"What are you smiling about?" I asked Joe. I had noticed him smile to himself and was wondering what had struck him as funny.
"I was just thinking of what happened at the airport ..."
Here's what made him smile:
I was rolling over towards the huge long ramp that goes down from Arrivals to Departures. True, there is an elevator but huge long ramps are much more fun. I started down the ramp, my gloved hands working as breaks as I sailed down. I had to bring myself to a stop twice as people made their way up the ramp. It's not often used going up, but today, it was actually fairly busy. I remembered, half way down that after getting off the ramp and out the electronic doors, there was another ramp up to the door leading out to the roadway crossing to the Rental Car area.
'Hmmm' I thought. The last stretch of the ramp is pointed straight at the doors, which are just before the other ramp. I wondered if I could get up enough speed so that I could sail out the doors and up the ramp. it seemed like the perfect challenge.
I pulled myself to a stop and waited. When the area was completely free, I gave a huge push and sailed down the ramp. This may have been the fastest I've ever gone in the chair, I sailed off the ramp and headed to the doors which were closing I knew that once they sensed me they would open again. Now I'm really close and heading fast towards doors that were stubbornly refusing to notice me. I screamed out, 'Doors Oooopen!' They slowly began to slide open and I kept on coming, I knew that if I braked the chair now, I'd tumble forward. My momentum was such that it couldn't just be stopped.
The doors were just wide enough for me to sail through. I hit the other ramp at the bottom and the chair began to quickly slow as it fought gravity on the way up. I made it about half way up the ramp when I was at final stop. I grabbed hold of the railing and waited for Joe, who had watched all of this with a kind of amused horror, to catch up.
All he said to me when he helped me up the rest of the ramp was, 'Feeling like a 12 year old are you?'
'Um, yeah.'
Love it!
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome picture I have in my head! I would have loved to have seen that! My favorite part of airports are the moving floors :)
ReplyDelete-KR
Dear Dave,
ReplyDeletewhat a coincidence.
This morning I had to smile very wide and think of you:
I live in an relativly new built appartment area. (only three years since we all could move in)
There are a lot of little girls around Rubys age some a little older some a little younger and since it is a traffic closed area they can play safely around the houses all together.
This morning(I am going to work very early) I went out of the door and saw that the children had chalked a street parcour for their bobbycars and scooters and bicycles. There was a playground and traffic lights and pavement etc. But the most incredible thing you would have liked were two big squares with the letter P on it for parking places and one of them had an acutely coulord wheelchair on it! I had to make a picture with my mobile and wish I had learned to transfer it to the computer yet. You would have loved it.
None of the children is disabeld. But they naturally included.
Yeah to life, yeah to learning, yeah to little people and sometimes
yeah to twelve year olde selfs!
Julia (from Germany)
You crack me up, Dave. I wish I'd been there to see that...and Joe's face as you went sailing down one ramp and up the other like some kid in a skateboard park!
ReplyDeleteJulia, you made my day! I loved that. May I lift it and put it in as a quote in one of my blogs?
ReplyDeleteLove Dave's story - and Julie's - double good blog today!
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you liked it. You can use it wherever you want to.
:-)
Julia
All you needed was to yell "Wheee"!
ReplyDeleteOh and I noticed, that I mixed words again; the right sentence would have been "one of them had an accurately (and cute) colored wheelchair on it!
ReplyDeleteJulia
!st off Julia. That is AWESOME. Secondly it made me think of the little boy who lives across the street from my apartment He has one of those power wheels toys. It's a little police car. Every time I go by on my scooter he runs to the side walk and says Wait for me we can race. So I wait and he brings that car, he can't be more then 4, and he races me to end of the sidewalk, he's not allowed to cross. Sometimes he even lets me win ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe other day I heard him saying to a little friend who said to a little friend loud enough for me to hear, "I don't feel sorry for her she's having fun and she's a good racer" :D
I like Dave's story (YAY! For inner 12-year-olds everywhere!) ... I like Julia's story (Yay for kids learning to include as if it's a natural thing--which it should be!) ... and I also like Lilytiger's story (Yay for kids who understand that having fun racing is more important than whether one ambulates with their legs or on a set of wheels!)
ReplyDeleteOoh, Triple blog post today! Thanks, all!
Wow, 3 inspiring posts today:
ReplyDelete1- Dave that sounds like great fun. You have to make the child inside yourself happy every now and then :)
2- Julia that is so brilliant <3 those kids :)
3-Lilytiger what a great neighbour
That sounds like an incredible rush. I would have paid good money to see Joe's face while you were doing that.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Love it!
ReplyDeleteOh you kindred spirit, you. :)
ReplyDeleteWay to LIVE !!!