Many of my friends know how into technology and home automation I am.  I really enjoy fixing things.  I always have.  I can remember early on in life fixing things around the house.  My technology crippled parents would be amazed when things like the toaster oven or microwave were working again after I fixed them.  Or the time I ended up converting all of the hard-wired rotary phones in the house to modular jacks and touch tone.  I ended up saving them $$ on their leased phones – you know the real heavy ones with the loud hammer bells?  I also used to get hand held video games and take them apart to see what made them tick and then put them back together again.  Sometimes a screw or part might have been missed so i’d do it all over again.  I LOVED IT.

My wife asked me to fix her towel rack the other day and I was worried I’d have to call someone and pay them as this would be something I could do no problem.  But MS has taken away a lot of skills from my right hand and arm so much that I so gladly would give just about anything to have back.  It sometimes brings me to anger or tears the things I can no longer do that I loved so much.  Well I’ll be damned, I actually did fix the towel rack for her.  It might have taken me a couple minutes longer and I invented new ways of doing it or holding and propping things up but it made me feel worthy again.  I even had the energy to put all the tools away and clean up afterwards.

“Tools” were then and even now a very important part of how we can get things done.  I’d like to share with you some things that I use to try to make my life with MS a little easier.

Neato Robotic Vacuum!  Does a better job than the cleaning lady!  Cool patterns too!  http://www.neatorobotics.com/

 

 

 

 

Grabber Tool.  Why bend over if you dont have to?  Unger 92134 36-Inch Nifty Nabber Pick-Up Tool with Aluminum Handle

 

 

 

 

 

NEST – Thermostat – www.nest.com – Control your heating and cooling right from the web or your smartphone!

 

 

I will post more tools of my trade that make MS life much easier in my next post.  To be continued…Part 2!