07/17/09: Today marked the 1-yr anniversary of my engaging in OT & PT @ OAM in GR. For the first 3 1/2 months after I returned home from the hospitals, I attended therapies in my residential town. That was a terrific place to begin. By going to GR, I get to work w/ more therapists and use more equipment.

UHAUL installed a hitch onto my Element this morning (8:30 appt). While that happened I triked to PT, which was 6.25 miles away one way). MUCH broken glass along the way and probably more cigarette butts.



I will take you on a tour @ OAM for just a moment: the front doors automatically open and either warm you up or cool you down, whichever is the opposite of the outside temp.

I rode my trike right into the bldg - no bike racks were found outside. I continued on through the bldg to the elevator. PT is on the lower level.

Right outside the elevators on the 1st floor is this beautiful staircase under sky lights. My hand specialist is on the top level. My neck/spine & foot/ankle specialists are on the 1st floor. My chief orthopaedic trauma specialist has an office downtown connected right to the hospital. My physiatrist's office is in the downtown area at another hospital. Ny neuropsychologist & psychiatrist are in a bldg behind where I formerly taught graduate counseling classes @ a satellite office in GR (pic will be farther down this entry).

Traveling from UHAUL to OAM and back required riding on two ultra busy roads. Fortunately, there is a huge, elevated shoulder along both sides of the Beltline. I had an entire "lane" to myself. People were kind and patient at intersections. I made sure to follow traffic rules and to secure eye contact and wave to vehicle drivers before crossing any intersections. I triked through W MI's busiest intersection: Beltline & 28th St. I had to enter the middle turn lane to cross the opposing traffic lane to return back to the UHAUL base. People were generous in giving me space and time to cross lanes. Recently, I purchased a trike rack so it can connect into the hitch. Then I'll be able to have both back seats in my Element and transport my trike on the outside. I'm at my older son & daughter-in-law's house this weekend in Indy. He will help me assemble the rack and learn to attach it to the hitch. (BTW, the 3 of us will ride sometime this wkend -- more blogging to come)

Can you see the dark clouds (pic below)? We've been promised thunderstorms for a few days. The barometric pressure must have been bouncing around today. When my teeth and head begin hurting I know to bring out & swallow the big guns. Actually, it is a very tiny, yet potent pill. I've chosen to keep it in my system; my body warns me when it's wearing out.

Here's the bldg where I use to teach. Behind this bldg is the place where neuro guys work.

Across the street from the brown bldg, as I called it, is the city limit sign . . .

. . . and the Calvin College sign. My camera battery died right before I could take a picture of the walkway over the highway. Calvin is a beautiful campus.

I was astounded by the plethora of cigarette butts on the sides of the roads. I expected some broken glass, but there was more than anticipated. I thot clean up crews managed that after a crash. I had no idea how many cigarette butts are discarded, w/o concern, out the window. Sad.

I missed seeing all the great colorful vegetation of my usual triking grounds. Occasionally, a wild flower forced itself to grow, causing me to smile at its determination to live.

Beautiful life can appear from cracks in hardened "soil". Underneath the hardened exterior has to be soft soil in order for the beauty to grow. That soft, fertile soil is inside each of us. Life wants to grow and produce beauty. So many things can interfere w/ that process. Toxins, poisons, strangulations of various kinds. Sometimes I face good struggles in making a choice to grow in spite of whatever gets thrown my way. Sometimes I throw garbage into my own life (over-eating, eating the wrong kinds of things, allowing the king of lies to tempt me into false beliefs about my abilities, etc). I guess things aren't always what they seem. Or just because someone hangs out with the "crack ups" doesn't mean they are a crack up. Who knows what beauty may burst forth.

Blessings Abound!

~A~