No way am I giving her a bag of candy

Thursdays is Milk day. We got up early, did all our usual routine, and headed out the door.

At first, I wasn't very impressed with the driver, but she grew on me. We were in the big van - see photo.

It has seating for about a dozen, plus a couple of wheelchairs. It has a hydraulic lift (look for the yellow), on the side. It lowers to the ground, the client rolls their wheelchair onto the lift, and then the lift raises up. When it gets to the top position, the back flap drops down to the client can roll onto the vehicle.

We observe this in action daily. Today, we saw something we'd never seen before. A lady was already onboard the van, she uses an electric wheelchair. We dropped her off at work, she was unloaded, and then off we went.

We had to drive 5 miles away from work, towards the next client. Ha! I knew all those straight trips would come with a price tag. We pulled up, and a very, morbidly, obese client was waiting in her electric scooter.

I have ranted quite a bit about the scooters. I think the scooters are terrible for people with disabilities. I have seen people who could walk hundreds of feet, so debilitated a few months after getting a scooter that they couldn't even stand upright for 2 minutes. It just seems, in my estimation, to make people worse!

I have also been told, that the store scooters that are so popular are only rated for 250 pounds. One greeter told me they are supposed to lie to the very heavy people and tell them the scooters are "being charged" when in fact, the real story is "You'll break the scooter if you'll ride it".

Not to mention, the scooter only works as long as it can be charged up. After a natural disaster, the power's off. Not a good idea to depend (if at all possible), on something like that. Better to use what you've got to the best of your ability; like my husband does. He walks as much and as far as he can, then uses the manual wheelchair. Even in the chair, he carries things in his lap, does lifting, and moves himself around.

The first lady on the van was paralyzed, she had to use an electric wheelchair. The second lady could walk, but chose not to. More on that.

So, the client rolls onto the lift, which is on the ground. Horrible heaving and grinding noises. HORRIBLE noises, all of a sudden a loud BANG and alarms. She was so heavy, she had broken the lift.

I have been told the lift has a capacity for about 600 pounds. The client weighed easily 550. I have been told the electric scooters weigh a couple hundred pounds, so you can see it wasn't a big surprise.

So, that was awkward. We're sitting there in the apartment complex. The lift hydraulics are leaking fluid like they've been shot. They're obviously; SHOT. I'm horrified. What do you say? I got out my knitting and focused.

The driver gets off and murmurs to the client. The driver gets on and asks me to move to the back of the vehicle. Then the client bounds up out of her scooter and climbs the stairs, sitting down.

My thought at the moment: "No way am I giving her a bag of candy". The driver does everything possible to get the lift working, but it's completely dead. Second thought "Why in God's name would you ride up, when you can walk?" She moved better than Ron.

The driver contacts dispatch. They try to troubleshoot, but it's DEAD. Ron calls and tells them, we need to get to work. Can we get another ride? The lift is down, on the ground, outside the vehicle. The van will not be moving anytime soon.

The other client starts shrieking about needing another ride (She is not going to work). I am terrified, at this point, that they will send the same type of van; the client will attempt to ride the lift as before, and break the replacement. It seems valid. Ron happily informs me we are getting a CAB - no way can the other lady fit into a cab. She gets angrier.

She starts shouting about Metrolift and their "Raggedy @ss vans". I wanted to say, it's not the van's fault. I've seen this happen twice, clients riding in the scooter who broke the lift.

At this point, I am frankly furious at this client. Because she was lazy, she is making us late for work. Because of her choices, I am stuck in a hot van (the lift doors won't shut when the lift is down), listening to an entitled, self-rightous, monster shouting at the driver. "They all have it in for me!" she shouts after hanging up with dispatch. "It's not MY fault" she continues, going on about how Metro needs to buy "better" vans.

Because of my temper, I did a lot of praying. I asked God to help me to have thoughts pleasing to Him. To help me not to say, do, or act in any way that wouldn't honor him. I did a lot of pleading with God to let me be a better person than I want to be.

I am absolutely dying to say "It's your own damn fault! If you had done some table push-aways, and fork put-downs, you would be skinny enough to drive yourself around. Instead, you are literally EATING up my tax dollars. You know, Medicare pays for Lap-band. You really ought to consider it and do ALL OF US a favor!" Thank God I take my medication; I didn't say it. I barely even thought it.

"Heather, get off the van!" The thought came to me and I immediatly acted. I told Ron "I think we'd better stretch out, don't you think? Let's get off and walk for a bit." Oh, great idea. Ron immediately caught on. "Let's get away from this toxic cloud!" our mutual thought. We don't have "the look" but we do have some kind of equivalent.

Up to this point, I almost felt bad for the other client. How awful to have an obesity problem so bad you can't even ride a wheelchair lift.

Her legs were very thick and stuck out into the walkway. I looked back as I got off, watching Ron's feet so he didn't trip, or accidentally step on her feet.. She DELIBERATELY stuck her foot out as Ron walked by, making him trip and almost fall out the open lift door 5 feet to the ground.

I looked at her face. I like to believe the best of people. Maybe it was an accident? She had a waste-eating grin. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I make you trip?"

THEN she smirked at me.

B!tch.

I turned my back on her, helped Ron off, and we went and sat on a curb. Happily our rescue ride came pretty fast. WE got into the van, and I could still hear her raised voice going on about how it wasn't her fault, where was her ride, everyone had it in for her.

Huh. Imagine THAT.