Day 112 - Wheelchair shopping

It was a pretty normal night. In bed at 23:00 and finally asleep at 01:00, and up at 08:00.
Maddie has a hair appointment, and there is a nice coffee shop that I like, next to the hair place.

I drove us there, and I sat, drank coffee, and read, till Maddie finished next door.
When I arrived at the coffee shop, the manager was giving a talk to the staff. He was a large Afrikaner about 30 years old. He looked very like a rugby player on steroids. The way he was talking to the staff was like from the apartheid era. Not with the words he used, but with the tone of the words. The government can legislate the words you can say, but how do you legislate voice tone?
As I finally got to the top of the steps, one young waiter came over and started moving a table and chairs away to give more room for me with my crutches. The boss man yelled at him saying " Hey!. If you want to keep working here, you better listen to me when I am talking to you."
The boss man never even looked at me. I gave the waiter a good tip.


It is funny, but most of the times I get a good feeling about the future of this country, is from encounters with young black people. Not from agood work ethics, or a good education, but from a "good manners" point of view. They seem to have a built in respect for an old, crippled, man. It must be a cultural thing.

I then drove us to a wheelchair store. It was a large store and just wheelchairs. The manager showed us the 4 chairs that seemed to fit my needs best. One had too few features, one was just right, and one had too many bells and whistles. Then she showed a very nice $$$ one.
The best folding wheelchair was R80,000 ($6,000). That is more than I paid for the car. The one I liked best was still expensive at about R10,000 ($725).

There are many things about this chair that I like. The front caster wheels are large, and as a free option, can be fat  carpet friendly wheels. The main tires can be either solid rubber (no flats), or pneumatic bicycle tires. The air filled tires are lighter, and they allow varying the tire pressure depending on terrain.
The main wheels come off very easily to make it easier to load and unload in the car.
From my hip to the end of my stump is 53cm. (21in.) All the chairs we have looked at have a set base depth of 40cm (15in). That means my stump hangs over the edge, and hurts after only a few minutes. The cheap, old chair we are borrowing, also has a 40cm base, so I have to put a large book under the stump, and a towel on top. The chair I like, can come with a 53cm long seat base for an extra R500 ($40).
The armrests height is not adjustable, but they do fold back out of the way so you can fit under a table, like to eat, or compute. The length of armrests is important because I use them to help get up out of the chair. Some armrests are only about half length, and don't help at all.
This chair comes with little wheels that stick out the back to prevent falling backwards. They adjust many ways to stop tipping right where you want it to.

I am wondering if me going to George with Maddie is a good idea. I would like to see where she lives, but that money would probably be better spent on a better wheel chair.

Lots to think about.
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