Faceless Blog

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Life on Wheels entry, and I figure I better get them in while they’re still relevant!

I tend to be a morning person, nearly always getting up before my wife. Now, ever since I did my time in the hospital, I don’t like to be in bed any more than I have to be, so as soon as I wake up, I need to get out of bed. It was this morning, as I was sneaking around trying not to wake her up, that today’s topic popped into my head. Being sneaky in a wheelchair is totally different from being on foot.

You’d think, with wheels on a carpeted surface, that I’d be pretty quiet. For the most part, that’s correct. However, in the still of the morning, before the normal background noises of the day start to intrude, you have to be a little more careful. First, I have to use only the tips of my fingers and thumbs. This doesn’t make sense at first, but trust me. When I’m moving around normally, during the day, my wedding ring clinks against the metal rim of my left wheel on every “stride.” It also helps that I know my chair very well by this point. I know that if I move in certain ways, it will creak. I have a very good “wheelchair sense,” so I can avoid running into other objects in the room and making a racket that way.

Interestingly, I’m going to have to learn how to “sneak” all over again, once I start walking again…but I couldn’t be happier about that prospect.