Love Rolls On

I completely admit, the first time I drove Barton’s wheelchair in Arizona, I tore off his bedroom door at his apartment, and I admit when we moved into our new house, I got his wheelchair stuck in the bathroom doorway for over twenty minutes with us still inside. But I’m not responsible for all the damage in the house from Barton’s wheelchair.

In fact, Barton and I have dibs on who makes the most dents in the hallway walls. Our hallway is speckled with dents, scrapes and patches of white spackle where we’ve repaired the larger crash damage. 

For now, we’ve taken three doors out and ripped off the trim, making our 1960’s house as accessible as possible. It’s not pretty, but it’s functional. There’s a black scuffmark ring around the entire house where Barton has scraped his boots against the wall or door or the handlebars on the closet door. Yes, I have harped, to no avail, on the dents on the oven, couch or bed when he uses them to shift his weight back in the wheelchair.

And how many times do I have to remind Barton not to let the dogs sit in his lap with the wheelchair still on! (Oh, the fun of a dog-driven wheelchair)

And you thought I was kidding.

While it’s wonderful to dream that Extreme Home Makeover would rebuild a glamorous accessible house with plenty of room, we realize that most likely that will never happen. So we pick one big project a year to tackle.

Obviously when we moved in, a solid ramp was priority number one. And when our work schedules shifted, we had an electric lock installed. Still on the list: expanding the doorways, renovating the bathroom…    – it’s a long list.

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When I look at household chores, yes, for the most part I take them on, but don’t be fooled, Barton takes on quite a bit, too. We live within walking distance to a shopping mall, which has everything we need- bank, grocery store, post office. So there are many times when I will send Barton to run errands. And Barton always meets me in the driveway to bring groceries into the house.

While I may be the hands of doing physical house or yard work, Barton is usually right there advising me on the best way to get it done, especially when it comes to yard work.

So there is one thing that does irk me about housework: they’re called wheelchair tires. While manual wheelchairs have smooth tires, which are somewhat thin, motor wheelchairs have real tires, treads and all. And if you know Barton, he can’t stand to stay on pavement. It’s really gross when he gets stuck in the mud after it’s rained- grass, wet mud and dirt is caked all over the tires & wheelchair. And then he comes in the house- usually just after I’ve swept or vacuumed. Never fails. I can always tell when Barton’s been off-roading. There are tire tracks with bits of mud or dirt trailing through the house. We also have two Labrador Retrievers so multiply the wheelchair tracks by two sets of doggie paws, and you’re in for a whole mess.

It’s taken a while, but I don’t have a fit anymore- dare say that I may even wait to clean it up the dirt tracks down the hallway. I’ve learned to let go (okay, okay, still learning) of needing everything to be obsessively clean. Eventually, the dirt trails get swept or washed away until the next rainfall.

So we don’t have the most pristine house. So what. Our house has character.

Did I mention the dents in the walls? Oh, maybe next time.

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