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Blog > Thoughts > Other's Thoughts > Ada's Thoughts > Rainy Sunday

Rainy Sunday

Written by Ada on Wednesday, May 13, 2009

I was up early as I am most weekend mornings. Turns out the only days I *really* want to sleep in are work days. So it goes…

It was a rainy Sunday. There is an historic property about 25 kilometers from my home. It’s a lovely drive to get there and the property is quite vast with a mansion, out buildings, gardens, animals and lots of acreage to explore. I decided to head there this morning and I took my crutch along for the ride.

I’m fascinated by how oddly different people are when I am presenting using a crutch or wheelchair, then when I’m AB.

I have an annual pass to this property in the form of a plastic photo ID. As I crutched up the walkway toward the entrance to the visitor center, I noticed the guard check the floor mats to make sure they weren’t rumpled. I assume he did this for my benefit. He barely looked at my ID before waving me in. I probably could have showed him my passport and he’d have waved me through.

The visitor center was crowded with a school group. I walked down the ramp out of the visitor center and noticed a couple of people looking at me. I moved past the mansion, I didn’t need to do the house tour as I’ve done it a number of times. Besides, there was a line of schoolchildren out the door, and I’m not particularly child friendly, especially rowdy teenagers.

There were a dozen lamb roaming throughout the property, and they were awfully cute to watch and follow. There are several paths that head down to a waterfront area, and I walked down one way and back up a steeper path. A few people stopped to ask me questions about the property. I guess a woman with a crutch is more approachable?? All in all I spent about two hours walking the property and by the time I got back to my car, I was soaked through my parka.

I returned home, parked my car in the garage and headed across the street to the farmers market, using my crutch of course. This is a weekly farmers market all summer and I imagine I will be going there a couple times a month. I bought some plants and returned home.

I changed out of my wet clothes, grabbed my blanket and my book for a read. I’ve started to meet some people in my new building, and now as I’d committed to us the crutch today, I figured I’d head to the public area for a bit and hopefully see some of my new neighbors and they’d see me.

I got there, the room was empty. Damn. I was hoping someone would see me using my crutch. Oh well, now I have to keep using it at least intermittently so people become accustomed to the new me.

All in all it was a good day. Not as good as using my wheelchair, but better than nothing. Presenting as a person with a disability is better than not for sure, no matter what form that comes in for the time being.

Tags: Crutch, Disability, Presenting, Wheelchair

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