Jun 13, 2007
At the student activities building gym they have gotten new equipment – hand cycles. Gary used one for the first time today, and he says it was tough, perhaps partly because he did it after the weight training. He could only go for six minutes on it. He said it reminded him of when he’d had to do it at Shepherd, and it had been so difficult for him. I said I remembered that – his tongue was always hanging out after each interval on it. (The hand cycle is more tiring than a bicycle because of the less muscle mass of the arms.)
The other day when I was backing my car out the driveway to go to a flat area to do a short walk, I saw Gary start to wheel down the drive. He had commented to me a few days earlier that he hadn’t attempted to go partway down the drive for a long time, at least since last Day Program in December. I wondered if I should stay at the bottom of the drive, but he didn’t wave to me or anything, so I decided to go for a 15-minute walk and scrape him up off the street when I came back ;-). No need to worry – he didn’t attempt to go down the steepest part of the drive by himself. He said he went as far as he’d gone with me before, but it was still too scary to attempt to go any farther. He said he would first attempt to go up it before he would go down it, since uphill would be the easier direction. I said, “What do you mean? Downhill is easier – you just let go!” We then joked about him going flying down the street, since it is downhill all the way; he said I would have to scrape him off the lawn at the end of the street (our street has a T-intersection with the next one), because he wouldn’t be able to do a wheelie to get up the curb. I told my massage therapist this, and she pointed out that if he hung a left there, he could keep going because it was still downhill. I realized he could then make a right onto the next street, then a left, then another left, until he would finally hit an uphill part, at which point he could go back and forth, back and forth, like a pendulum winding down. He said that unfortunately he would then have a long upward trek back home – assuming he hadn’t crashed well before then.
In about 10 days we are flying to his mom’s. A wheelchair-accessible van proved to be too expensive and inconveniently located for us to rent (plus it wouldn’t be modified for him to drive). So we are renting a modified car. I plan on corralling anyone I can to put his wheelchair into and out of the car for me, since I am worried about how I can get it in myself without hurting my back and/or knee. I already mailed to his mom’s house a few boxes of things I would need, and Gary mailed some medical supplies.
We have finally gotten around to watching last year’s TV program “24,” which we had started but not finished before Gary’s accident. Gary said he remembers that the first day of his accident, when he found out he was going to be paralyzed, he tried to tally up all he would still be able to do. He said one of the first things he thought of was that he’d still be able to watch “24”! I remember him being very concerned about that, and when I said something about it on the blog – or actually, I don’t think I had started the blog then, it was all done in emails – anyway, Gary’s brother Bob and Jim from my critique group both arranged to tape it for us. We are now enjoying it as much if not more than we did the first time around. Even though we’ve seen the part we are watching now, the tension is no less (perhaps helped by our bad memories ;-)). In fact, since we know some of how the plot plays out, we can appreciate the intricacies. As Gary says, the show is certainly well-written, something always happening!
After saying that, Gary then said something that made me feel great – he said he hoped they make my novel into a movie, that he thinks it would be a really good one. I’m afraid I think the odds of that very slim (heck, I will be ecstatic if it even gets published (heck, if it even makes it through my critique group ;-))), but it was wonderful to hear. But he has a long way to go before he is finished reading my novel, and since I am the insecure type when it comes to my fiction writing (among other things), I am still waiting for the axe to fall. I will momentarily indulge in the good feeling his words cause me now but won’t get too happy this prematurely – just in case at some point he doesn’t like the direction the novel takes.
At the student activities building gym they have gotten new equipment – hand cycles. Gary used one for the first time today, and he says it was tough, perhaps partly because he did it after the weight training. He could only go for six minutes on it. He said it reminded him of when he’d had to do it at Shepherd, and it had been so difficult for him. I said I remembered that – his tongue was always hanging out after each interval on it. (The hand cycle is more tiring than a bicycle because of the less muscle mass of the arms.)
The other day when I was backing my car out the driveway to go to a flat area to do a short walk, I saw Gary start to wheel down the drive. He had commented to me a few days earlier that he hadn’t attempted to go partway down the drive for a long time, at least since last Day Program in December. I wondered if I should stay at the bottom of the drive, but he didn’t wave to me or anything, so I decided to go for a 15-minute walk and scrape him up off the street when I came back ;-). No need to worry – he didn’t attempt to go down the steepest part of the drive by himself. He said he went as far as he’d gone with me before, but it was still too scary to attempt to go any farther. He said he would first attempt to go up it before he would go down it, since uphill would be the easier direction. I said, “What do you mean? Downhill is easier – you just let go!” We then joked about him going flying down the street, since it is downhill all the way; he said I would have to scrape him off the lawn at the end of the street (our street has a T-intersection with the next one), because he wouldn’t be able to do a wheelie to get up the curb. I told my massage therapist this, and she pointed out that if he hung a left there, he could keep going because it was still downhill. I realized he could then make a right onto the next street, then a left, then another left, until he would finally hit an uphill part, at which point he could go back and forth, back and forth, like a pendulum winding down. He said that unfortunately he would then have a long upward trek back home – assuming he hadn’t crashed well before then.
In about 10 days we are flying to his mom’s. A wheelchair-accessible van proved to be too expensive and inconveniently located for us to rent (plus it wouldn’t be modified for him to drive). So we are renting a modified car. I plan on corralling anyone I can to put his wheelchair into and out of the car for me, since I am worried about how I can get it in myself without hurting my back and/or knee. I already mailed to his mom’s house a few boxes of things I would need, and Gary mailed some medical supplies.
We have finally gotten around to watching last year’s TV program “24,” which we had started but not finished before Gary’s accident. Gary said he remembers that the first day of his accident, when he found out he was going to be paralyzed, he tried to tally up all he would still be able to do. He said one of the first things he thought of was that he’d still be able to watch “24”! I remember him being very concerned about that, and when I said something about it on the blog – or actually, I don’t think I had started the blog then, it was all done in emails – anyway, Gary’s brother Bob and Jim from my critique group both arranged to tape it for us. We are now enjoying it as much if not more than we did the first time around. Even though we’ve seen the part we are watching now, the tension is no less (perhaps helped by our bad memories ;-)). In fact, since we know some of how the plot plays out, we can appreciate the intricacies. As Gary says, the show is certainly well-written, something always happening!
After saying that, Gary then said something that made me feel great – he said he hoped they make my novel into a movie, that he thinks it would be a really good one. I’m afraid I think the odds of that very slim (heck, I will be ecstatic if it even gets published (heck, if it even makes it through my critique group ;-))), but it was wonderful to hear. But he has a long way to go before he is finished reading my novel, and since I am the insecure type when it comes to my fiction writing (among other things), I am still waiting for the axe to fall. I will momentarily indulge in the good feeling his words cause me now but won’t get too happy this prematurely – just in case at some point he doesn’t like the direction the novel takes.
posted by Peg Daniels at 12:28 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home