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| How much is a 1" knob worth? by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 07/22/2015, 10:41am PDT | ||||
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| My power wheelchair has a steel rod joystick, about 1/8" around and maybe 1/2" high, which is covered by a rubber joystick cover knob whuch slides on top of it to make the stick thicker, taller, and easier to grab. The knob is about an inch, maybe 2" tall, wide at the bottom and tapered at the top.
So, anyway, last night I am about to move my chair when I discover the knob is missing. I can't find it. Obviously, what has happened is, it popped off. It does that occasionally if I bump against the stick when the arm is upright, or something catches on it like the seatbelt. Usually I'll find the knob on the floor near where it popped off, sometimes it has bounced and rolled under the chair and I have to roll around, but no soap this time; it's gone under something and I have no idea what, the desk, the bed, the shelf unit on the other side of the door, I don't know, and obviously, I don't have the capacity to get down to floor level, crawl around, and look. (I need to buy another inspection mirror and a flashlight.) So I decide, hey, I'll just order a replacement one, hell, it's a piece of rubber, probably costs $2, maybe $3 plus $10 to ship it, ot maybe the other way around. So I call up Hoveround, get one of the technical support people, tell him, he looks up my account, so, anyway, they'll send the request for approval to my doctor then to Medicare (I do not have Medicaid or secondary private insurance, or as I put it, "My primary insurance is Medicare, my secondary insurance is Visa and Mastercard"). So it looks like I'm guessing two or three weeks for a replacement knob. So I'm thinking, do I want to wait all that long, what it would cost if I wanted to just say fuck the paperwork and buy the damn thing. "Oh, you mean the cash price for the knob? Let me check. $56.00." Jesus H. Suffering Christ on a crutch, it's a goddam ONE INCH LONG piece of rubber, and it's almost SIXTY DOLLARS? Something tells me I'm in the wrong line of business. I think I'll wait for Medicare, since I can still use the steel rod in the interim. Failing that,I'd have gone - or perhaps in the mean time I will go - down to Home Depot and purchase what is probably a 25c ball of Styrofoam and stick it over the joystick for now, one of those things like the ball people put on the end of a car antenna, or at least they did back in the '70s and 80s. |
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How much is a 1" knob worth? by 07/22/2015, 10:41am PDT  'n boer maak 'n plan. by 07/22/2015, 11:58am PDT Don't be cruel. Paul is unable to use epoxy, never mind a drill. NT by 07/22/2015, 10:24pm PDT There's only one acceptable option for a real man by 07/22/2015, 11:12pm PDT I actually already own a joystick by 09/11/2015, 8:17am PDT |
