All Downhill

Hello dear readers!

Today you join a tired wreck of a blogger.

This is not just the ‘normal’ Multiple Sclerosis related haunting weariness that I am quickly getting far too used to. No, this is more of a physical tiredness, a tiredness of muscle and sinew, and it all stems back to yesterday, and one sentence, uttered by Tina, my very own lovely lady wife.

“Shall we go for a walk?”

Bore Draw
For February, it wasn’t a bad day. A little chilly as you might expect but dry, and with a hint of blue skies and sunshine appearing amongst the clouds. We’d just finished a spot of shopping when the Mrs came up with her rather lovely idea. It was a suggestion I jumped at.

Since making the decision to give up working some five months ago there have been many challenges. Along with the occasional health scare, the seemingly endless appointments, and building work, money has been tighter than a skeleton sliders spandex (Well done Lizzy Yarnold & Laura Deas by the way), and that last issue, coupled with yours truly finding himself decidedly time rich, has led to a rather more mundane problem.

Boredom.

Wake Up & Smell The Coffee
Yes, life has been somewhat eventful in recent months. There are still days (sometimes weeks), where I find myself somewhat becalmed, rattling round the house, trying desperately to find things to do.

A walk therefore sounded like just the ticket. It would be a chance to blow the stink off, to get a little exercise, and to fill up a couple of hours. When Tina threw in the promise of a visit to a well known high street coffee shop, well I practically had my coat on already.

It’s perhaps two miles to the aforementioned caffeine stop, but, as a wheelchair user, it’s my favourite type of journey in that it is decidedly downhill. This being the case the trundle down was a breeze, only slowed by Bonnie, our Springador, making the odd deposit and taking the time to sniff every other patch of grass, checking into doggie Facebook, finding out exactly what Rex, Butch, and Fido had been up to.

We were in no hurry though, so our somewhat meandering progress was actually quite nice. It gave us time to enjoy the unseasonably not too bad weather and appreciate some of the views of the local countryside our route afforded. The black filter coffee, I drank on our arrival was nice too (not as nice as my own freshly ground home brew, but nice). We spent a half hour or so finishing our drinks, then our minds turned to the trip back.

The Big Push

There is you see just one slight issue with a downhill trip for a wheelchair user and that is having to make the return. We could, I suppose, have been lazy. We could have tried to catch a bus, or see if a taxi would take not just a wheelchair (sometimes a challenge in itself), but also a big daft dog. I don’t think the possibility even crossed our minds.

Instead we set off, and, through a combination of manpower, freakishly strong wife power, and somewhat wayward pooch power, we made slow progress up the incline, making it home just over two and a half hours after leaving, tired but pretty content.

It’s actually not a huge thing, when you thing about it. A walk (wheel) out on a Saturday afternoon is not all that unusual. In these days of being time rich and cash poor however, simple pleasures like this make a big difference. I might need to rein in my ambition ever so slightly. The way I’m feeling right now is probably an indication that a walk (wheel) like this is not something to be done everyday. Once or twice a week though, well that might just be manageable… As long as I don’t have much to do the next day.

Until next time...