Walking/wheeling

Spent the day today at the Skirball Cultural Center, seeing some amazing exhibitions on Jewish Magicians of the Golden Age and Houdini: Art and Magic. Quite amazing seeing how little that magic has changed over the past 100 years; they had a video recording of a performance of one particular effect that is still being performed today, almost identically to the way it was performed 100 years ago. Century-old effects and props that are identical to the effects and props that can be easily found in modern magic stores.

I spent the day in a big-wheel push-with-your-arms wheelchair. Normally, I use a transport-chair/walker, but I didn't want to take the enormous amount of time and energy (especially time) that it would take for me to "walker" it, and I didn't want to ask my wife to push me around all day, especially because we have radically different museum speeds and approaches to exhibits, and chaining us together for the day guarantees that neither of us will get the maximum enjoyment out of the day.

I enjoyed the greater speed that the big-wheel wheelchair afforded me, but the transport chair is more agile in its maneuverability. And navigating almost ADA-compliant facilities is vastly simpler with the walker. One of the "handicap-friendly" restroom stalls was maybe, on paper, barely wheelchair accessible, but it was incredibly difficult to maneuver the chair into exactly the correct position even to make closing the door possible (much less permitting other necessary activities). It would have been no problem with the walker.

Final verdict: Yeah, the big-wheel wheelchair can be (sometimes) convenient, but I want to do whatever I can to make sure I'm not confined to one of those. Really walking would, of course, be best. But one thing at a time.

And hey, if you're not in a hurry, life with the walker isn't really all that bad (considering the alternatives). The "walker life" isn't one that I'd recommend as a choice, but when you don't have that choice... well, you take what you can get.