Hello Fellow Travelers!
The PS snapped this from Treasure Island. He called it "sucker weather", no fog. San Francisco is rarely so clear. Such an amazing (albeit rare) view has lured people from all over the world, for generations - people still move to the Bay believing, hoping for the impossible (or at least highly unusual) - a clear, beautiful outline of the SF skyline. The PS could not resist "decorating" the palm tree (A la Corona) but everything else was clearly visible. It was stunning - I felt like I was inside of a holiday snow globe. I've been to the "City" on warm nights in October when you didn't need long sleeves! The reality; cloudiness, chilliness and churning, rolling, daily fog is meaningless. The memory of one clear, magical evening will always be how I think of SF.
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| SF Skyline - 12/25/18 |
Recently, I discovered another visual "trick". One of my wheelchairs (I have 2 - one for indoors and one for "The Street".)was looking a little ratty. I called my new insurance carrier to order a replacement. I submitted a referral, yadi, yadi ya. Much, much, later it was determined I was not covered for a stupid wheelchair. I have a hate/really hate relationship with ambulatory seating. The
wheelchair-bound is easily identifiable and just as easily dismissed. When you are in a WC, you lose identity, strength and independence. And you have to maintain the stupid thing, as the drunken Mrs. Ross on "Seinfeld" complained, "If you come into the house, the least you can do is keep your wheels clean!" When you're actually in the contraption you perceive humanity at butt-level. Every event has just become a sea of backsides. The one optical advantage a wheelchair has is at a protest. Protesters in wheelchairs have gravitas -if someone is protesting in a wheelchair they must be serious, my ears prick up, I pay a little more attention, any handicapped person motivated enough in a frigging wheelchair must be pretty upset about something and deserves attention.
I've accepted most of the life changes that brain trauma survivors manage 24/7 but I've never adapted to using a wheelchair. I'm tall, I've been labelled a "fall risk" (I suppose it's because I have further to crash), I'm a stander not a sitter; sitting is safer (when I fall over I'm closer to the ground) but is fundamentally unnatural to me. The other day my PS showed me something my sister-in-law mailed him. It was a great photo of my brother-in-law and his father, together. Father and son looked healthy and happy. What made the picture so clever and funny was a different POV told a very different story. The upper half of the picture was a holiday card but pulling back the lens revealed the walkers they were using. My sister-in-law knows a well-composed photo op - I knew that. What I did not fully appreciate was the visual impact of appearance on the brain.
Maybe I could skip the hated prison-on-wheels altogether. Sitting is boring, dehumanizing and frustrating. Wheelchairs are heavy, clumsy and inconvenient and I'd rather set $200+ on fire than buy one but standing is something I can get behind! Thank you P & F!
wheelchair-bound is easily identifiable and just as easily dismissed. When you are in a WC, you lose identity, strength and independence. And you have to maintain the stupid thing, as the drunken Mrs. Ross on "Seinfeld" complained, "If you come into the house, the least you can do is keep your wheels clean!" When you're actually in the contraption you perceive humanity at butt-level. Every event has just become a sea of backsides. The one optical advantage a wheelchair has is at a protest. Protesters in wheelchairs have gravitas -if someone is protesting in a wheelchair they must be serious, my ears prick up, I pay a little more attention, any handicapped person motivated enough in a frigging wheelchair must be pretty upset about something and deserves attention.
I've accepted most of the life changes that brain trauma survivors manage 24/7 but I've never adapted to using a wheelchair. I'm tall, I've been labelled a "fall risk" (I suppose it's because I have further to crash), I'm a stander not a sitter; sitting is safer (when I fall over I'm closer to the ground) but is fundamentally unnatural to me. The other day my PS showed me something my sister-in-law mailed him. It was a great photo of my brother-in-law and his father, together. Father and son looked healthy and happy. What made the picture so clever and funny was a different POV told a very different story. The upper half of the picture was a holiday card but pulling back the lens revealed the walkers they were using. My sister-in-law knows a well-composed photo op - I knew that. What I did not fully appreciate was the visual impact of appearance on the brain.
Maybe I could skip the hated prison-on-wheels altogether. Sitting is boring, dehumanizing and frustrating. Wheelchairs are heavy, clumsy and inconvenient and I'd rather set $200+ on fire than buy one but standing is something I can get behind! Thank you P & F!
