Day 34- Questions and observations

Over the course of this experiment I have been left with some lingering questions......

1. How do handicapped people get in and out of the car?  (I have been standing up and slinging my wheelchair in the bed of my truck).  Evidently they custom make cars/mini vans for the wheelchair users.  Hand controls, access ramps, they have it all.  You can wheel right into the car and position yourself right behind the steering wheel.  Pretty cool.

2. How does wheelchair basketball work exactly?  More specifically how do they dribble and wheel at the same time?  I thought they must have a special wheel chair.  When I researched this I found that although they do use a different type of chair, there are some rule differences.....no double dribble, and traveling is pushing your wheel more than twice without dribbling.

3. Why does sitting in a wheelchair make children want to sit in your lap?  I know I'm a pretty lovable guy but I'm quite sure I didn't have this constant a barrage of kiddies crawling all over me.  Maybe its the novelty.  Maybe its accessibility...easier to climb..???

4. How much does the average manual wheelchair cost?  Would you believe $500?!!  That makes my 40 dollar investment seem like a steal.  (Electric wheelchairs cost thousands!)

5. How many folks worldwide use wheelchairs?  500,000.  I would have thought with 7 billion people this would have been much higher.


Today at church, I thought about some of the benefits and difficulties of moving in a crowd.  As the services were finishing, I wanted to get to the back to meet this guy that had been visiting.  The problem is you can't just weave through a group of people in a wheelchair.  You have to wait for some space.  Sometimes people just don't realize, but if I want bye, I have to either be patient or beep beep folks out of the way.  Well, I didn't want to do either because he might get out before I could catch him.  So, while the closing announcements were being made I started slowly inching back toward the rear.  Almost unnoticeable.....I eased on back....ninja like...couldn't have done it quite so stealthily on my own two legs.

Gravel is the kriptonite of wheelchair movement.

Its nice people getting things for you all the time.

I think it might be easier to be handicapped if your were small.  People could easily carry you all over.  Not so easy when you are 6'6" and weigh 205 lbs.

My beard is just as itchy walking or wheeling.