The Flying Zocketts: Learning to take things slowly

Now that I'm back in the States with two bum feet, I'm learning to take things slowly. Really slowly. Slower than a turtle. Like snail-speed.

I have a walker, which would make you think I can walk. But really, I'm just alternating between standing on my less-broken foot and lifting myself into air with both arms like I'm a gymnast and the walker is my parallel bars. This is slow business. It takes about 5 minutes to get up from the couch and walk to the bathroom, which means I am putting my planner skills to work. It also necessitated the fast fabrication of a pannier for the side of the walker so I can tote along my iPad, ice pack and other essentials, as I have no free hands to carry things. I was even contemplating getting a cup holder for the walker, but have upgraded to a (slightly) faster means of transportation.

A wheelchair! What an ingenious invention. I can roll myself down the hallway at roughly 5x the speed of me in the walker, all the while bashing into walls, getting stuck between furniture and learning that the turning radius on the wheelchair is not quite good enough to turn from the hallway into the bathroom. So, I'm still using the walker for the proverbial last mile of my primary commute. Yes, I am multimodal with two broken feet.

All this adds up to stronger arms, more foresight and a slower paced life.

The one exception was earlier today when Josh took me to Spring Lake for a "walk". While he walked, and occasionally jogged, he pushed me along the smoothly paved trail. It was a delight! On the downhill runs, I put my arms in the air and pretended it was a roller coaster. As we zoomed around the curves, I maderace car noises. And at the exercise rings, I did a pull up on the lowest set of bars, lifting myself out of the wheelchair.