Creative adaptations

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I recently suffered a broken ankle and had to give up much of my gardening, including giving away many potted plants. I kept a few, and now only care for things I can reach from my scooter on a paved surface. Surprisingly though, I still care about this hobby and still am looking for ways to make it work for me. I will garden smarter, not garden harder.

Similarly, my husband with early-stage Alzheimer's has recently exposed himself (not intentionally) by being naked in front of open drapes. I felt concerned enough to consider ways of coping with this. My solution is going to be to install sheer or semi-sheer panels that remain closed most of the time, but let light in when the drapes are open.

I see people writing sometimes about their need for accommodations at work or their difficulty getting them. In some cases, through ignorance of the law I suppose, they think the employer should do more for them than is reasonable. I think often an employer accommodation is necessary, but often there are other modifications that might do the trick. If noise is an issue, perhaps wear noise-cancelling earphones. If multitasking is expected, develop some personal strategies to triage the tasks without letting things fall through the cracks. If customer service is not your thing but IS part of your job description, figure out ways of coping - such as walking away from your phone after a difficult encounter, or even discussing it with your boss to calm yourself down and review strategies.

One way I've met many of my autism challenges is through creative problem solving. I've always been creative, since my early childhood, doing creative writing, crafts, paying attention to fashion, casting about for solutions to problems, devising systems and methods, and so on. Now not everybody has that ability, but there are some things that people should try, for coming up with possible solutions and adaptations to challenges. Here are some of them:

- Not settling for one possible solution, but brainstorming several
- Asking others for input to problems
- Trying out solutions on a small, experimental basis before implementing them
- Looking at a problem from a different perspective - not just "this annoys me" but "this affects multiple areas of my life, so it's worth a comprehensive solution" - things like that. Or maybe thinking others could not stand it if we are assertive, whereas in fact they might not care.
- Realizing that an issue is not such a big deal, in the grand scheme of things
- Accepting help as needed, rather than relying on oneself alone

I hope this helps someone. Even one person.

^Great post!

And a thought for you - I have no idea how you've decorated your house, but many of my neighbors have opted for cafe style curtains in other windows besides the kitchen and bath... you can look out without opening the bottom tier... I'm a thermal drapes plus sheers kind of gal myself, but thought of this immediately as a possible approach. With tension rods, it'd be quick, too.



Not intending to patronize, if you've considered and discarded this. It's the Aspie Problemsolving Brain thing.

Edit in: also, I hope your recovery is going well, and I want to thank you for something you don't even know you have done. Because you shared with us here about how you've compromised with your gardening, it helped me realize that I need to reduce the maintenance needed for mine, too; I've been having back spasms and other fun stuff - and you helped me realize that *I don't HAVE to*.

So I'm working on that now, and I almost certainly wouldn't have gotten there this fast without your sharing. Thanks again.

The b***h about decks: they have to be stained—and that is very hard work.

I know people who stain their decks a little at a time throughout the spring and summer.

Oh, let's b**ch about decks! You're right, it's a pain. Each year the same old story, without the love and glory.

That, though, I seem to have managed - by doing it in phases, exactly.

It's the weeding bit and the digging bit that have tied my lower back in a half-Windsor.

I've decided that, as things stand, I'm destined to die in abject poverty anyway, so I've called a landscape guy and am going to see if he will do some slash and burn landscaping for me in installments. Not everything will go, but the sick stuff I've been trying to save? I have to give up on. And some of the other stuff that needs a lot of coddling, I'll ask him about replacing with stuff that's less labor intensive. Otherwise I may well put myself in need of short term convalescing and even PT, which would cost a LOT more than creative landscape alteration, I think.

I still try to fool myself that I can do certain things around the garden only to be disappointed yet again.

One of the things I have found useful is armchair gardening with long armed tools.

I used to be very handy around the home and now I have to ask for help - it is soul destroying.

Luckily, I also have some of that creative flare so have come up with solutions.

I stopped changing duvet covers years ago - I simply wash the whole lot, duvet and all and dry. The way I do this is to have thinner ones which fit into the washer. I layer my bed with extra throws so I can adjust according the the temperature during the night.

I quite like this thread, solutions are attractive to me.

Hi Tem! Missed you too while I was locked out of the site somehow (browser troubles I think).

I can still move around fairly freely - I just tend to push past my limit and don't know it because the limit has moved, dagnabbit, and nobody ever sends me the memo up front

So for instance, last year I grubbed out some very deeply rooted weeds. Got 'em all, and then two days later my right hand was in agony. It was close to a year before I could snap my fingers on that hand again - it'd almost heal, and I'd reinjure it. This year, it's my back acting up. I go out and dig, or pull weeds (with a different technique now, to spare my hands). Fine, no problem. Two days later (it's always two days, too) I turn to pick up the coffeepot and yowwwwwww, spasm. I think I should buy stock in whoever makes Ben-Gay.

I like your duvet solution, I've been doing something similar for a couple of years - it's so much faster to make the bed! And in the winter, I layer fleece throws on top of the blankets, like extra blankets. SO warm and soft!

Think I'll just sit here and snap my fingers for awhile now. Ahh, age.

Well Esmerelda, glad I could help. I sure do understand what you're talking about. Actually I've always been a partisan for low-maintenance plants, but my roses are special. So very beautiful, and although people say they are fussy, I'm learning to deal with their quirks.

I love old-fashioned roses. I sniffed my way around the nursery to find the most rose-scented one. Problem is they spread quite wildly. My current adaptation, which I’m sure I’ll have to give up soon, is to lie on my stomach in the garden and root around up to my elbows in the soil tracking down the miscreant runners! My rose garden is in the front yard so I’m sure the neighbours wonder about me. I do have a kneeler with arms attached to help get up off the ground but I’ve been ignoring it. I have a little cart with wheels to sit on too for gardening.

By and large, the old fashioned roses smell the best, though there are some new ones that are nice too. I was buying roses based on their prettiness for a while, and then I realized that many of my pretty roses had no fragrance. My rule now is, no scent, no sale.