Human-Powered Commute Week?

A recent post by renaissancedan reminded me that Bike to Work Week is coming up.

Naturally, since bicycling and walking are both Right Out for me, I thought of driving riding taking the wheelchair to work. I certainly won't be ready to do that by Monday -- I can't even go around the building once I'm here! But it's an intriguing goal. I need goals. It's been way too long since I've had a physical goal.

Wheelie to work. With some thought I could set a timeline for it. Mid- to late June might be achievable.

Exercise Log

Fever broke last night, so I'm officially healthy today. I'm at work. So I took an exercise break!

Today I managed to go once around the building (left turns). The camber is really getting to me -- the way the parking lot is done, going straight ahead with the building on my left is a continuous left turn. It seems I'm braking on the one side as much as I'm pushing on the other. Steering by differential braking is going to be something I learn early. Already the brake mechanism itself is becoming a little more natural for me.

Already, too, I'm a LOT faster in this thing than I am when I'm walking. (On level ground, anyway!) Once my arms get a little more used to this I'm going to be very very tempted to bring it in the building and use it all day.

Right turns tomorrow. If I think ahead I'll time myself. I may wash the wheels, too, at least the part I grab to make myself go. It's grubby enough that I came back inside with dark gray/brown palms.

- Time: ???
- Right arm is screaming at me, left doesn't care
- Mild sweat
- Embarrassment diminishing -- met a coworker, and he just mentioned the weather (phew)
- Current goal: able to go once around without feeling tired

Wheelchair vocabulary

I need vocabulary!

The person not in a wheelchair "walks"; the person in a wheelchair ___________ (rides, wheels, rolls, ???).
A person in a wheelchair is a ______________ (wheelchair user, ???).
A short word for a wheelchair is ______________ (???).
The act of controlling and steering a wheelchair is called ________________ (driving, steering, wheeling, ???).

I'm half tempted to say "wheelie" for just about all of these. I wheelie, you wheelie, he/she/it wheelies. (Or maybe just I wheel, etc.) I am a wheelie, I got my wheelie out of the car, I'm wheelie-ing (wheeliing? why not, "skiing" gets away with the double i). Tempting as it is, however, I couldn't possibly, you see. It would be silly.