... he's up and he's out!

After eight months indoors, in the same room actually, B was able to get outside today. We finally had the right combination of good weather and someone available to help me get him into his wheelchair and we took advantage of it.

The physiology of his spinal cord injury is that he's not able to sit up straight enough to be in a wheelchair for longer than a couple hours. Four hours is his normal limit although luck and circumstance have worked together at times for him to sit up for six hours. At our wedding reception he broke his personal record and lasted for about eight hours. His drinking a lot of brandy that night helped.

Anyway I got him put in his chair, went through a scary moment when his blood pressure dropped suddenly and he nearly fainted - this is typical for the first few times during his "going out" season - and off we went after first making a stop in the new kitchen so he could see it first hand.

He approves. Loves it in fact.

B has to build up his wheelchair sitting endurance so we limited ourselves to a short outing in the neighborhood. We have a favorite lakeside cafe that we frequent in the summer but it's a bit far for him to drive to on a first of the season outing to we went down the block to a pub and sat outdoors. The tables were filled so we (my MIL went with us) shared one with an older man who proceeded to run his mouth like it were a sewing machine. A nice enough fellow but he prattled on and on about nothing. I tuned him out and just watched people walk by or get on and off the streetcar. My MIL liked it though. She talks to anyone. Get in a taxi with her and she'll have the driver's life story by the time you get to the first stop light. She'd talk to a fence post if she thought it would talk back.

All in all it was a good first outing and we're going to try to get out again Saturday or Sunday. Tomorrow is out - no one available to help me get B in the wheelchair.