Caltrops - Tansin A. Darcos's Alter Ego





	[quote name="Commander Tansin A. Darcos"][quote name="John Gulp"]Great video. How easy is it for you to get to the grocery store to get hamburger, by the way? Just curious, no malice here.[/quote] It's understandable, in fact, I used to have problems with the Department of Social Services. There is a state program, if your income is low enough - where "low enough" is about 150% of the poverty level - the state will pay my $100 a month Medicare premium instead of it coming out of my Social Security Disability. I also get $15 a month in food stamps. So on an occasional basis someone from the State of Maryland would come by to see how I would manage. I'd get asked how I get food, how was I able to feed myself, did someone help me? I'd explain that with the ramps outside, I roll out the front door and over the first ramp covering the step in front of the door, across the path to the second ramp covering the step at the end of the walk, then down the walk about 30 feet to the sidewalk, turn left and roll about 2 blocks to the bus stop (the bus stop to the right is about the same distance, but the one on the left is in a shelter in case it's raining.) At the bus stop the 86 goes 2 blocks south and about 6 west to Prince George's Plaza on East-West Highway, where there is a Target in the shopping center a block north. A block west is a Giant-Landover supermarket. The 83 and 86 go about 3 miles south to a Family Dollar at 23rd and Rhode Island in Washington, D.C. At 10th and Rhode Island is the Rhode Island Metrorail station where nearby is another Giant Food. North I can go up to the University of Maryland-College Park Metrorail Station where I can catch an R12 bus that goes six blocks to a Dollar Tree store. All of these sell dry goods (like spaghetti), canned goods (like chili, beef stew and canned fruit), and frozen foods (like dinners, entrees and burritos). And as you've obviously seen from my dozens of cooking videos, I feed myself unassisted. I have a dedicated carrier marked "food only" it's what would have been a kitchen 13 gallon wastebasket never used for trash, and I carry groceries home in that. It has a couple of bungie cords that hook on to the seatbelt on my wheelchair and the carrier rests on the footplate. So I can carry quite a bit. If I'm not getting much because I didn't bring my carrier, I take stuff home in plastic shopping bags that can hook on my seat belt. I also have a tall laundry basket I attach to the chair same as my food basket I use to roll 3 blocks north to the laundromat. This more-or-less convinced the state welfate people when I pointed out I do all of this unassisted. And have been doing this since 2007, when at that time I was in a manual wheelchair. And when it's too snowy for me to roll out, both Giant and Safeway offer food delivery. Now, since that, the landlord replaced the ramps with brickwork so it's even easier to get in and out, and a Safeway opened on East-West highway about six blocks away. And I found an ALDI market - much better prices - one Metrorail station away in West Hyattsville. Plus I have Metro Access so I can call for door-to-door pickup (the rate is twice normal busand/or rail fare, $350 to $7 depending on trip), and if I can use regular bus and/or train to trave instead of a Metro Access van, my Metro Access ID allows me to travel on bus and rail for free. <img src="http://paul-robinson.us/Caltrops.php"/>[/quote]