is a time that works for getting the electronic carts to ride throughout Kroger Marketplace on Richmond Road without depleting, although I did get a cart that kept rolling slightly backwards, so it would beep to warn you it was in reverse, even though it really wasn't. Still, better to deal with the beeping than running out of juice. We went there today because I have a late appointment Thursday and didn't think we'd have time for the grocery after that, plus it's been almost two weeks and I was down to chili and some macaroni and cheese, for the most part. I did make mac and cheese last night, on the stove, and managed to do so without burning anything, including me. Not bad for someone who's more than a little gimpy at the moment.
The stairs in front of my apartment are getting a little easier to deal with. I climb up them on my hands and knees, need someone to help me pull myself up the railing at the top of the steps, and then use the walker to get into the car. On the way down, I can use the walker for two steps, then hold onto the railing and sideways hop down the third, which is too narrow for the walker, then go back to the walker to reach the ground level. It's not something I could do by myself at all, but I've been lucky in the few times I've gone out to have one or even two people with me at the time. Brandon's almost-four-year-old has gotten to be a pro at carrying the walker once I'm in the chair.
I'm hoping when I go out on Thursday that it will be the last time for climbing the stairs on hands and knees. Even if I am able to bear some weight, I'm assuming I'll be using the walker or a cane for awhile. Those muscles, despite my exercising, are still pretty tight. I had trouble just lifting my leg off the electronic cart earlier to return to the car. But it will be so good not to hop everywhere! Almost as important, I'm hoping I can take a real shower after Thursday, albeit with a shower chair. And I'm hoping I get a return to work date for soon. I'm eager to return. I miss it; I miss everyone there. I know I can't rush things, I have to be physically able to do things again. But I'll be so glad when things return to normal.
And you want to hear something really funny? Besides work, and showering, the thing I most want to do is to be able to clean my house. I'm tired of dropping things and then either having to pick them up with the toes of my good foot or leave them be. I want things orderly. I want to take care of the clutter, to clean my bathroom, to be able to do my own laundry. Yes, the laundry I constantly gripe about. Isn't that odd that I would miss that? I think it's because doing all those little things makes you feel better about your environment and yourself. I've now had more people in my house than I have in the entire eight years I've lived here and beyond that, for that matter. I've had a three-year-old declare my house messy and volunteer his mother to make it sparkly. That's a little humbling. I'm not sure exactly where to start. Yes, there's the paintings and the books, but it's all the little crap that makes it hard. And I have things that need to go to the recycling centre that can't be put out like VCRs and monitors. I think I'm going to start by getting rid of some of that, either with Brandon or Brenda's help. Brenda mentioned she had some, too. And then I'm going to take YKWIA's suggestion and just take a sort of grid approach, doing a manageable bit at a time. That's the idea, anyway. It might take awhile, but eventually I'll get it.
The sun is shining for the first time in days, and the plants are loving it, I'm sure. I've just watered all of them, including the poor pepper in the bedroom that was terribly dry, although it's still got a pepper on it and is blooming (I'm assuming that won't make a pepper, without pollination). Maybe I can overwinter it. :) I thought about getting one of those Norfolk Virginia pines like I have in the past for the holidays, but frankly with the glitter they spray on them these days, they just die no matter what I do, whereas I used to keep them alive for a few years, anyway. So I didn't. I decided one more plant, particularly a large tree, would be too much to care for right now.
But I got to thinking as I was moving through the house that people look at wheelchairs entirely wrong. People see a person in a wheelchair, and they say, oh, look, poor them. Isn't it awful? But wheelchairs can be very freeing. Yes, the walker is very useful and I use it through much of the house. But for long walks, or even going from the kitchen to the living area, I get a little winded hopping about. The wheelchair is especially helpful out in the outside world. My doctor's office, while fairly accessible so long as you can get someone to open the door, is fairly easy to get through in a wheelchair, as you go across a lobby and up an elevator. I've had people push me but also gone up on my own with no trouble. But the walker would be much more difficult. And the walker itself is freeing, because I don't have the upper body strength to handle crutches. So when you see someone using various appliances or chairs, while, yes, it is perhaps a little sad that they have to rely on them to get around, remember that comparatively it's a good thing. That's one thing I've learned out of all this, and since I work in an orthopaedic children's hospital, it's a good lesson.