A lovely woman I know summed up the restrictions of disability, or rather what we all crave…colour for our mind. Interest, that satisfies the imagination for a few more days.

So, my news…No, sadly I still haven’t seen the Wren, although think I heard them yesterday. Still hoping. 

Several weeks of not being able to go beyond the front garden passed. My last outing being with my husband in the car, with him driving, back in late summer. So I decided to check the charge on my mobility scooter, wrap up & venture out on a dry autumn day to get some air & wind on my face. My last scooter outing was in early spring.

I enjoy fresh air in the garden…and wind, sun, mist, fog, rain and snow, well for a millisecond with the rain & snow…too long then I could be heading for a fever. To feel the motion of wind on your face is such a lovely thing.

Once prepared, it took a while, off I went. My initial manoeuvring wasn’t great… my bag strap caught the accelerator lever, so I crashed into one of my dearly loved shrubs…sorry. Leaves everywhere. My neighbours possibly think I’m on the eccentric nutty side… this will have confirmed it. I only swore #%*! once…honest.

Should I try & cross the road? Go on, go for it. One of my issues is the lack of dips in pavements, or rather that where there is one a car is often parked up. I recall mentioning this a while back in a previous post ~ The Perception of Wheels. I can become quite animated about kerbs and other ME related subjects. You’d guessed? I found a neat curving route, diagonally across & made it without being mown down. Result!

So off I pootled. I can’t go far & can barely leave our street, but it’s still good. It was a little emotional…as I didn’t have a springy Sighthound patiently walking at my slow scooter pace…or should I say lunging off for the nearest discarded food particle. Those outings were also short & rare.

I decided to pootle on a few more metres…ooh risky, to our local corner shop. I scootered in & round to have a look and to buy a newspaper (news…am I mad!), and be almost normal for a few minutes (whatever that is), with folk very kindly offering to pass items to me that were out of reach. Mmm..a 3rd chocolate item perhaps? Getting to any shop is still extremely rare for me, to do it on my own is unheard of, (well, for the past 11 years), so it felt pretty awesome..

.. apart from when on my return journey someone randomly invaded my space by walking very noisily & almost impatiently behind me…us ‘scooterers’ we are sensitive. I felt they might land on my head if I braked or rather dropped pace too suddenly!…so I ignored them and pootled on. That’s scooter life I guess.

There you have it. I achieved an outing. Woop! I however, forgot to photograph the autumn leaves that had initiated my thought in the first place…drat! But I wisely kept the theoretical brake on & didn’t go back to do it, hopefully avoiding the risk of total wipe out for the coming days or weeks. Well, my bag strap did a good job of attempting that on outset!

I’ve no idea how many months it will be before I can attempt this again, but I’m so pleased to have had a little victory. One I must remember to mark in bold in my diary!

Aah…a little colour for my mind & the joys of a battery & magnet brakes..

Thank you for reading and have a great day.

Psalm 139

¹ You have searched me, Lord,…
² You know when I sit and when I rise;…
³ You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

The song suggestion is how I feel inside after a little victory. Pre-ME/cfs, I would have been leaping about too.

Just Wanna’ Say ~ Israel Houghton

Postscript ~ What I achieved is a goal set well over 3 years ago, with the help of a wonderful Occupational Therapist. But, as always due to the nature of ME/cfs was achieved in a different form than planned. So if you have a goal, keep the hope up, you will get there…it may just gradually transmogrify along the way. I hope you’re encouraged.