Phillip Sherwood

Late Friday afternoon, I stopped by the post office to mail a package. I was in my manual stander wheelchair and had finished what I had to do and got back into the mini-van. I reached backward to grab the aft tie down but it was just a little out of my reach so I rolled back just a bit just a tad to extend my reach when my brakes gave out and I flipped upside down on my head with my feet pointing upward as I was buckled into the chair. This was not a good situation to be in. I first got my keys out of my front pouch in the chair and started the vehicle to get the AC going. After I got myself unbuckled and untangled, I then made repeated attempts to lift myself up and my butt onto the back seat but I kept coming about ½” short. Man, if I only had ab muscles! I reasoned that if I kept going I’d deplete all my strength so I opened the door and flagged down a little guy going into the post office who admitted before commencing that he’s not very strong and he proved that to me real quick although now I was only coming up about ¼” short. I then flagged down another small guy but this one was a bit more stout. With the two of them lifting up on the sides of my pants, I was able to grab hold of the aft seat belt/hand mounts and pull myself up the rest of the ½”.

I then went to the gym but after my stretch, I felt a searing tear in my right shoulder as I crossed my reach to set the chair brakes. Thinking that it may have just been a peculiar position I was in, I did it again but using my left arm this time for the left brake and no problem. I then proceeded to pull up on the rings to lift & extend my chair to stand and chat and BAM! I felt it again. I stopped what I was going to do, turned around, got my keys, went home then on to bed to rest. I was pretty worn out because I didn’t wake up Saturday morning until 11:30am. I was sore Saturday and much less on Sunday but now I don’t feel any pain from that site at all.

This weekend I had the pleasure to see 28 recipients of the military’s highest decorated me all wearing the Medal of Honor. I didn’t realize only 87 remain alive. The 28 were the largest gathering ever in Huntsville. I was quite impressive and what they had to say was equally humbling. I finally had the laundry room painted yesterday usin Benjamin Moore Eggshell Fresh Butter 290 and it was a lot of work for me and I wasn’t the one who even did the painting! I was fortunate that after everything was done and I hooked the home automation system back up that it all worked on the first try! How lucky is that? I then updated the firmware in all the items in the house I could to help stabilize my Home Automation and Home Theatre systems. For some reason I’m really tired today. My next project on the list is the backyard landscaping. This will be a very big project expected to take about two weeks and will hopefully be done before Mom gets here for my birthday. I will be glad when that’s done. The landscaping company hired by the builder did a terrible job and the grass is all uneven. It’s nearly impossible for me to get out onto the lawn to pull weeds without either getting stuck or exerting nearly all my energy to not get stuck. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve called Trugreen® to come out and treat the yard but the effectiveness of their weed application eradication is terrible.