(no subject)

Lemme es'plain:

loracs mentioned on Facebook our misadventures last Sunday, I thought I would give details. We decided to go out for a late breakfast (I think 1:30ish in the afternoon counts as late). So we got in the car to go to an Italian place near our home that we thought served breakfast that late. loracs parked near the place and hit the button that opens the door and deploys the ramp. I backed up and did my dance to get turned around and leave the car. I wasn't being as cautious as I can be at times, so I didn't notice that the door had opened, but the ramp hadn't deployed. I drove out the door and promptly fell forward. Fortunately, the curb was pretty high and my foot rests are (apparently) very sturdy. My foot rests sort of caught me so that my front wheels were on the curb and my back wheels were in the car. I couldn't move forward or back. I couldn't even push the joystick even if I had wanted to because my upper body was thrown forward and I couldn't pull my head back. If I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt, I would have been pitched to ground. I called loracs and she gasped on seeing me. She asked me what we should do and I told her I thought we needed help. I thought she would find a passerby or go into the restaurant to find help. She immediately started shouting, "Help! Help!" Three people on the street rushed over. They asked what they could do and I told them to help lift the front end of my wheelchair so I could back up into the car. Because of my misadventures a while ago when my wheelchair decided to do the samba in a sandwich shop, I told loracs to turn the power off on my wheelchair. She did and they started lifting the front end of the chair. We forgot that the motors had to be disengaged before my wheels would move freely. So we asked the two good samaritans to wait one second. loracs got around back of the wheelchair and disengaged the motors. Now that I was freewheeling they pushed me back into the car. loracs reengaged the motors so that I wouldn't roll right back out. I thanked my rescuers. It took me several minutes to recover my equanimity, loracs helped me get reassembled. My tray had fallen to the curb as did some cushions I have under each elbow. loracs tried the ramp again, this time it cooperated. I exited the vehicle and was surprisingly unharmed except for my dignity. :-)

It's not like this whole episode was fun, but it was better than it could've been. Unlike many times in my life everyone paid attention to what I told them. No one just took over, they waited for me to tell them what I needed and did what they could to help. loracs paid particular attention to my instructions and gave helpful suggestions. For example, I had completely forgotten about disengaging the motors until she mentioned it. I got through everything relatively unscathed. Yesterday while out and about on my own, I did notice a certain "punchiness" (if that's a word). I was overly careful going over bumpy sidewalks feeling like they would drop out from under me, but that will fade eventually. I want to thank loracs and my helpful strangers (I wish I had gotten their names, but I wasn't really myself.) Over and above the help I received I feel very respected.