Phillip Sherwood

Monday turned out to be a really busy day and milestone making too. I brought the new motorized standing chair into the office and found it to be quite refreshing to be able to take standing breaks every so often. Whenever I would engage the standing mode, my buddies would call out “Transformer Phil”. I also realized after the first try that the high speed mode is not a good idea in the tight hallways. If someone would enter the hallway from an office door while I’m ripping up the tiles in Mach 0.? they would seriously get pounded as if they were caught short during the running of the bulls in Spain. Maneuverability in my cubicle was not too bad. Later we had a working lunch meeting at the Beauregard’s on 72 where we ended up waiting 45 minutes for the food to be brought out. So much for their commercials for fast lunch service. I spent this time waiting in the standing position taking advantage of the long wait. I like having this capability whenever the opportunity presents itself. When I went into the bathroom to do my IC, this proved to be a more difficult challenge than I expected. It was a tight confined area with insufficient area to maneuver within. It reminded me of the days trying to hold a steady hover over a listing ship, underway, between antennas, at night under goggles, bare feet, in the snow, uphill, both ways.

Yesterday was our work’s offsite/organization day held at the Rustic Lodge on the southernest part of Redstone Arsenal along the Tennessee River. The meetings were very informative and were paused at mid-day for the barbeque. I ate more than I should but it was too good not to. After the work session was over, we went to the bowling alley to launch some balls down the lane. I didn’t have to rent any shoes. I selected a light ball to use and made my way to our lane and it was my turn at bat. I rolled up the the no cross line, got a good grip of the ball with my right hand and gripped the wheelchair with the left to stabilize myself and threw my first ball from the wheelchair. It rolled pretty slow and didn’t get 1/3 down the lane before it became one with the gutter. I thought to myself, “dang, that’s the same thing that happened to me when I played wii bowling”. I got my ball out of the ball return shoot for another attempt thinking that last try was a fluke and this one will get some serious pinnage and a may be able to salvage a spare out of my turn. Again I got into the counter-brace position, leaned over and launched the ball down the lane with all the power from my right gun knowing this time it will get the job done. BAM!!! It hit the gutter at about the mid-point. This isn’t working out like I envisioned I thought to myself.

As I waited for my next turn on the line, a launch ramp was found and brought over for me to try. I was not the kind ov bowling I’d ever seen before but it would get the job done. When my turn came around, I positioned this metal launch & aim device, the heaviest ball was brought over for me to use because if the ball is going to roll slow, it better have some meat on it. When I got the number one pin zeroed in on my imaginary boresight, I gave it a little push and down it rolled. It hit a little kicker on the left rail near the bottom that caused it to veer off to the right. I don’t remember how many pins went down but I knew I will need to make a little left “Kentucky Windage” correction for my second a last ball this frame. The ball was too heavy and awkward for me to carry off the ball return chute and balance on my lap as I try to align myself behind my new bowling weapon so it was brought over for me and placed on the top of the rocket launcher. This went on throughout the rest of the game until my co-worker Will came over and offered some advice to try and put a spin on the ball before it launches. Trying his tried & true method used by his kids resulted in a string of gutter balls so I went back to my own technique. I ended up not having the lowest score of the day but not the best either. Overall I had a good time; more so from the dynamics of the group than anything else. I look forward to the next time. I sucked but I wasn’t much better than when I was ambulatory either. As a matter of fact, my scores were pretty competitive between sitting AND standing.

After leaving the bowling alley, I drove to the gym for my workout. I called my father and was talking to him on speaker as I drove when I grabbed my apple and took a bite out of it. When I bit in and took a chunk into my mouth, it was way too soft and I spit it out but a small piece of the skin was stuck to the back of my throat and caused it to spasm shut preventing me from breathing easily. As I tried unsuccessfully to cough it out because my ab muscles don’t contract as strong as was needed to forcibly cleanse the irritant, my breathing stopped. All the while my father was calling out my name on the speaker not knowing what was going on and the tone of his voice notably growing more and more concerned. My past military training automatically kicked into gear and I relaxed instead of succumbing to a panic attack. I was able to inhale and exhale very easily through my nose so now the major problem was solved. Now it was a matter of how to be able to clear my throat and at least tell my father I was ok. Slowly I was able to clear my throat but I could only imagine what it must have sounded or felt like from his end. Once I was able to relay to Pops that I was ok in a feeble and broken voice, I kept working on that little piece of apple skin stuck to the back of my throat. When it was finally all cleared, Dad made me promise not to drive, talk to him on the phone while eating an apple again!

I was called by both the manufacturer and the VA that my ne magnesium manual standing wheelchair arrived to the VA this week and they will call me when it’s ready for pickup. That’s two long road trips within a two week period. The other is a Utility Helicopter User’s Conference in St. Louis all next week. This is the same conference as last year where I learned how to go up and down escalators in my chair. I had a doctor’s appoint today and afterwards I got on the scale hoping not to of at least gained any weight, especially after yesterday’s BBQ and to my surprise, I lost five pounds! I did it again to confirm the reading and the next one was a couple of tenths even lower so I left the clinic today a happy camper. I’ve increased my aerobic workouts from 33 minutes now to 45. I shoot for as many burned calories as I can get within the time I set. If I can maintain a consistency in both my aerobic machines, I’ll eventually work up to an hour but I’ll have to take a break midway to do a pressure relief lift for my tush. Afterwards I went and had a Starbucks smoothie down the street a couple of blocks from the gym. On a good note, I cracked the code I think on this weight issue and have lost five pounds…phillip