I'm Getting New Wheels!

Boy, am I excited! Thrilled might be a better word because at long last I'm getting new wheels. Just about everyone knows that feeling of anticipation while waiting for delivery. Nothing else is quite the same.
Now don't get me wrong, we're keeping our 12-year-old Toyota Camry with only 34,100 miles on the odometer. Only an idiot would get rid of a car like that. Having it parked outside in no way diminishes the pleasure in knowing the new wheels will be delivered in two or three weeks.
It will have just about everything a person could hope for - comfortable seat, great brakes that bring you to a halt on the proverbial dime, four wheels that roll so freely you have to hustle to keep up.
Keep up, you say? Hold on just a minute; surely you didn't think I was talking about a new car? What I'm getting is a rollator.
There are people who never heard of a rollator and I admit to being one of them until yesterday when I visited the Veterans Administration clinic. That's where I looked one over for the first time, kicked a couple of tires and took a test walk.
I want to make it perfectly clear that we are not discussing a walker. Not even a walker with a couple of little wheels in front. I would rather be lashed against a pole while surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves than use a walker. Those are for old guys who act their age, not for someone like me.
No, a rollator is nothing at all like a walker. Well, not much anyway. A rollator has four big wheels the size of those on a Soap Box Derby car. Or the kind you used to see on a boys' wagon that was piled up with stuff and pulled along the sidewalk before kids quit going outside the house.
The brakes are fantastic. The seat, while not exactly a recliner, is comfortable as can be.
The doctor at the VA, the best one I've had anywhere, asked if I did much walking to exercise my legs.
"No," I told her, "because it's a Catch-22 situation. My legs could do with a little more walking for the exercise, but lack of exercise has left my legs in no shape for walking."
So she sent me right down to the physical therapy department to be fitted for my rollator. When I got home I looked it up and found it costs $149. Not for me, though. Coming from the VA, it's free.
So now I'll do plenty of walking, but only after customizing my rollator a little. Can't have it looking like any old rollator you might see out on the street. I have a few ideas in mind. Maybe a little sign out front reading, "Dick Stodghill is here." A bicycle bell, or maybe one of those little horns with a rubber bulb you squeeze. Perhaps a short pole with a small flag, stuff like that.
There is one thing about a rollator that requires a bit of caution. They roll along briskly so you have to keep that in mind when starting down a hill. It would be very easy to find yourself running like an Olympic dash man just to keep up with the rollator as it was flying along like the hounds of hell were in hot pursuit. Slamming on the brakes would not be an option at that point. The rollator would stop dead in its tracks and the unlucky person running to keep up would go somersaulting over the handlebars. On the other hand, the alternative might be even worse if a cross street with heavy traffic lay ahead. That could never happen to me, of course. Could it?

http://www.dickstodghill.com/