Ask Jer: Third Edition

Now that you have lived multiple levels of mobility from fully mobile to wheelchair to crutches (and hopefully fully mobile again soon)you have a unique perspective on the challenges most of us don't even realize exist during day to day living. What changes would you make to the world to make life easier for others who live with these challenges everyday. Stores? Restaurants? Airplanes? Schools? Homes?

I can think of two big things that I had issues with.
First is space. The wheelchair, and to a lesser extent crutches, require more space to get around with than walking on feet. At several restaurants I became trapped after patrons sat down at tables. We had to ask people to get out of their seats so that I could get through. Also, at stores that had very narrow aisles I tended to knock a lot of stuff off of shelves.

Second is slanted ground. Going uphill wasn't too bad unless it was really steep. Trying to travel across a slanted surface, however, is incredibly difficult in a chair. You have to spin your wheels at two different speeds. I always expended a lot of energy in those situations.

I didn't get on any airplanes except for the medevac aircraft. I was carried onto those on a stretcher and I remember very little about them anyway. I learned that if you stack morphine and ambien (a sleep aid) you can sleep all the way across the Atlantic.

Houses can be an issue since most of them have a step or steps at the entryway. Door width can also be a knuckle scraping issue.

When you have mastered the remote control Rowbert stupidity elimination program can we send you GPS locations where Rowbert is needed?

Yes. Provided he has enough fuel of course. If we could program him with a limited AI then he could probably fuel himself up. We could also add a prowl feature and he could go searching for stupidites to slaughter.

What happened to your tarantula?

It didn't last too long. I had a wolf spider that I captured underneath the band hall. That spider lasted a lot longer than the tarantula. In the end, though, they both died. I'm not sure what the life span is on them. They both ate quite a few moths though.