For those who join the ranks of being disabled and battling a diseased/damaged body, the life we lived yesterday is now nothing more than fond memories and a little emotional pain as we compare everything we'll never enjoy, but not all is lost so long we we're willing to do whatever it takes.

For the first 20 years of our marriage we lived cable free and with the biggest TV a whopping 19 inch model that didn't even have a remote control. Why watch life when you can live it. But now things couldn't be different as I reside within a body that reminds me hourly about it's rather extensive list of limitations. Guess I'll have to change what I do, and I have.

For 2 1/2 years I've had the greatest joy working with SHIP, a nationwide Medicare help association. 90% of it can be done over the phone while seated at the computer. On rare occasions I do meet with clients in person. Look up your state chapter and get involved. With Medicare becoming even more complicated each passing year, the need could never be greater and the satisfaction of helping people with the things that matter most in their lives (money and health) make this the hardest job you'll never make a dime for while you go crazy - yet loving almost every moment of it. It's darn hard and not for the faint hearted, but nothing that really accomplishes anything worthwhile is. The perfect volunteer work for the severely and less disabled category.

Since I live in an area where if it' not deep fried, why eat it area of the country, I've finally learned how to really cook. Thanks to Martha S., Julia Childs, and some other really top notch chiefs, they've helped me learn everything from a creme brulee that hurts it tastes so good and the list just keeps growing. It's not a cheap hobby as I learned the right tools are worth their weight in gold, but as I've shared one lovely meal after another with great friends who can't do enough in our little world, I finally have a real way of showing how very appreciative I am. When would you like to come over?

Next I'd like to get into radio controlled airplanes. Since I already have a handicap van, I can haul around my wings to the world and yet the price has dropped like a rock this past year making this new hobby more affordable than ever.

The best thing I've been able to do is learn. Thanks to great TV shows where we can learn history and the latest tech amazements, I've now worked my brain harder than I have in years.

Thanks to these great little boxes we're sitting in front of, we have the worlds biggest library so even though our world might decrease in size, our minds can expand exponentially. There's never been a better time to be handicapped and there's not a day I'm not thankful for the fact that we do have so many opportunities people in our same shoes 30 years ago would never have dreamed possible. Now we just have to open a new window.