Yesterday the rep came to my house to adjust the speed on my power chair (aka The Beast). I was telling everyone it was so slow that when I crossed streets folks were hanging out of cars waving their arms and yelling things like "Hurry it up! Today would be nice."
However, since my nickname is Ramp Racer, when I complain that something is moving too slowly I have no credibility. The usual response is "How fast do you want it to go? It's a wheelchair."
Anyhow, the rep put the programmer into the joystick and discovered that the chair was only set at 45% speed. Ha! I was vindicated. "How fast do you want me to set it?" he asked. Everyone in the room cringed. "Fast!" I said. So we upped it to 90%. The rep told me he'd be happy not only to come back and set it at 100% but that I can up the acceleration. Zoom zoom zoom.
Today I took The Beast out to see how it was. I was in the driveway making sure I had the seat belt on and my neighbor jokingly asked "Planning to go fast?" I smiled and said "Yes", hit the joystick and took off. Bwa ha ha.
I flew down the block - although I did have to slow down for sidewalk cracks. I couldn't wait until I got to a flat paved area where I could really try out the speed. I was not disappointed. After I tried out a few quick circles in the middle of a mall area, a toddler riding on a Fire Truck coin ride pointed to the Beast as I flew by and said to his mother "I want a ride on that! That's faster! " Yes, that child recognizes the Need for Speed.
You haven't lived until you've peeled down the snack aisle in a grocery store on a crowded Saturday at top speed after over a decade of pushing a manual chair with quad arms. Let's just say I got first dibs on the Cheez Doodles.
So I envision a video game coming out soon - The Need for Speed: Wheelchair Version. That'll be for the rest of you. I can do it in 3D!
[visual description: Photo of the front of a video game entitled Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. The lettering appears in red white and blue over a silver race car.]
3 comments:
Yeah my power chair goes up to 8mph and I always have kids wanting a ride on it. That would be a really cool video game.
I'd get that game for sure. My chair has two speeds: a slower indoor (due to sharing my apartment with a creature of the feline persuasion whose mission in life is to Get In The Way and then there's Warp Speed. For outside. For flying down the sidewalk. Love it.
I have one of those felines too! He always seems to appear around corners - and manages to run safely past my wheelchair when I don't see him somehow - but every now and then just plops down on the floor in front of me...great way to get attention! Getting In the Way...yup...
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