especially in fantasy and sci-fi, I count on the author to know what they’re talking about and when something simple crops up that’s wrong, it ruins their credibility. She got a little better in book two with honing vs. sharpening, but I feel like there’s still some confusion. Luckily, it’s not something that comes up often, so I try to ignore it when it happens, but it’s still eye-twitch inducing. And yes. I know it’s just a pet peeve. I’m being irrational. It’s just one of my things.

Anyway, I’m enjoying the series so far. The characters do seem to be much stupider in book two, so I’m not sure how I’ll feel by the end of it. We’ll see.

Wheelchair Saga Part 9

~ shawnaborman ~ 8 Comments

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Welcome to September! Things here are still “hurry up and wait” all around (Medicaid, wheelchair, etc.). I wrote 15,365 words in August and I wrote at least a little every day. I plan to do it again this month with my only real goal being “write more than August.” Anyway, I don’t have much to ramble about, so here’s another update to the Wheelchair Saga. You can find parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 at their respective links. Here we go.

Background: Randy from Universal Med Supply brought the chair out on July 28th. Two parts were wrong. It should’ve taken a week tops to get the replacements, but for some reason it took them a month (no idea who dropped the ball on this). I spent a month having to pull teeth to get answers and timelines. I’m not a happy Cyn (for those who don’t get the reference, I’ve been known as CynicalCripple online since the Yahoo chat days and people still call me Cyn). Anyway…

On August 31st, Randy brought out the replacement parts. Problem? He never bothered to learn how to program the button I ordered. Second problem? He was running so late that Sunrise Medical’s IT department was already closed, so he was going to have to come back again to program it with help. Why not just reschedule when you realize you’re going to be that late? I mean… I could have been the bigger person and told him to just try again a different day because I knew that was going to happen, but I’m petty. They want to make him make a useless trip, that’s their problem. I’m not giving them an easy out after everything they’ve done. But I digress. He replaced the knee pads with the correct thigh pads. So, those problems are at least partially corrected. Also, Mohamed didn’t send the “try it just in case” armrest pads. Again. I figure those are never coming and Dad will have to come up with something if the current armrests are too narrow to support my left side and right elbow. Also, there’s a new problem!

No one (looking at John West here) bothered asking me about what kind of joystick mount I needed and I honestly never thought about it or mentioning it. I figured a standard mount that sits against the armrest would be, you know… standard. Oops. They sent a swing away mount. In theory, it’s great. In practice, it’s not particularly adjustable and it’s way too far from where my hand would sit. My current joystick has never been very comfortable for me in that respect, but the new one is impossible. So, now I have to wait for a new mount for that. No idea how long that’s going take. Ugh.

It’s not like walking onto a car lot and driving away with something. Don’t ever think being cripple is easy. It’s mostly just paperwork and waiting.

Wheelchair Saga Part 8

~ shawnaborman ~ 9 Comments

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Nothing new here. Official status of basically everything in my life: still waiting. If you’re just tuning in to the Wheelchair Saga, you can find parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 at their respective links. This is going to be short.

Randy came out three weeks ago as of Tuesday around 3pm. The incorrect button was supposed to be shipped priority the day after he came out. It was shipped last week. I have had to be short in my emails to get updates. Yesterday, I asked for updates. The response was swift. Universal Med Supply has received the button and the new mounting hardware for the thigh pads, but there’s still no word on the thigh pads themselves. Mohamed called the wheelchair company and is waiting for them to get back to him about what’s going on with the pads. So, yeah. Still waiting.

Random Life Update

~ shawnaborman ~ 2 Comments

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I don’t really have anything to ramble about, so I guess I’m just going to give you a few random life updates. None of these are worth an entire post by themselves. Mashing them together seems good enough. In no particular order, this is my life right now…

1. Wheelchair: still waiting for the correct parts to come in.

2. Medicaid: still waiting for them to finish reviewing my stuff and making sure I’m still poor. I do have screenshots of everything telling me that I’ve done my part and they’ll be in touch if they need anything else. I also recorded a phone call saying the same thing. Just in case they try to say otherwise.

3. Writing: I’ve written at least a little on my unnamed cozy mystery with ghosts every day in August. I’ve written 6480 words as of the 10th. I’ll try to write 100 or so tonight (Tuesday the 11th) and 1,000 on Wednesday. It’s going well so far.

4. Reading: I’m ahead on that.

5. Slushing: I’m behind on that. Mostly because I’m prioritizing writing. But I’m still doing it. I just feel bad that I’m not doing more.

6. Applying to vote by mail: my voter registration card had the wrong VUID. I’m just lucky I caught it now instead of when it’s time to vote. Dad’s was also wrong. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might believe that the administration or someone connected to them is trying to fuck shit up by hacking voter systems and either randomly sending out wrong info to a random number of people in general OR they’re doing it to people who tend to vote Democrat even though we aren’t registered as Democrats. But there’s no proof of any of that and I’m not a conspiracy nut, so it was probably just a random malfunction that hit Dad and I because we’re at the same address. I don’t know. Check your voter registration card against county and Secretary of State records. Especially in Texas and definitely if you’re in Dallas county.

That’s it. I’m boring. I know.