Good news abounds within my household, but, as it always seems to, some unfortunate events have conspired to put me down a peg or two. After continuing to be plagued by problems with my wheelchair, I decided to visit the more competent wheelchair repair shop, which happens to be about one hour away from my new house (it was only about 35 to 40 minutes from my previous household). Approximately 2 1/2 weeks ago I decided to go back to the local mechanic, only about 12 miles from my house, and gave him one more chance to prove his competence. Unbelievably my chair managed to short out completely while I was there, but this inept, pretensions individual chose to ignore my request for him to look up the diagnostic computer in an effort to determine what was actually transpiring with the chair and simply disconnected the motors, which I had already informed him would probably reset the system. Since this maneuver temporarily rectified the situation, he pronounced it was normal for this type of thing to happen. Given that I am unable to move my arms and therefore unable to disconnect these wires myself, one would think he would have tried to do more to resolve this issue, but no; that was not the case. My how I can digress and completely get off of the topic I was trying to explain. Well, given how many times my wheelchair was losing power and how often it was shorting out, I, justifiably, assumed it would eventually have problems whenever I decided to take the chair into the mechanic's office if I waited long enough. Following a one-hour trek, on busy interstates, my assumption proved to be wrong for the first hour and a half of my visit. The mechanic did, however, diligently troubleshoot everything on my wheelchair in an effort to find something wrong, but he ended up just changing out a few connections and resetting some of the electronic settings. As I was leaving the shop and loading into my van, rather disgusted at not really achieving what I had set out to, but comforted by the fact that this mechanic at given a diligent effort and taken everything I had said seriously, low and behold, my wheelchair finally lost power. I immediately took the chair in and he was sadly not able to determine what the problem was. Still frustrated, I sarcastically suggested that if he had a joystick maybe he could experience what I was living through on a daily basis. "Great suggestion," he exclaimed. Five minutes later, after attaching the joystick, he fulminated, "My gosh! You can hardly turn this thing at all." Another few minutes later and he proudly proclaimed that the control module is way too hot. Just as he was about to change the module out, my chair decided to completely crap out. Finally I would be able to have the diagnostic computer tell what was transpiring with my chair. Only $750 later and sporting a new control module, I exited the shop once again with a wheelchair that was finally working. Although it still does pull to the left occasionally, it is operating much better than it has in some time. I am able to obtain speeds which I have not been able to for several years.

For the last two years about everyone I know has been listening to me proclaimed how I am going to purchase a new television so I am able to watch the World Cup in high-definition. Well, having my chair repaired really must have done a lot for my morale. I finally did purchase a new high-definition television and just received it on Friday. Since it has been up and running, I have been so excited. Much like a child waiting for Christmas Day, I have been eagerly anticipating the visit of the local phone company to come activate my new fiber-optic television box. Just using this new television in digital is pleasing enough, I don't know what I will do whenever I have the high-definition.

With all of the exciting news, many of you might ask what could possibly diminish my spirits. Well, after enthusiastically waiting for a new microphone, which was touted as the best thing for voice recognition since sliced bread, I hooked it up to my computer only to discover that I seem to be the only one which is dissatisfied with it. At least so far. I have tried about everything I can think of and many approaches that the more technically inclined have come up with, but my older microphone is working more effectively than this new high-tech one I purchased. Perhaps I can find someone who will be able to help me iron out all the difficulties. I have been using this new microphone to create this blog, so please keep that in mind when you view all of the errors. It is unbelievably aggravating to read numerous blowing reviews, by individuals who actually use voice-activated software, only to discover it does not seem to work well with my system.

Looking at this in retrospect, I would have to say that it is definitely outweighs the bad. Worst-case scenario is that I will have to continue using my old microphone and tried to return the new one. Of course, the fact that I had my power converter for my microphone blowup this weekend might dampen my spirits about that, but I am still trying to remain as optimistic as possible.

PS I decided to save this entry and review it today. The bad news is, this is definitely not something that I am proud of, but my microphone, after some more fine-tuning, is working a little better than it was yesterday. I am hopeful that I will be able to get back up to par and perhaps excelled past my previous point.

I had better get going.

Best wishes to everyone.

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day and remembered all of the brave individuals who have selflessly sacrificed their lives to protect this country over the last 200 plus years. I know I did.

Billy