CANE AND ABLE and BIKE RIDES

POST # 33


Earlier this week my sister Gerry and her husband Bill came down from Edmonton for a visit. Now before any of my readers think that the theme of this blog is going to be a religious one, please take note of the title one more time. It's Cane and Able, not Cain and Abel. One of the purposes of their visit was to collect a trunk that had various items that had been stored at my mom's house. In that trunk were two canes and I asked Ger to bring them to me so that I could try and divorce myself from the crutches which have been my mode of transport for quite some time now. So since Monday I have been ever more able on my cane(s) hence the title. Although I began the week with both canes, I have now for the most part managed with just the one. But it certainly is another learning curve to go through. But nowadays learning is pretty easy. If you want to know the easy way to peel a banana, just google it, and if you want to know how to walk with a cane, just google it. In fact I only got as far as typing in "how to" and google did the rest with a list of things that I may want to try which included how to walk with a cane.

As the week progressed my cane technique has gotten better, but I still have to remind myself to "walk normal Paul" every now and again otherwise I tend to lean towards the cane side which then puts my hip out of wack, but the learning continues.

Also, in the last few days I have branched out from the stationary bike here in the house, to actually hopping on another bike and going for ever more adventurous rides around the suburbs here. The trick with the bike riding is to make sure that when I come to a stop, to put my left foot down, not my right foot. After years of riding, this is a lot more difficult then I had imagined, so again I find myself talking to myself and this time the words are "left foot first Paul". So far, I have only made the mistake of landing on my right foot once, and the resulting pain helped to reinforce the left foot procedure for the future.

Yesterday I actually went on two rides both lasting about 40 minutes. The first ride took me to a new shopping centre which is close to here as I needed to pick up some fruit. Now "close" is a relative term. If I would have had to walk it on canes or even crutches, I would have not even tried, however with the freedom the bicycle provides, it was an easy ride. While still at the store, there was a huge cloudburst which dropped tons of rain down in a matter of about 30 minutes or so. When the sun came back out I ventured outside and sat down on a bench while I waited for my bicycle seat to dry off. It was interesting to just observe my location. Here I was sitting in a huge shopping centre complex with probably a hundred or so shops and a parking lot with anywhere between 500 and 1000 cars and the whole time I sat there, I was wondering about the feasibility of this arrangement as we head towards the future. This has become the norm now in North America. First, build sprawling new suburbs, and then put in a central shopping point that all the members of the new community have to drive to in order to feed themselves. Even if we weren't heading towards an energy starved future, which I happen to believe that we are, this type of set up certainly doesn't lend itself to a feeling of community. Everyone arrives in their little home on wheels, does their thing at the shopping centre and then heads back to their palace in suburbia, without hardly interacting with anyone along the way. One is almost forced to use a car to shop these days and that is one of the big problems as far as I can see. I can't help but think that this is a very weak link and that at some point down the track, that link will break and then who knows how the suburbanites will react.

With the sun doing its job of drying out my bike seat, I proceeded to peddle back home, and then later in the evening I went on yet another ride, as it was just such a beautiful night, and it seemed a shame to not get out and enjoy it and watch the sunset over the Rockies.

My friends will be back this coming Monday, and then I will be on the road again, first to Edmonton for a visit and then eventually back to Vancouver for my next housesit. Leaving this little piece of country in the city will be difficult, but such is the life of a wandering housesitter.

I arrived here on crutches but I will be leaving on a cane and I am much more able as a result.

That's all for now,

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer