Mar 30, 2007
Today Gary wanted to go to an earlier talk (9:30), so in order to make that he had to get up a half hour earlier (6:30) and I had to help him a tiny bit with his morning routine. I drove him over rather than him driving himself, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, to save time. With practice he’ll be able to make the transfer to the driver’s seat faster, but now he’s still at the stage where thought is required – in what position to put the driver’s seat (and keep straight which of those controls does what – move the seat forward and backward, up and down, spin it), is he in the position he wants to be for the transfer, are his legs properly arranged under the steering wheel after he makes the transfer, etc. If I drive, all he has to do is transfer into the passenger seat using the transfer board, which we’ve now done hundreds of times (though not that often in a van!), and then I wheel his chair up the ramp and lock it down. The second reason I drove him is the confidence factor in the transfer back and forth from the driver’s seat. Gary is not quite confident of doing it on his own. For now, better that I be there rather than getting a call from him of the “I’ve fallen on the floor and I can’t get up” variety, particularly when I don’t have a car to get to him. But he is getting more and more confident of that transfer, and soon, maybe even by the end of this trip, he will be confident enough to drive himself back and forth from the math dept. at home. Though the LETA bus service is greatly appreciated by the both of us, it will be nice when he isn’t dependent on them for his transportation.
So, anyway, I took him there and sent him off with a goodbye kiss. I spent most of the day on my story, with a nice nap there in the middle ;-). I spent a short time trying to find a massage therapist who would do outcalls, but couldn’t locate one.
It started raining in the afternoon, and it was coming down hard when I left the hotel to get Gary about 5:30. The first thing I did in coming out of the hotel was my impression of an uncoordinated ice skater – the pavement was so slick I almost fell, only saving myself by grabbing onto a post (causing my audience, three elderly people waiting under the arch of the building, to gasp). I’m sure that body wrenching did wonders for my back/knee problems. Maybe it snapped things back into place ;-)
I brought Gary’s rain parka for him, and we decided he’d get less wet if he wheeled into the van and then transferred to the driver’s seat. Peter Nyikos wanted to take pictures of the hand controls, saying the pics of them on my blog were too small to make out any detail – which I had figured might be the case, but I only have my camera phone and that’s as good as I could knew how to get them. Peter had his camera at his motel, across from ours, and since this seemed a good time to take the pictures, Peter became Gary’s first passenger other than me. We told him to fasten his seat belt ;-). After Peter took his pictures, we bid him goodbye, and Gary drove to a drive-in chicken place for his dinner. (Last night it was Steak and Shake, so we are really hitting the culinary highlights of Rolla.) There was the traditional conference banquet this evening, but Gary decided to skip it. He has to start his evening routine so early that he wouldn’t be able to be at the banquet very long.
Speaking of meals, that reminds me that yesterday I asked him how he had handled lunch. He said he’d wheeled with a group of people to a Paneera’s fairly close by. He assured me that though they had pushed him up a steep ramp and during part of the journey when the sidewalks were so bad he had to go into the street, other than that he wheeled himself.
I asked him how today had gone, and he said very well. There was a lunch meeting of the Steering Committee, and as he was on it, he’d gone to that. This was supposed to be the end of the three-year term he was currently on, and he wasn’t the only one for whom that was the case. All such people were asked to stay on. Gary’s position was “Summer Conference Link,” which he didn’t think he should stay on as, because the summer conferences for the next couple years are in foreign places that do not seem like they would be very accessible, so he was doubtful he’d go to them. Wayne Lewis, who is the head of the Steering Committee, still wanted Gary to stay on in some capacity, but Gary pointed out that he’d been on the committee in one capacity or another since its inception. This didn’t deter Wayne, who then suggested Gary be given emeritus status on the committee (one other person has that status, Mary Ellen Rudin). The others agreed this would be a good thing, so that’s what happened. Gary said that at least this way he gets a free lunch (and they all laughed).
Murat Tuncali gave Gary a little box this morning and told him it was a present (!) for him and me. Gary waited until we were together at the motel in the evening, and then we opened it. It is a beautiful “Shaman Small Pot.” I believe it was created by an artist local to where Murat lives (Nipissing, Ontario).
Though the conference isn’t over – the talks in General Topology go on until about noon and then there are problem sessions that go into the late afternoon tomorrow – we are leaving tomorrow as soon as Gary is ready (ten-ish) so that we can get back home Sunday evening.
My massage therapist better have me scheduled for this coming week (are you reading this, Connie?) ;-).
