Go Fund Me

Looking out my window, admiring my tree with its crystal coating of new snow, lumped into mini-glaciers on top of the ever present pine needles, hearing the traffic swish by on the street below, all this and more reminded me of how comfortable I have become here in my home. I see it there, my tree, steady, bristling in the light wind, backed by the endless blue of a clear Alberta sky, the hallmark of my life, resident along with me here at home. Yet I am about to lose my home, and my tree, for at least six weeks or more to the renovations of the building's elevator.

I have, in the main, decided the best way to deal with the elevator issue is to avoid it altogether, although we are going to see if we can try one of the "stairwalker" devices that would enable almost anyone to take me up and down the required six flights of stairs. I say "we" because the device would be on loan from the ALS Society of Alberta. My hesitation, even with this device at hand, revolves more around that this device, along with so many others in my life, requires a separate operator. I would have to have someone with me pretty much all the time. So much for independent living.

Given the choice of staying, essentially a prisoner in my apartment without the aid of an accomplice, or going, with the attendant costs of spending six or more weeks on the road, it looks like not being here is kind of the best option. It's the cost part that gets to me. Over the last year I have increasingly depended on my Visa card to fund the many necessary, and some of the very unnecessary, expenditures in my life. I am near my limit with Visa, both psychologically and financially. There is more room; it's just that approaching that limit worries me for some reason. I know I shouldn't fear maxing it out, yet I do.

The cost of a six week road trip is about $9,500. If I have a companion with me, that will lower the cost to almost $5,000. Staying with family and friends might reduce that a bit, but like fish, guests become problematic if they lay around for more than a couple of days. Then again, the elevator may take longer to replace than originally planned; I may end up away for 8 or even 10 weeks. That's going to take some cash; my credit cards will be limited out by then.

Also, since this will likely be my last major road trip, or even if it isn't, I would like to see places I haven't been before. I want to drive down to the Florida Keys, a bit of a dream destination for me. I want to drive along the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Pensacola, then down the Florida coast and across the Everglades. Much of it would be new territory for me, a good thing in my mind.

One suggestion was that I do a "Go Fund Me" campaign. I've decided to give it a try. After all, what's the worst thing that might happen? People might not donate? I might have to run my credit card up to its limit? Or even worse, I might end up staying here in my comfortable little home, looking out at my tree.