Archive for April, 2015

Sport News IV

Monday, April 27th, 2015

Frontpage

I’ve always been passionate about sport, in particular the Olympics of course, even though I’ve never been there at a live event. Summer or winter Olympics, makes no difference to me. In my previous life I was more of a winter sports enthusiast. For evidence click here.

When I was still in the hospital after my accident in 2008 the Paralympics Games in Beijing were shown on big screen TV during my physiotherapy.

I was particularly impressed with the incredibly fast racing wheelchairs, because at that time I was just able to move about 50 yards in less than six minutes in the hospital hallways without my oxygen tent, or without qualified pushes ;-)

Last week I met with the Tunisian racing wheelchair guy Ahmed Aouadi, who participated in the Olympics in 2008 in Beijing and in 2012 in London. He currently trains as a “lone warrior” for Rio de Janeiro 2016 at a sports club close to my home.

Racing wheeler Ahmed Aouadi

It came to the battle…

Ahmed Aouadi with a racing wheelchair vs.

Rollinator (Wheelynator) with a e-handbike

Even with my motorized hand bike under full engine assistance I didn’t stand a chance against Ahmed. If you look closely, you can see that at about 20 km/h (12.5 mph) every now and then he’s waiting for me.

His INVACARE -Racing wheelchair weighs a mere 6 kilograms (13.4 lbs), which equals the weight of one of the two batteries on my bike. Nevertheless, that is no excuse!

My highest respect for such athletic performance!

I’m not giving up that easily! I might be slow in a wheelchair, but I know how to tune engines ;-)

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks LXIII

Monday, April 20th, 2015

Frontpage

Rollinator (Wheelinator)-Smartphone-Charging-Plug-Clip

Ever since I joined the folks on wheels, I carry my mobile phone/smartphone on a lanyard close to my heart ; -)

In the rare event that some cable gets wrapped around the rear wheel of the Wheelchair and therefore vehemently denies me to continue my ride, at least then should there be a phone in range.
I don’t think I need to elaborate about the extremely modest battery life of smart phones. Of course, the battery should always be full when out in the wild.

With my crooked fingers it takes me an estimated three minutes daily to stick the Micro USB charger in to the phone to be charged. I just realized that in the last three years I have rendered two full days of my life to my cell phone plug… just great!

The easiest solution to counter this waste of my time appeared to be in the purchase of a cradle charger. Unfortunately, it was not compatible with the leather cover of my phone.
A few years ago I built a holding device for the TV Magazine with just a small metal paper clip. This gave me the idea (see older post).

The perfect size to hold the Micro USB Plug is 20mm x 10mm x 8mm (0.8“ x 0.4” x 0.3”)

Attach a small cable tie and you practically get to plug it in without any finger function and daily blood pressure increase.

The paper clips (binder clips) can be found on the internet, in the stationery shop or after several days of searching maybe in one of your clutter trays.

For other tips on the subject of “tools for restricted finger and hand movement” like me, click here.

Translator BW

Happy Easter

Sunday, April 5th, 2015

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