Serendipity. It’s a lovely word, isn't it? One that trips off the tongue in an easy and, for me at least, a strangely satisfying manner.
It of course means that happy accident, that occasion of something turning up at just the right time. This week has presented just such a happy accident to your friendly neighbourhood blogger, and it came in perhaps the most unwelcome of guises
Namely… Snow.
Wet Work
Now anyone who has had the dubious pleasure of following this blog for a while (and let me just applaud your stamina and macabre sense of masochism on that one) will no doubt recall that I am no fan of the white flakes of doom, a fact I think I mentioned just last week.
As I may very well have mentioned snow is the one variety of weather that, being a wheelchair user, totally incapacitates me. It can rain, it can hail, the winds can blow, it can even thunder and lightning, and I’ll still manage to get about. I might be a little soggy at the end of the trip, but I'll get there.
Snow Joke
Snow, though, well with even s small covering it makes life hugely difficult. Pushing a device whose wheel rims are made of a very much cold conducting metal is hard enough. When said rims are also wet, when the white stuff is getting caked between them and the wheels themselves, and when all of this is happening at a time the chair wants to go in a slightly different direction than me. Well then you have a somewhat forlorn picture of yours truly in last week’s inclement weather.
Luckily it didn’t last. A rise in temperatures and some good old fashioned British rain and I was once again free to live something akin to a life. This made me unbelievably happy. I stayed this way for four whole days.
This period of delirium was rudely interrupted on the Thursday of last week when, upon rising early to take my wonderful wife, Tina to work, I found that the view from the living room window had changed from the suburbs of Mirfield to what closely resembled down town Reykjavik.
Rack And Ruin
Nevertheless, Tina needed to get to work, and I figured that as we live in a little estate, the conditions evident on our street were probably a lot better once on the main roads. After all, surely the gritters had been hard at work making sure that people could make their Thursday morning commute? Surely? No?
Unfortunately my faith in Kirklees council was sorely misplaced. The roads were covered in snow, a lot of snow, which in some places due to the passage of traffic, was devolving into a muddy slush. Coupled with the fat flakes that were still falling it made for a real winter wonderland. I’m sure I spotted a penguin or two at one point. It probably goes without saying that the tundra-esque conditions made for a difficult journey, especially as the entire workforce of West Yorkshire seemed to have all set off early to avoid the, um, traffic. I think irony may be involved here somewhere.
To cut a long story just a little shorter, it took and hour and a half to get Tina the six miles to her place of work and roughly the same to get back. It was the longest journey I had suffered since my diagnosis of MS last July and it absolutely ruined me for the next 48 hours.
And So To Bed
Fatigue has fast become a part of life for me and it takes very little to become unbelievably exhausted. The above trip was more than enough then to send me to bed for a three hour ‘nap’ on Thursday afternoon, and lead to a profoundly weary, and perhaps ever so slightly snappy Marky pretty much all of Friday.
So where, you might ask does the Serendipity come in. Well, for the last few weeks you see, thoughts of work have been looming large in my mind. It has got to the point where, a year ago, I would have been just coming out of training at my last position and I think back to those times rather fondly. March was also the month when I and those nearest and dearest to me were to assess things to see when, how, and in what capacity, a return to work would be possible. I think this last week has shown the answer to be... Not yet.
Signs And Wonderings
The timing is exquisite. I don’t believe in fate or divine providence, but really the snow came down at exactly the right time. I might not like it. It might hurt my pride and make me feel that little less useful, but I think I have to face facts. Now is not forever, but for now, for the foreseeable future, working for a living in the kind of job I had, is beyond me. Maybe that will change. Maybe something else will present itself. Maybe, just maybe, another moment of serendipity will present itself. Who knows, eh?
Until next time...
Snow Joke
Snow, though, well with even s small covering it makes life hugely difficult. Pushing a device whose wheel rims are made of a very much cold conducting metal is hard enough. When said rims are also wet, when the white stuff is getting caked between them and the wheels themselves, and when all of this is happening at a time the chair wants to go in a slightly different direction than me. Well then you have a somewhat forlorn picture of yours truly in last week’s inclement weather.
Luckily it didn’t last. A rise in temperatures and some good old fashioned British rain and I was once again free to live something akin to a life. This made me unbelievably happy. I stayed this way for four whole days.
This period of delirium was rudely interrupted on the Thursday of last week when, upon rising early to take my wonderful wife, Tina to work, I found that the view from the living room window had changed from the suburbs of Mirfield to what closely resembled down town Reykjavik.
Rack And Ruin
Nevertheless, Tina needed to get to work, and I figured that as we live in a little estate, the conditions evident on our street were probably a lot better once on the main roads. After all, surely the gritters had been hard at work making sure that people could make their Thursday morning commute? Surely? No?
Unfortunately my faith in Kirklees council was sorely misplaced. The roads were covered in snow, a lot of snow, which in some places due to the passage of traffic, was devolving into a muddy slush. Coupled with the fat flakes that were still falling it made for a real winter wonderland. I’m sure I spotted a penguin or two at one point. It probably goes without saying that the tundra-esque conditions made for a difficult journey, especially as the entire workforce of West Yorkshire seemed to have all set off early to avoid the, um, traffic. I think irony may be involved here somewhere.
To cut a long story just a little shorter, it took and hour and a half to get Tina the six miles to her place of work and roughly the same to get back. It was the longest journey I had suffered since my diagnosis of MS last July and it absolutely ruined me for the next 48 hours.
And So To Bed
Fatigue has fast become a part of life for me and it takes very little to become unbelievably exhausted. The above trip was more than enough then to send me to bed for a three hour ‘nap’ on Thursday afternoon, and lead to a profoundly weary, and perhaps ever so slightly snappy Marky pretty much all of Friday.
So where, you might ask does the Serendipity come in. Well, for the last few weeks you see, thoughts of work have been looming large in my mind. It has got to the point where, a year ago, I would have been just coming out of training at my last position and I think back to those times rather fondly. March was also the month when I and those nearest and dearest to me were to assess things to see when, how, and in what capacity, a return to work would be possible. I think this last week has shown the answer to be... Not yet.
Signs And Wonderings
The timing is exquisite. I don’t believe in fate or divine providence, but really the snow came down at exactly the right time. I might not like it. It might hurt my pride and make me feel that little less useful, but I think I have to face facts. Now is not forever, but for now, for the foreseeable future, working for a living in the kind of job I had, is beyond me. Maybe that will change. Maybe something else will present itself. Maybe, just maybe, another moment of serendipity will present itself. Who knows, eh?
Until next time...
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