Dispatch # 18
Monday, September 16
"Alec," Minnesota

Awaking this morning in a flood of sunshine, lying still abed, acknowledging sharp pains in my hip, leg and back, retrieving first thoughts of the day, final murmurings of the midnight...

"Thanne," I say, somewhat bemused by the word emerging in my mind.

"What?" says Dressed and Breakfasting Efficiency.

"Did I ever tell you what I named my bike?"

"No."

(NOTE: Thanne doesn't have regular access to the WEB--especially when snatched from home to follow me. Of course she can't know; on the other hand, her response comes so immediately upon my naming the name, that one would think her prescient, or else perpetually a moralizer.)

"Bone Breaker," say I.

And she: "That'll teach you."

+ + +

On the road again at 12 noon today.

+ + +

I've learned much of the basics of the lifestyle of the hip-broken:

--"Good goes up and Bad goes down" may not be so much a theological discussion as an indication of how to climb stairs with one bad and one good leg and crutches besides;

--If some driver parks too close to the doors of the car in which I must ride, I will not ride, for there is no "slipping into" a seat any more; my car doors must open to their full width, and even then the entrance is difficult;

--Wall mounted bars around a toilet do not immediately render the throne handicap-accessible, since a toilet too low (though average height for the better-legged) causes too acute a leg-to-torso angle, and stress on the break;

--Still, as on bikes, do not take the approaching dog for granted;

--Only kindness will tie my shoes hereafter;

--Wear cotton between the armpit and the crutch-pad; rougher fabric will talk to you all night long;

--Those that walk beside the hip-broken must allow for sweeping crutch-tips; nor should the hip-broken himself take for granted the space required for such sweeps, or he will have to decide which is the least destructive way to hit the ground again;

--Even the low chain is a high wall to me, and curbs require consideration.

And so forth and so on, details over which the experienced are right now chuckling, since they know even more than I yet have learned.

Peace, my friends. I am at peace.

Walt