Skip to main content

When it snows and blows

 be careful what you wish/pray for.

On Christmas Eve, I was lamenting the lack of snow.

"When it's winter, I'd rather there was snow on the ground," I mused, "instead of this ugly grayness."

Well, there's snow on the ground and plenty of it. In fact, I estimate about 250 inches (though we all know how bad I am at math) and there's more coming down and even more in the forecast.

Looking out, it's kind of pretty. Like a snow globe. As a four-wheeler, I feel though almost trapped inside that snow globe because traversing the snow is difficult and messy in a wheelchair. Imagine pushing a stroller through a sandy beach and you have an inkling about the challenges of propelling my chair through deep snow.

And sometimes, getting the snow off the wheels of the chair is a frustrating task. I towel off the wheels, but they are still a little wet and/or dirty. Imagine coming in from the snow, wiping your boots on a mat but then walking in to the house with those boots still on. They'd surely make a wee bit of a mess on the floors. Now you have an inkling of the additional challenge presented by coming in with a wheelchair from the snow covered walks.

And those are just a couple reasons why being a four-wheeler  in the snowy winter is a challenge.

Comments

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Lefties and Other Exceptional People

I have had the opportunity to do a lot of driving lately - back-and-forth to Wabash College and to-and-from Holland, Grand Rapids and East Lansing. It's given me lots of time to think and ponder the greater mysteries of the world; like the purpose of life, why my thumbnails always break first, the speed at which a state police officer will actually pull you over for and the theory of relativity. Oh, not THE theory of Relativity - with a capital 'R", created by Mr. Genius Einstein. No, my own theory of relativity - with a lower case 'r'. Created by this less-than-genius mother of three and wife of one! My theory is that the absolute worst drivers are those that drive exclusively in the left lane (I call them lefties) and the ones that believe the rules of the road apply to everyone except them (I call them exceptional people). I call it my own theory of relativity because these drivers are relatively unaware of how to drive. You know the ones that are going the spe...

Sick in St. Louis and Earthquakes in Michigan. What?

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake rattled our home a few weeks ago. Now if we lived in California (or even Oklahoma!) that would be almost commonplace but we live in Michigan where an earthquake is earth shattering, not because of the resulting damage (aside from a few funny Facebook pictures of toppled lawn furniture, I didn't witness any damage) but because earthquakes in Michigan almost never happen. Or at least ones that are felt by the average person. Or even me!  That earthquake was just the beginning of strange events, for this not-so-average person.  The day after Michigan shook, John and I went to St. Louis to see Delaney's end of freshman year performance.  One of the last times John had been to St. Louis together, was in August when he'd had his heart attack. We had dropped our daughter and a van full of belongings in sweltering heat and humidity. It was the first day of a planned two-day orientation and and the following day was the official good bye. John hadn...

It's not my first summer wearing a ski boot

A summer gathering on Drummond Island. Post-cocktail hour. After the most recent episode of grace in action, I scoured my memory for the details of my previous broken foot. For the life of me, I couldn't remember if I'd broken the right or the left or the year it happened. Having also sprained an ankle, two things are fairly obvious right now (more obvious than the black cast adorning my right foot). One, I need to write more so that I have written proof on which to rely since my memory is clearly not what it should be. (More on that later!) And second, I am a first-class, gold-medal earning (if there were such a thing), klutz. Klutzy Kathleen. Even before MS was part of my daily life, I couldn't walk and chew gum without a potential disaster. After unearthing the picture above, I discovered it was my left foot. An adorable nearly two-year-old Delaney is partially camouflaging the evidence of the black cast/boot. And it was July or August because we would spend a w...