Winter 1

We had a few inches of snow yesterday. I love the beauty of the first few snowfalls of the year. However, once I became a wheelchair user, my affection for snowy days slowly dissipated. Manual wheelchairs and snow don't even belong in the same sentence. My power chair, with it's big ol' wheels, that's a different story, but only slightly, it is as likely to slide or fishtail as a car is but unlike a car, you're sitting on it, not in it.

With the snow yesterday came my first opportunity to go out in the snow and do some daily kind of activities. In my head I had this constant, "Yeah, this will be fun." I said it over and over and over again as Joe was getting the car out of the garage. When he came back in and said, "So, you ready to go?" My answer was, "No, I'm going to sit this on out. You go on ahead." Joe nodded and told me that it was probably a good idea because of the snow and headed out.

Winter 1 / Dave 0

I knew immediately as he drove away I'd made the wrong decision. Oh, it was nice sitting in a nice warm house doing work that I enjoyed doing, but I'd made the wrong decision. I wanted to go and I didn't go. I let my fear of the process of reorienting myself to pushing in the snow stop me. I try not to let fear make my decisions for me. But sometimes my judgement gets pushed aside and fear speaks loud and clearly.

Now, when I could have had the first time over, I'm going to have to have my first time today. I know it will be hard, and I will have to work to be careful. Rolling over snow is tough, rolling over spaces thickly carpeted with salt is even harder. But I'm going to do it. I'm stronger than I have been in many years and my skill with the chair is at its peak.

So wish me luck.

As long as my chair doesn't morph into a toboggan I'm going to be okay.