Well folks, I must confess to committing a crime earlier this week. They say the perfect crime happens when no one knows it happens. In my case, I was unaware of even commit committing it.
You may ask, how can this happen?
Well kids, pull up a chair and I’ll tell you a story.
I had an Amazon item to return, and the weather was unseasonably fantastic. With my wheelchair in full battery mode, I set off on an adventure to Kohl’s. The trip with a wheelchair takes about 20 minutes. I cut through the campus of Calvin University. Then I venture through a residential area that leads to a paved path that deposits me conveniently next to Kohl’s.
I was delighted to see a maintenance man working on an automatic door that I reported not working the previous week. Good vibes poured through me seeing this. There’s nothing more annoying for someone in a wheelchair than an automatic door that doesn’t work!
I handed in my return at the Amazon customer service desk and decided to window shop for towels and pajama bottoms. Then I experienced the second most annoying thing to someone in a wheelchair. Store aisles that are too narrow or blocked!
I maneuvered the wheelchair deftly past clothing items. I brushed against a stack of shirts in getting back in the main aisle. I felt a slight jolt and a grinding noise behind me as I rode along unbeknownst of having picked up extra baggage.
The grinding noise stopped after a few seconds and I decided to head back to Hope Network. A kind lady held open the doors for me as I passed through the sensors. No sooner than I got on the front sidewalk when the grinding noise returned.
I had no clue what the problem was. The sound was behind me and toward the ground.
Did I accidentally knock a wheel out of alignment?
As a typical male, I drove the wheelchair in circles thinking it would rectify itself. But it got worse. The noise increased and the chair slowed to a crawl.
There was no way I could make the journey back.
Fortunately, my trusty iPhone was handy for me to make a 911 call to Hope Network.
Josh, a residential staff, came to the rescue with the agency van.
“There’s something wrong with the chair,” I said.
“You have something stuck in your wheel,” he told me.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Let me show you,” he said and took a picture of my left tire.
Yes, a shirt wrapped like a Christmas gift around my wheel.
Josh spent several minutes unraveling the shirt free from my wheel. Home free, correct?
Wrong!
I tried driving towards the van but the chair rocked with each tire rotation.
“Now what is the problem?” I asked.
“There is something wrong with your tire,” Josh said.
He took another picture and showed me this:
Fortunately, a representative from Rehab and Mobility was there. This is the company that made my wheelchair. He wrote down my wheel part number and placed an order to replace it.
So, what did we do with the shirt?
We dropped it off in a shopping cart in the Kohl’s parking lot and called it good. It certainly needed a wash and ironing after latching onto my wheel!
Kohl’s: Expect great things!
Me: Just not attached to my wheelchair please!
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