Mom: "You should write a book about all your adaptations."

Me: "Ah, no one would buy it."

Mom: "Sure they would. There's lots of people out there who could use them."

Growing up, it seemed like all the modifications out there weren't designed for kids like me whose disability is upper extremity. Heck, they're not designed for adults like me. There's certainly not a catalog called Disabled Equestrian Long-Distance Hiker Daily Living Aids. There's not a website by that name either. I checked.

If it wasn't for a mechanical engineer dad and a mom who is an OT trapped in a quilter's body, I wouldn't be able to do half of what I do today. On the flip side of that, they sometimes regret the strong problem solving skills I developed by telling me to figure something out for myself. A sawzall can help you accomplish a lot of things around the old homestead in short order, just sayin'. ​

In Not Your Normal Adaptations, we talk about adaptations that don't come from an independent living catalog as well as mainstream solutions you may not have considered that can make life easier. Occasionally, we'll throw in a little banter about the (un)fashionable side of adaptations.

So mom, I didn't write a book. I did a podcast instead. As Theodore Levitt said, "Ideas are useless unless used."

​Maybe ideas are better used when shared.