Snowy Weekend

The warm days we had earlier this month are gone and winter has arrived. Thanksgiving day was cool, but pretty good for late in November.

It was a rare occasion in that I actually went to someone else's house. My aunt and uncle invited us over for Thanksgiving, so we headed west after church. Their house does not have a level entrance, but a couple wooden boards and a metal plate allowed me in the front door. Since my steering isn't very smooth on my new chair, I opted to use my older seat with better control. I'm never real comfortable in someone else's home, I am afraid I'll hit something or not fit their tables. Thankfully, everything went well and we had our Thanksgiving meal with family.

Late Friday evening, snow started falling and went through most of the day Saturday. My Thursday night nurse was talking about coming early Friday to avoid the weather, but she ended up not coming either Friday or Saturday.

I have heard this winter is supposed to be cold and snowy. With more snow predicted tomorrow, it's starting to look like the predictions may be true. We never want my caregivers to put themself in danger by driving on bad roads, so we understand when they can't come. Even though we somewhat expect it when the weather turns bad, it still is a challenge to cover.

Since last week's entry, I have spent more time in my new wheels. I'm somewhat getting used to the differences, but we uncovered a potentially dangerous scenario I need to be careful to avoid.

When I travel, I normally tilt my chair back about as far as I can. Even for short trips, it's a good opportunity to shift my weight and seems safer if we got into an accident. With my new seating system, the entire seat raises up a few inches as I tilt, making my head close to the ceiling.

On my first trip outside the house, I did the same routine I always do. However, as the vehicle turned corners, my chair seemed to move and not feel very stable. Right-hand turns felt especially uncomfortable and I wondered about the seat's connections. On our final right turn, I asked mom to watch my wheels to confirm my suspensions. She said the right wheels came off the van floor about two inches. Therefore, it gets top heavy easily and has good potential to fall over. For my subsequent excursions, I hardly tilted and didn't notice any further trouble. I'm not sure if the problem can be fixed, which isn't ideal for trips more than a few minutes. 

Such are the challenges of the Quad Life. This was not an issue I thought about before this week, but one that is now at the top of my mind. This week looks cold and I plan to stay home, so that will allow more learning time at least.