Archive for August, 2010

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XVI

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

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As wheelchair using quadriplegic rainy weather simply sucks!

With wet rubber hand rims it is hardly possible for me to turn the driving wheels so that I can’t move any more.
It would be just a bit inconvenient to take a shower undesirably for the second time in a day, but if I am standing on a hillside the braking gets a bit critical respectively almost impossible.
Such a big

rain cape for cyclists

is in my opinion a good and low price solution.
It doesn’t always have to have a medical device number.
My hand rims stay dry to a large extent.
The cape should be shortened appropriately.

Be careful that it doesn’t get in the wheels.
Spoke protector discs are beneficial.

Ducks like water, but I haven’t seen something like this before.
It is raining day and night there.
This duck probably has

neoprene feathers

Translator BL

Flower ramp

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

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Also this year, my neighbour has planted flowers at my

2 mÂł concrete ramp

and turned it to a

flower ramp

Simply brilliant, thanks from this side, looks great.

The floridity meanwhile turns into a jungle-like status.
It‘s growing and growing!

Another two weeks, and I need a machete when I want to leave the house.

I was training this situation already in the botanical garden in Frankfurt.

Click on tags “Ramp”.

Translator BL

Signs Part III

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

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Although I am in possession of a valid driving licence for a car adapted with hand throttle (see older blogpost), I have never made a

wheeler driving test,

otherwise I would know this

floor labeling in connection with a parking restriction sign

in the middle of the street for sure.

“except ambulance vehicles”
I don’t understand it.

It is not a labeled disabled parking place.

Could it be the parking position for an ambulance vehicle driven by a wheelchair user?

Is a wheelchair a vehicle for the sick?

Help me, I’m confused…

Translator BL

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XV

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

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If you as quadriplegic like me or for which reason ever don’t have any power in hands and fingers, such a

turning knob on the inside of a toilet door

is getting a real challenge.
Closing the locks is “going“ rather well, but then!!!

If you are not particularly interested to meet consistently your friend from the fire brigade it is beneficial to always have a

Silicon cap

with you which you usually use to open bottles (see older blogpost).
This

excellent turning knob

I have discovered on a disabled toilet in Bregenz (Austria).

Did actually somebody put good thoughts on it, or was it all about the design?!

Translator BL

Disabled Parking Permit

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

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Since I belong to the users of

disabled parking places

I have noticed that very often the drivers of

SUVs and Cabriolets

forget to lay out their parking permit if they park on a disabled parking place. I don’t want to accuse anybody of the intent to park unauthorized on these parking places, only out of laziness, or because they can’t park, but I am always a bit astonished. The width of the parking places makes sense if you transfer from wheelchair to car, and the door has to be opened completely.

A friend of mine, wheelchair user as well, is driving a SUV, a Jeep Commander with 7 seats. It’s always an experience to watch him jumping in and out of his car.
He has always laid out his parking permit.

Free disabled parking places are scarce!!!

Every now and then I find a free one.

Here next to the “Old Opera” in Frankfurt

When I was at the opera “Aida” in Bregenz (Austria)

at the lakeside stage at Lake Constance I got hold of the last disabled parking place.
There was actually parking a

BMW Cabriolet

with a

disabled parking permit valid in California

and this with a

license plate from Vienna

behind me on one of the 6 disabled parking places.

I would have liked to meet the driver!!!

If he would have been American he probably would have hung the parking permit – as it is common in the USA – on the inside mirror. Thus the form like a door hanger in a hotel.

Translator BL

Wheelchair Tuning Part XIII

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

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As already mentioned a couple of times (see older blog posts wheelchair tyres) I had

Mountainbike wheelchair tyres

built.
With my wife I wanted to make a tour around a lake in Austria:

Vilsalpsee

In combination with my shock absorbers and with assistance it is definitely possible to ride or push my wheelchair on hiking paths.
Gravel paths and pot-holes can be handled without great difficulties.
But suddenly I stood in front of a giant

Mud Hole

2 meters wide, 10 cm deep, 5 meters long, it was the path!!!
There even my

Outdoor Wheelchair

reached its limits.

After a couple of walkers who did not declare me completely insane what I am doing on their hiking paths with my wheelchair ensured me that the path would be accessible without any problems after passing the mud hole, and that they would help me, we took a chance.

New gloves, never mind!

No silly pictures were taken when I got stuck in the mud.
With pushing and pulling I got out of the mud and back on track.

At least my hand rims had to be cleaned. Then it is quite helpful when you receive from another walker a big amount of baby wipes which – as she mentioned funny enough – had an apple-peach scent.
Well, the wheelchair wasn’t clean, but smelled nicely.

The supposed accessible path presented the next challenge quickly.
Although the bridge is only 1,5 meters high the ramp is just 4 meters long. Only marginally I would like to mention that I had to go down again on the other side.

(The perspective is misleading.)

I slowly started feeling like Hobbit Frodo from the Shire.

After half of the round course the path around the sea turned into a country lane first and then into a paved highway.

It took the mouse hours with her white tissue until my wheelchair was clean again.

Translator BL

Eigude Shame IX

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

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Each supposed holiday with like-minded people turns inevitably into a workshop of a

Support Group of medical device marred
wheelchair drivers and prosthesis wearers.

It is unbelievable what is screwed together by some experts (luminaries) in the medical supply stores.
Even I don’t have these special

Spinergy driving wheels


in my tuning equipment.

Such a specialist actually has fiddled a set of tyres type

Nan** Speed 80 Plus

on these precious wheels, what a sacrilege!

Words were dropped, it would be like a Ferrari
driving with Trabbi tyres.

** NAN, like grandmother

Translator BL

(Deutsch) Spezial- Bremskeil V

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.