Life in a wheelchair

I feel the need, the need for speed

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I don't even want to think about what fuel would cost
I don’t even want to think about what fuel would cost

 

When I got into high school and got my power chair, I was constantly being told to SLOW DOWN. I never understood this. If you had to sit in a chair with the motor on it, why wouldn’t you go as fast as possible all the time?

Okay I admit it, I’m a guy and I love things that go fast. I loved Top Gun, as a kid(still do really) and The Fast and The Furious movies. I love anything that I could possibly die while doing. Roller coasters, homemade airplanes built from a kit,(yes I’ve ridden in one) I love it all. I’ve even gone skiing. That was a blast. People ask me if I would like to race a lot.(I think they truly believe that I can hit a button on my joystick, and afterburners and will pop out like the picture above). The truth is most chairs only do 4 miles an hour(I’m pretty sure most of you can walk faster than that). I do not have a chair that will do 8 miles an hour but it’s big and the battery drains quickly.

I think those people that always told me to slow down were afraid I was going to lose control and mow someone down. It could happen I guess, but I don’t really see it. On the other end of the spectrum every guy that I grew up with, who had any mechanical skills at all, wanted to soup up the chair. (if I hadn’t been afraid of being grounded until the end of time if something went wrong, I probably would have let some of them do it.)

I’ve often thought that electric wheelchair racing should be an actual sport, with pit crews and sponsors just like NASCAR. The cool thing about it would be that you can actually see your favorite driver as they went around the track.(The advertisers would actually get their moneys worth). if that were a real thing I think, I would be really good at it. Yeah I know, I’ve got too much time on my hands, but you have to admit it’s a great idea.

This has been Wheelchair Wednesday

 

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Motivational

Make the most of what you have

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I made this video more than three years ago. I have to admit I feel like I haven’t accomplished much in those three years because I still feel the same way today. I’m still trying to figure out how to make my way. The one thing that I am proud of is that my vision has not changed. I still want to take over the world.

Three years later I still don’t feel like much is expected of me but the one thing I have learned, is that the only thing that matters is what I expect of myself. One thing I haven’t talked about here is that  I am amazed while watching able-bodied people. It seems really simple for you guys to walk, or drive or do all the things that you do without even thinking about it. When I see that. It makes me wonder why most people struggle so much? They have the ability to do what they want to do with so few physical barriers that it is mind blowing to me, why most people don’t do more. It’s hard for me to do simple things, like open a piece of candy, or put on a shirt. In short if you can tie your own shoelaces. It seems to me you can probably be President if you so choose.

As the front page of this blog says, we all have issues. I’m not disputing that. All I’m saying is. If you are physically able with no major physical deficits, then make the most of it. If you don’t, I’m probably going to find a way to do what you want to do better than you. Even with all of my physical issues. I do have one major advantage, it’s called handicap parking (if you people don’t steal my spot, that is.)

This has been motivational Monday

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Life in a wheelchair

I STILL want to be like Mike

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Greatest ever
Greatest ever

I love sports, always have. I’ve never been able play them, but they have always captivated me. I think it all started with Michael Jordan. When I was a kid, he was the closest thing to a real life superhero that I knew. I couldn’t walk but he could fly. At that time you could catch all the Bulls home games on WGN. For about seven years I’m pretty sure I saw every single one. He made me feel like anything was possible. He is the greatest to ever play no discussion,

When I was 18 years old, my mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday. By this time Michael was in his last year with the bulls and I knew I had witnessed greatness. I told her I wanted a pair of Air Jordans. This was a big deal back then because even in 98 we didn’t have a lot of money.

I’ll never forget going to the store and rolling in to find the perfect pair. One of the sales guys asked me what I wanted, I told them I needed Jordans. The next part of the story is absolute truth, he went to the back, and when he came out he had the shoes and a massive smile on his face. I asked him what the smile was for and he said “you are going to love these shoes. They’re going to make you run faster and jump higher.” Those shoes are displayed  prominently in my room and I still put them on occasionally, to see if they’ll do something for me. I don’t expect to jump like Mike but even at 18 I had hoped that they had some magical powers. I’m starting to wonder if that might be defective because I put them on and I’ve still got nothing. I don’t need to jump, but if they made it easier for me to walk I’d buy at least two pair every year for the rest of my life.

This has been wheelchair Wednesday (and yes I know air Jordans don’t have magical powers, or maybe you just don’t believe enough 😉 )

Update 6-29-16

jj-shoes

One of the coolest things about running a blog is you have a space to tell people about your life. Evie drew this comic based on one of my jokes, and I just had to update the post. The comic is even funnier because it actually happened to me. I’m curious has anyone else out there ever hoped the new parish shoes Will give you superpowers? I certainly did.