Today Gary wanted to go to an earlier talk (9:30), so in order to make that he had to get up a half hour earlier (6:30) and I had to help him a tiny bit with his morning routine. I drove him over rather than him driving himself, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, to save time. With practice he’ll be able to make the transfer to the driver’s seat faster, but now he’s still at the stage where thought is required – in what position to put the driver’s seat (and keep straight which of those controls does what – move the seat forward and backward, up and down, spin it), is he in the position he wants to be for the transfer, are his legs properly arranged under the steering wheel after he makes the transfer, etc. If I drive, all he has to do is transfer into the passenger seat using the transfer board, which we’ve now done hundreds of times (though not that often in a van!), and then I wheel his chair up the ramp and lock it down. The second reason I drove him is the confidence factor in the transfer back and forth from the driver’s seat. Gary is not quite confident of doing it on his own. For now, better that I be there rather than getting a call from him of the “I’ve fallen on the floor and I can’t get up” variety, particularly when I don’t have a car to get to him. But he is getting more and more confident of that transfer, and soon, maybe even by the end of this trip, he will be confident enough to drive himself back and forth from the math dept. at home. Though the LETA bus service is greatly appreciated by the both of us, it will be nice when he isn’t dependent on them for his transportation.
So, anyway, I took him there and sent him off with a goodbye kiss. I spent most of the day on my story, with a nice nap there in the middle ;-). I spent a short time trying to find a massage therapist who would do outcalls, but couldn’t locate one.
It started raining in the afternoon, and it was coming down hard when I left the hotel to get Gary about 5:30. The first thing I did in coming out of the hotel was my impression of an uncoordinated ice skater – the pavement was so slick I almost fell, only saving myself by grabbing onto a post (causing my audience, three elderly people waiting under the arch of the building, to gasp). I’m sure that body wrenching did wonders for my back/knee problems. Maybe it snapped things back into place ;-)
I brought Gary’s rain parka for him, and we decided he’d get less wet if he wheeled into the van and then transferred to the driver’s seat. Peter Nyikos wanted to take pictures of the hand controls, saying the pics of them on my blog were too small to make out any detail – which I had figured might be the case, but I only have my camera phone and that’s as good as I could knew how to get them. Peter had his camera at his motel, across from ours, and since this seemed a good time to take the pictures, Peter became Gary’s first passenger other than me. We told him to fasten his seat belt ;-). After Peter took his pictures, we bid him goodbye, and Gary drove to a drive-in chicken place for his dinner. (Last night it was Steak and Shake, so we are really hitting the culinary highlights of Rolla.) There was the traditional conference banquet this evening, but Gary decided to skip it. He has to start his evening routine so early that he wouldn’t be able to be at the banquet very long.
Speaking of meals, that reminds me that yesterday I asked him how he had handled lunch. He said he’d wheeled with a group of people to a Paneera’s fairly close by. He assured me that though they had pushed him up a steep ramp and during part of the journey when the sidewalks were so bad he had to go into the street, other than that he wheeled himself.
I asked him how today had gone, and he said very well. There was a lunch meeting of the Steering Committee, and as he was on it, he’d gone to that. This was supposed to be the end of the three-year term he was currently on, and he wasn’t the only one for whom that was the case. All such people were asked to stay on. Gary’s position was “Summer Conference Link,” which he didn’t think he should stay on as, because the summer conferences for the next couple years are in foreign places that do not seem like they would be very accessible, so he was doubtful he’d go to them. Wayne Lewis, who is the head of the Steering Committee, still wanted Gary to stay on in some capacity, but Gary pointed out that he’d been on the committee in one capacity or another since its inception. This didn’t deter Wayne, who then suggested Gary be given emeritus status on the committee (one other person has that status, Mary Ellen Rudin). The others agreed this would be a good thing, so that’s what happened. Gary said that at least this way he gets a free lunch (and they all laughed).
Murat Tuncali gave Gary a little box this morning and told him it was a present (!) for him and me. Gary waited until we were together at the motel in the evening, and then we opened it. It is a beautiful “Shaman Small Pot.” I believe it was created by an artist local to where Murat lives (Nipissing, Ontario).
Though the conference isn’t over – the talks in General Topology go on until about noon and then there are problem sessions that go into the late afternoon tomorrow – we are leaving tomorrow as soon as Gary is ready (ten-ish) so that we can get back home Sunday evening.
My massage therapist better have me scheduled for this coming week (are you reading this, Connie?) ;-).
posted by Peg Daniels at 8:20 PM
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