Zac, the 16 year old sailing around the world, writes on his blog about AIS ship radar. When there is a ship within range, an alarm sounds and the display shows me the ship's speed, direction and position.
Yesterday, I was thinking I need something like this on my power chair, the Beast. I was going into Panera's , struggling with a door. Doors are the bane of my existence, since I really can't grip them, nor do I have the strength to elbow them. I managed to aim the footplate of the Beast at the bottom of the door and then the front of the chair so I could pry it open slowly, a feat that took three to five minutes.
After the door opened, I looked into the restaurant. A woman and man were standing in the lobby. They looked as if they were ready to leave, but they were a good distance from the door. I was stuck in the still half open door, and intended to go inside rather quickly so the door didn't shut, but they began to have this conversation with me about them being first and how I should back up.
Back up? I thought, panting. I was exhausted and had no idea if I could back up because the street behind me had people walking by. (Yeah I did try asking for help with the door. No takers. It happens. Most of the time people will help, but it's a busy tourist season now.)
I hit the joystick and sped past them. There was a safe distance and there was no way I was going to be able to safely back through that door anyhow. Nevertheless, not a situation I like. I try to be courteous but explaining all this is easier done on a blog than when you're stuck in a doorway.
But to think this kind of thing could be avoided if I had a radar that let me know the speed, direction and position of folks! That would be, as my nephews say, sweet.
2 comments:
Back up? How 'bout they help out? Grrr... What a sense of entitlement.
Frida- yeah, that would have been the usual reaction- for people to hold the door or understand I wasn't just trying to be first after playing with the door for all that time LOL
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