The New Normal

I really don't want to have this blog turned into some sort of a microscopic review of how the pandemic is affecting my life but seriously, the pandemic IS a major part of my life! And right now the major points of my life seemed to be revolving around what's going on with the virus, the community and me. I know I seem to be putting myself at the center of all this but who better else to be there right?

So with that preamble I was just up and out of bed and actually feeling pretty good. I would like to slept in more but that wasn't in the cards. But I did notice something on the carpet not far from my bed. At first notice I paid little attention but then I looked closer and I realized the shape was the latch for the arm of my power wheelchair. Instinctively I dropped my hand to the side of the chair and sure enough there was no latch. This was on the far side of my chair, the side away from the bed, I don't know why or how about plastic latch snapped off but it has. Luckily, I really rarely undo that side of my wheelchair usually when I'm trying to fit under the sink in the bathroom so I get closer to a faucet. I think I can live without the latch but I don't want to. So with that in mind I thought to myself “well maybe this is something I can do today”. I knew it would be best to contact wheelchair shop just to find out if I need to make an appointment like I did last month.

This is about the same time that I went in to turn on the coffee and mix my morning beverage. I flipped the television on to listen to the “Today Show” as I padded around the apartment. Out of the corner of my ear I caught a message about bus routes shutting down. I hadn't thought about the bus routes being impacted by the virus but it makes sense that it would. After all, I was quite verbal about calling buses a “germ infested test tube”. So why wouldn't the transit authority close under-performing routes and really if the drivers are sick what else they going to do? So I had to take a second and ponder what I would do without adequate transportation. Once again luckily I've landed in a spot where I can actually power my chair to markets if I need to. So I figured first things first. I better find out which bus routes are still functional and pray that my 217 and 47 are still intact. And of calling Utah transit Authority information line finding out that only two bus routes which of the taken out of service are the ski bus routes. These are buses that carry people up to the resorts and since the resorts are shut down no need for bus service. All the other routes are still running on regular schedules. With that information taking care of I contacted my service provider, my wheelchair shop. I was totally disappointed to find out that I would not be able to just show up and have a technician from my chair with me in it, as is my usual practice. They would force me to give up my chair and they would pick my chair up and bring it back the next day once the repairs are completed. This kind of repair regimen is doable and I guess acceptable worst-case scenario. I certainly don't want to have to give up my chair. However, if I need to I need to. I have a couple of other options however. I can cannibalize my other chair or I can wait and see if Create will be back in service, but since CREATE is State type agency I doubt they are going to be functional too soon. Hopefully, things will return to some form of normality unless what we are experiencing now is going to be the new normal. As I indicated earlier I can use my chair with the right side frozen until the shop opens up the role-ins or the worst worst-case I give up my chair for a night but have the repair executed.…