Well more freedom than I have had since I fell and fractured my skull back in January. As of my doctor's visit today, my vision is back to normal and I am allowed to drive once again.
You cannot imagine how imprisoned I have felt over the past months. While I do live in the country, I am not that far out, but it is a four mile trip to the grocery store. Forcing me to depend on others to taxi me back and forth for almost everything I needed has been frustrating.
I think what made it worse was the fact that I had 3 perfectly good vehicles sitting there gathering dust. Well my car not so much as the girl friend would drive my car for my appointments and other things due to it getting so much better gas mileage than hers. Once it did sit for so long I had to jump it off. My 94 Bronco sat long enough the battery died it it, but it sits high enough she can't get into it without a step stool.
Now my old reliable 2002 F150 4x4 sat from January until June with no one going near it. It fired right up and ran like a dream. Pulled it up under the shade tree in the backyard Monday and began installing new nerf bars (side steps) on it as the old ones were getting pretty badly rusted and not reliable to use as a step to get in. And of course it also sits to high for the girl friend to get it without the nerf bars.
When I called it quits for the day I quickly found out why our 14 year old daughter was so insistent on the two of us working on the truck that day. She has always said she hasn't one bit of interest in learning to drive a car, although she had told me for some time now that she wanted to learn to drive my Bronco. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the way I drive over logs and things in it instead of around.
She found out Monday, when I pulled the truck into the yard and jumped over the railroad ties that keep people from driving into my yard, that I drive the truck the same way as the Bronco. So after she went on about wanting to drive my truck, I tossed her the keys and gave her her first driving lesson in the back yard. It was pretty short, roughly 100 feet in a straight line, but she was way to excited and nervous to do more than that. She ran into the house to tell her mom all about it.
Comments
Happy Days
Congratulations on your escape! I do feel your pain since I have been on driving lockdown for nearly a year. Something about getting dizzy and falling over but no medical reason has surfaced yet other than idiopathic Parkinsonism. Here's hoping you can also return to writing!!
BTW -- I used to use an IH Scout to skid logs from the forest (50+ years ago) so let your daughter loose with the Bronco!
Dizziness
I know what you mean about the dizziness. For the first month and half after getting hurt my balance was terrible and my daughter would walk right beside me so she could try to catch me if i began to fall. It still happens but very rare now and having a cane allows me to catch myself.
I always thought IH Scouts were very well built vehicles for off road. I had one years ago with what was called a "half an eight" engine. One thing I do miss in 4x4's is the dual shifters for the transfer case that old Scout had. I found having the ability to shift between 4 wheel drive, front wheel drive or rear wheel drive gave it so much more versatility if something happened to one of the drive shafts or axles.
I've had many 4x4 vehicles over the years. Actually needed them back in those days as my grandmother's house and my parent's house were both heated by wood and having a 4x4 truck allowed me to haul fire wood off our acreage back to their houses.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Glad to hear it.
It's good to hear that you're recovering so well. I was wondering earlier this week how you were doing. I considered PMing you to ask, but got busy and didn't. You've save me the trouble.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Figured an update was long over due
With all the doctor's visits and therapy I've been going to I haven't had as much free time and one would think, at least not time that I'm not exhausted or sleeping.
It's hard to believe that its been 6 months since I got hurt. Although progress is slow, things are getting better. My vision is damn near perfectly what it was before the injury. Retraining my brain to focus my eyes together consisted of weekly 3 hour round trip drive to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to a special clinic over the last 4 months.
My strength and stamina are crap, a trip to the grocery store wears me out so badly that I end up needing a nap when I get home. I just started therapy for that.
My sense of smell is broken. It isn't gone, it's changed in a way that some smells no matter what they are, smell really terrible. Its so bad it can gag me and make me feel like i'm going to throw up. Other things I can't smell at all. It really makes it fun trying to find something to eat.
And one last thing which the doctors don't find as important as I do. I have lost most of the fine motor skills in my right hand. It takes me several minutes to write a single check and i must concentrate on each letter i am trying to form in cursive, that includes my own signature. This problem extends to playing any of my banjos, as I have lost all the muscle memory for the 3 finger picking style I use.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Guess you'll have to try
Guess you'll have to try clawhammer?
It's great you can actually get out and about again. With the other issues, walking 4 miles wouldn't have been a good idea.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
What? You've got to be kidding!
It's bad enough that when I go back home to visit I get called a "Damn Yankee" since I moved north of the Mason-Dixon line. I play clawhammer style and I'll lose all my hillbilly cred!
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Yeah? My family's Canadian,
Yeah? My family's Canadian, but I was born outside of Houston, Texas. play whatever you want. Clawhammer is just as back woods as picking. (Note that in the movie Deliverance, the filmed playing didn't match the actual playing style of the music)
Sit on the porch of my grandparent's old house in West Virginia, and play whatever you feel like. Don't _ever_ call any of them Yankees. :) (land is now some sort of business now, the corn fields are full of vehicles from the Google satellite view)
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.