 

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Motivational

There’s no better time to start then now

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Rifle hole and get in the way of what you want
Life will always try to get it in the way of what you want

I saw some people that I grew up with a few weeks back. They are husband-and-wife now and they have kids. If you ask them, I’m positive they would tell you that their kids are the best thing that has ever happened to them. I don’t doubt that for a second. My nieces are a blessing that it has taken me years to wrap my brain around. I would also venture a guess that those same people would tell you that they given up on some dreams and some aspirations they may have had because bills, kids and the stress of Life got the better of them.

I’m constantly thinking about my future life. About where I’m going to be. Where I’m going to go, and who is coming with me. I have a very close friend (who happens to have created this website) who is kind enough to listen to my ramblings.

I’ve talk about the future like that ever since I can remember. My reasoning for this is that I don’t want to lose track of it. I don’t want life to get the way to the point that I can’t see that vision anymore.

I may never achieve it but if I’m working toward it then the possibility of it happening continues to be real. If you followed me for a while, you know that I had a motivational podcast. Then I moved to YouTube, then I was told I needed to write a book. I had trouble putting the book together, so Evie created this blog, To make it easy for me to write and finish what I started.

The podcast was a moderate success. Enough that I thought I could move to video, and use that propel me toward my ultimate goal of being on TV with the ability to influence millions.

Turns out I wasn’t a YouTube smash. (probably because I wasn’t a kitten playing a piano), if you look around this blog, you can see most of those videos used in my posts. I hope one day, that the writing that I do here can be converted into a book that people can buy.

My point here is that I still have the same dream that I had when I was 16 years old. Almost everything you see from me, is my effort to work toward that dream on a daily basis. I started when I was 16. I knew I wanted and I’m still striving for it today. I know if I ever stop or get distracted I may lose track of the vision I’ve had all these years. If you have a vision don’t wait another day to start. You won’t regret it.

This has been motivational Monday

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Comedy, Life in a wheelchair

A wheelchair does not stop a kid on Halloween

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I do not want to race this kid
I do not want to race this kid

I struggled with what to post today and then I remember tomorrow is Halloween.  I had two costumes when I was a kid that I still remember as an adult. The first, and the best one, was at the age of about five. I went as Pac-Man . My mom drew the little guy on each side of a cardboard box and put it over my chair. The effect was that no matter which way I turned, I was coming at people as Pac-Man. The box had two holes cut into it so I can see where I was going. It was awesome.

The second costume I remember what is going as a ninja. This is funny because it is very hard to be ninja like in a wheelchair. It’s virtually impossible to sneak up on somebody. I was dressed in all black and matched my best friend at that time. I think even he knew he wasn’t sneaking in anywhere with me.

For those that don’t know the kid above it Is dressed as Mario in his cart from the Mario kart video games. That’s really cool and the parent who came up with that, should be applauded.

This has been Funny Friday. I will steal your candy.

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Life in a wheelchair

Stairs and wheelchair don’t mix

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If there is such a thing as a nemesis for a man man in a wheelchair, it is probably stairs. It maybe hard to believe in 2015 but there are still lots of places that are in accessible to me. I have a few friends who have apartments that I’ve never even seen because they live somewhere other than the first floor and there’s no elevator.

Lots of businesses still have the same problem. I wrote about not being able to get into a talent  recently. You can read about it right here.

Point is, This is just part of my life. If there are stairs and no other way to get in, I probably can’t go there. That may be about to change

How awesome is that? I want one, but it’s only a proto type so I guess I’ll have to wait for a bit but things are looking up. You can find out more about it right here

This has been wheelchair Wednesday. I bet you all want one now.

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Motivational

Settling for less will give you a life full of stress

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“Beware ordinary life”

Only you can know what you're worth
Only you can know what you’re worth

 

A friend of mine has that quote as the signature for her email. I have no idea who said it, or where he comes from. Every time I see, it, I’m  reminded what I’m working for. I’m terrified of an ordinary life. . Someone told me once that I was lucky. That because of my disability, I could do whatever I wanted every day for the rest of my life and no one would say a word. This terrified me when I heard it, because in my experience it’s probably true. I don’t think much is expected out of people with disabilities. it’s wrong, but I can see how an able bodied person might come to that conclusion .

I can’t do a lot of things that you might take for granted every day. I’m not being negative, it’s just a fact. I can see how someone would look at my very obvious limitations and say “his life is hard enough why not stay home and avoid the things that the rest of us have to deal with everyday.”

