Hello you lovely folks!

I hope you are doing well this July 4th!

Oh crap… it’s mid-September! I started this two months ago, and then things happened, in other words, things didn’t happen!

The Sudden Hill… what’s that all about? I wanted to expound upon a situation that caused me a lot of distress, and its happened before.

I love nothing more than simply motoring around, driving my power wheelchair, CJ-3. I love going to new places, finding new roasters (now I’m at a hard to find, very rustic, coffee roasters called Old Crow Coffee), taking a detour off a detour… CJ-3 gives me nothing but the ability to explore, freedom!

And, with new areas, some things are unknown to me until I happen upon them, up or down…

By unknown, I mean I’m not aware of that pole, or that ditch, or that curb… until afterwards.

It takes a great deal of concentration to focus my attention on the area before me, so that I don’t zoom off a curb or whack-a-pole.

Yet, what appears flat is not always so…

Picture this: I’m driving, strolling really, around the back of a brand new building, its so new even the concrete is without dirt! There are a few ramps and such, those I can spot quickly. Then, right in across the sidewalk is a yellow warning strip, these are called “Tactile Walking Surface Indicators (TWSI). You might know then at Skytrain or Subway stations the world over, and they’ve started to appear at crosswalks and other places… like this building.

“Why is this yellow thing here?” I ruminated to myself, as I neared it, “It has no purpose, it’s flat, oh well… let’s see what’s over there…”

I continued onwards, and upwards!

It seems that the TWSI was marking something! There was very nasty incline, not a mild ramp-like incline but a sharp hill!

I’m not a scientist, nor did I stop to take measurements, but a normal incline would be about 5 or 10 degrees. But this TWSI was marking at least a 30 to 35 degree incline. Please don’t quote me on that!

I could feel CJ-3 doing a wheelie as I continued up. With the TWSI bumps and the actual incline, it was steeper than it should have been for persons walking!

To grab balance, I jerked backwards, my legs spreadeagled, my right hand stayed on the throttle, my left went up… my right knee knocked off, broke off, the joystick! My flip flops went flying!

No one saw me! The area was as deserted as Dairy Queen in the middle of winter.

Was there a sign proclaiming “sharp incline ahead” or “Take notice of the sidewalk rising” or “be careful, ahead lies a hill of irregular proportions” or “look out dumbass…” I never looked back… I was trying to find my flip flops and more concerned about my broken joystick.

The rest of the trip was markedly more challenging.

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The same thing, without the broken joystick, happened once or twice…

The story I will share happened while I was strolling in an area that had playground type mats on the ground, but it wasn’t a playground. A few picnic tables were in the corners and … mounds. These mounds had Engle inclines, and were up to 2 feet off the ground. These dumb things had absolutely no variation in terms of colour: the ground was black all over.

Having finished my lunch, I strolled straight from a picnic table right into one of these mounds. Do recall that I am DeafBlind, I have no depth perception; so this “mound” was actually flat. I drove CJ-3 straight up!

Luckily, I did not topple over, I was able to back up smoothly.

So… What does all this tell you?

Go ahead… I’ll wait…

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Well, no, I won’t… I’ll tell you… my vision is the royal shits! I have zero depth perception, I can’t tell you the colour of your eyes, if your fly is down, if a ramp or a curb is ahead, or if that pole is five meters or five centimetres away…

Yet, I can, will, and still do, get around! I will run into, over, up and down barriers.

I vowed to my wife that I will not zoom meaning I won’t go over speed 4 unless I’m crossing the street. I will maintain three at all times…

Because I want to keep CJ-3, I want to keep my independence!

And now, I need to close this much delayed and overlong blog, finally!

Have a great day now!

Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, donating.

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