There is No Time

Images of Muffy being world traveling jocket...

It’s cold, deadly cold outside the days that guys like me have to be careful one slip on the snow when no one is round and you could be a natural goner. This is my long day I am having to work till eight o clock tonight. I have to man a table at the Murray High Information Fair tonight. It’s long and cold duty but not bad duty. The power chair I use makes everything like these after work Information Fairs.

I was notified this morning that at the university hospital rehab there was to be a presentation by Muffy the Para. Muffy is a local para is a real sport head who got married a couple or years ago. She works at the University Hospital as a money person(development). Some how she got a couple of grants to tour the world! She recently came back from the trip and one of my para buddies edited the photos and the film footage. This guy ,who is able bodied, would actually pick her up and carry forward. This happened to them in China and other places round the world. She is heading out again to Nepal. Muffy is like the university hospital’s emissary to the world. Seriously, this world traveling she is doing is literally part of her job description. I mean this chick is a “jocket”, her major claim to fame is down hill skiing. But the skiing stuff, i.e. sports stuff is just the fun part the reason why you do all the other work stuff. There’s hand biking, wheelchair basket ball, sledge hockey marathoning and anything else sports/recreation oriented. Social integration, social integration and success in the work environment after spinal cord injury, and stuff like that is the work smooze that lets a person do the fun stuff. These super crips then work with programs which provide these activities to disabled populations in Utah could be SPLORE, NAC even UCP or Easter Seals. These folks will then write the grants and before you know it…ooops there goes another spinal cord jock…or jocket. Nice hair and great teeth and a winning smile this is what third-world people with disabilities want. So Now you have third world countries flying these folks over on regular junkets.

Rereading this entry one would believe this entry is about Muffy it is not. Actually I started writing to tell you about the experience of meeting up with a couple friends of mine at the “Muffy show”. Two guys who are paras. Guys I used to work with when I was attached with Independent living. Larry and Al are paraplegics and I met them when working for the local independent living center. We were all on staff together. These were pretty heady days, a lot of partying, messing round and having some pretty good times What’s interesting I noted yesterday was that we are now making up the “old guard” we are part of the Senior legions SCIs in the community. I saw this most from a guy named Andy who was pushing his new Ti wheelchair round us, actually trying to be part of our conversation. I ran into him at the presentation and new he had only been injured 18 months he was young by any measurement.

We had all congregated at the cafeteria and were all sitting round the tale yoking it up and having a good time during our version of Glory Days. Non of us had the moxy, brains or ambition to get on the CRIP GRAVY TRAIN like the Muffer.

We like to jab these Rah Rah over achievers but I know we sense a little envoy when they’re jetting off to yet another third world, bottled water experience no matter what we say.