Think about it, how many people in chairs or with obvious disabilities do you work with? There’re very few places that I go on a daily basis that have people with physical limitations working there. At least who are visible to the public.

My point is the logic is sound. It was hard for me to get a college degree, harder than I’d like to admit. It has been hard for me to find a way to make even a part-time living, but I have managed to do it .

I think that many people with physical or mental disabilities don’t even try, because it’s just too hard. I’m not looking down on those people, because it is hard. There are lots of days that I think I might be happy to watch Netflix all day and play video games, just because I can. When it comes right down to it however, I don’t because a little voice in the back of my head says “that person was right, this is all anyone expects and no one would say a word if you chose to sleep all day”

I have had a massive chip on my shoulder for a majority of my life, because I’ve tried to prove to myself and to other people, that I can be more. That living with a disability and everything that comes with it, doesn’t exempt me from trying to be something other than a guy with cerebral palsy. To me that’s the definition of ordinary life

I have gigantic dreams. Dreams of traveling the world. Dreams of  influencing millions. I have had these dreams ever since I can remember. Every day that I wake up, without achieving them frustrates me. For the last 10 years, I’ve felt that no matter where I turned, something was in my way keeping me from getting where I wanted to go, so I keep working. If for no other reason than to prove every day that I haven’t given up, and that I’m not happy to let my disability dictate what my life will be.

I don’t know what kind of life you want today. I don’t know what your dreams are. I don’t know what you strive for. I don’t know what your personal vision for you is What ever that is today. DON”T SETTLE FOR LESS. Millions of people settle in their lives, and jobs and dreams, I promise you each and every one of them regrets doing so. We get one life don’t spend it being something less then what you dream you can be.

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Comedy

It takes work to look this good in a chair

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“you must never under estimate the power of an eyebrow”
Jack Black

This video is about three years old. I’m posting it now because I got my haircut today. I still go to the same barbershop, and although I hate to admit it, I got my eyebrows waxed today. That’s right folks, I have been converted. It hurts yes, but every time I see an older man whose eyebrows are out of control, a little voice in my head says “see, THAT’s why you get that done”

I understand that this probably makes me vain. I never thought I was but every time a woman tells me that I don’t look anywhere near 36, I think to myself I must be on the right track. I don’t think I’m going to want to go hairless anytime soon but I didn’t think I would wax my eyebrows either. I figure my chair is enough for a woman to deal with. I should probably look less like Al Bundy and more like Brad Pitt as often as I can.

This has been funny Friday. if this didn’t make you smile you probably need an eyebrow wax and are in denial about it. 🙂

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Life in a wheelchair

The chair does not have a flux capacitor

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I'm expecting Doc Brown anytime
I’m expecting Doc Brown anytime

 

As you probably realized by now it’s Back To The Future day. Like most people who are now adults that movie means a lot to me. When I was growing up there were no movie theaters where I lived, so we watch a lot of movies on VHS or when they came on TV, and in the days before cable that happened a lot. I remember watching the movie on VHS and being amazed, I didn’t realize it then but being in a wheelchair and living in the country as we did, my world and entertainment was fairly limited. I have always had a pretty wicked imagination, I love sci-fi and the idea of time travel was something that captured my imagination, still does (every kid I knew wanted to catch a ride on the back of a pickup truck like Marty did. Don’t even get me started on the hover board)  This morning I took time to watch Back In Time on Netflix.

It’s a documentary that got its funding from kick starter, it’s all about movies and how they inspired the world, it’s not very often  I take an hour and a half to watch something the day it’s released but I did with that. If you are a Netflix subscriber you can watch it right now. If not, you should be able to purchase it various places, including iTunes. I also found out the all three of the movies are available on Amazon prime video this month for free. If I wasn’t writing this I’d be watching the first movie right now.

You can’t talk about Back To The Future without talking about Michael J Fox.  Marty McFly is a character that everybody knows whether you seen the movies or not, and that’s all because of Michael J Fox. He nailed the character and I’m looking forward to watching the movies again in the next couple days because the great thing about them is that they are funny. I’m pretty sure that I’ll see jokes in the movies at 36 that I completely missed every other time I’ve seen them.

We don’t often ask you to donate for the blogs that I write here. (although you really should we have a donate button and everything) today I’m asking you to visit the Michael J Fox foundation and donate to Parkinson’s research. He has been fighting the disease for several years now and is extremely outspoken.  he is an inspiration to me. I have  known several people with Parkinson’s and that’s a cause that I support wholeheartedly.

If you’re looking for something to do it tonight, you can check it out all three movies at a theater near you, (for one night only I assume) or you can pop some popcorn and fire up the Dorian in the comfort of your own home. I think that’s where I’m going to do.

 

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