PSW's Blog

Made it to church this morning. The new part of my header pic shows me dressed up and ready to go. Immediately after having the picture taken,, I spilled coffee all down the front of my shirt. But, after a change, off we went. It’s quite a production number taking me anywhere, with Mary doing all the (literally) heavy lifting. I move myself (mostly) and the walker is not too bad but the wheelchair is really heavy. But we made it and she doesn’t seem to have hurt her back. We did make one improvement to the process today. I ride sidewise in the backRead More →

Well, I’ve been home for 3 days now. It is great, though not without its awkwardnesses. Having your legs stiff outstretched and only being able to put pressure on one of them makes maneuvering a challenge. I can get most anywhere in the house with either my walker or my wheelchair, but not quickly and often not quietly. Carrying stuff with me is an additional challenge. We have hung pockets on the side and front of the walker but the wheelchair is almost too wide to go thru doors as it is. I have taken to using one of Mary’s shoulder bags, which works reasonablyRead More →

This is not an ugly view. But it does begin to wear after a while. It is the hallway of The Laurels outside what has been my room for most of the last month. And today is the last day that I am limited to seeing this. I’m going home in a few hours. . . . . Soon I will see this. . . . . . . . . And after traversing that I can look back to see this. . . . . . . . . And then I will be here. . . . . And then I will beRead More →

And it looks like I shall be going home soon, though probably not as soon as I would like. Maybe Wednesday. I had a 6 hour visit home yesterday and, in truth, didn’t see a reason to come back here, but we did. Everything worked fine at home. The new entrance ramp worked well with my walker. (Testing later with the wheelchair was not as successful. The tires on the chair were too slick to grip well. We may be able to rough them up for better traction.) The electric lift chair was a complete success. Puts me up into the walker and receives meRead More →

The Laurels has a couple of courtyards embedded in its design. Pleasant little sitting-garden spaces. Unfortunately they are designed such that, if you are in a wheelchair, you might possibly be able to wrestle a door open to get into the courtyard but there is no way to get the door open to allow you back into the building. Still, when I have visitors, it has been a pleasant place to go in good weather. Today a crew was doing some yard maintenance and tree trimming. Unfortunately I did not have much in the way of a before picture and could not get an afterRead More →