I Can Dream, Can't I?

I have really loved my time here in Spokane. I truly have fallen in love with the city. And while my health has certainly improved over the past several months, I find that I not having complete control over my home environment is causing me problems.



I don't really know how much greater my improvement would be if I could have a place of my own, but since there are no low-income apartments available for me here, I can't really test it out.

I have been looking on the USDA website for low-income housing for an apartment in a warmer climate since I have lived in USDA housing before and I really like it. It is generally much easier to get into than Section 8, and I especially love that it is available only in small towns. Small-town living has always been more my style. City life is not for me, although if I was going to live in a city, I think I would choose Spokane. 

The USDA website has a handy map that makes it easy to go in and search for apartments by state and county. So, where to start? Well, I really want to go to a warm climate, so I started out by thinking about a few of our family vacations to warmer climates. My husband had a construction business, so winter vacations were all we could do. In our early years, we couldn't usually afford vacations far from home, but later on we enjoyed a few nice ones in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Corpus Christi and South Padre Island in Texas. I went in by counties and, to my surprise, found out that there was an available apartment 15 minutes away from South Padre Island, with only one person on the wait list.

I'm not sure it's something that will work out, but I am getting on the list. Who knows?

In Search of a Home

I'm back to looking for a home, for several reasons. I have so enjoyed getting to know Spokane and spending time around my son and his family. However, I need to be in a place that meets all of my needs. That means a list of features that I have long recognized but somehow get lulled into thinking that I can do okay without some of them.

The features include:

1) all-electric ~ no gas or oil heat
2) no Wi-Fi, in a low-tower area
3) no users of fragrance in the home
4) a place where I can set my own home temperature ~ preferably a warmer climate altogether, since cold is one of my major triggers.

Yes, I was really looking forward to living here in the summer, all the parks and places that I was wanting to walk through when it turns warm, and the free city pools! I will really miss my family a lot. It's been great getting to spend more time with my son and his wife, and especially my granddaughter, Scarlet. I will miss the bus system here too. It's been so great to be able to get around, even if I have had some issues.

As far as visible episodes, I may appear to be getting better. I am certainly better than I was a year ago, when I was extremely weak every day, often unable to speak clearly, rarely able to go anywhere.

I am much better than that now, but I still have episodes of weakness pretty much every day after enjoying my increased activity level. I have just managed to "fit it into my schedule." I know when I get home, I will basically be unable to do anything the rest of the day or evening. I generally feel it is worth it to have been able to get out and about for even a bit.

However, there's more than that. The exposures to cold and increased activity mainly cause attacks of weakness and paralysis. The exposure to Wi-Fi, gas and oil fumes, fragrance and cleaning supplies does more than that. It leaves me living in a continual mental fog, and a mind is, indeed, a terrible thing to waste.

Low-income housing here in Spokane is very difficult to find, as the need far outweighs the available housing. I am on a few lists, but the projected wait time is very long. So, as long as I am looking again, I will be looking in the warmer climates. I long for warmth.

It's a big decision for me. I have never lived far away from my family. I just want to feel better.

 


I recently finished the nutrition course, "Transform Your Relationship with Food," and it was amazing. I made this video as a contest entry for a scholarship for the longer nutrition course offered by the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, and I actually won! I don't know if I will actually be able to follow up on it right now, as things are really getting kind of crazy. But it was great to win.