Wednesday

"I can't help him" the driver told me "Or I'll get in trouble."  I stared at Ron, struggling to move himself on his rolling walker (he was sitting on the seat).  I couldn't believe it.  I ended up helping Ron instead. 

The driver had taken "You can't transport someone sitting on a walker" to mean "You cannot help someone on a walker" and was forcing the clients (there was another one who was even worse off than Ron) to do for themselves.  I came very close to calling in a formal complaint on the driver, but Ron said he would "fire himself". 

Maybe when someone falls off their walker and hurts themselves, he will understand the difference between assist and transport.  And I thought I was literal! 

I'm still upset about that. 

I got to sleep in and wake up at 6 AM.  I took my shower, did my God Time later, and off to the warehouse.  I got 3 cases of chips.  We had to wait an hour on our pickup. 

We had the driver I already mentioned.  I didn't like him one.  bit.  I was pretty clear on that, too. 

I was really upset when I saw how he treated the other client, an elderly, obese woman who could barely bend over to pick her purse off the floor.  He forced her to propel herself from the vehicle to her front door, seated on the walker (which is really hard).  Yes, she really should have been in a wheelchair, but people can be surprisingly stubborn about things like that.  Ron has always been happy to use the wheelchair but pitched a fit when I bought him a support cane because "Only old people use a cane".  But he'll use a wheelchair anytime. 

The other lady told me she had just buried her husband.  She was clearly pretty broken up about it.  She was struggling to balance her packages as she sat on the walker, and it was so upsetting to me I turned away. 

I made a big point of helping Ron down the stairs, just so the driver would feel bad.  When we got into work they told us they would be waxing in front of our area, in about an hour.  We had to rush to do all the "stockroom" stocking and do our inventory, put up the carts, etc. 

We did that. 

We managed to finish 'most everything in time, and left around our pickup.  It was raining.  I held the umbrella over both our heads but Ron complained it was "poking" him and pushed it to the side.  Our ride came pretty fast and we went home. 

I took a nap for a couple of hours and then got up.  I had a moderate headache and took some aspirin.  Ron was still asleep so I left him alone.  I did some of my God time (Isaiah) and did the prayer portion when we got back from dinner. 

We went out to dinner at a cheap place and had a good meal.  Paratransit left us there for over an hour, though, so Ron left a good tip to compensate the waitress.  I like that about him, he is very respectful of service providers, and generous. 

I got my hashbrowns extra crispy and they were delicious.  If you've ever eaten potato sticks (they may just be a Southern thing) it was like a whole mound of delicious potato sticks.  Yum. 

I had a couple diet sodas, I hope I don't regret that when I try to sleep tonight. 

When we got home I finished my God Time and fed the cats.  They love their canned salmon in gravy, still, thank God. 

Although, if I end up with a surplus of cat food I know now how to get to the shelter. 

Oh, I'm tired.  My headache wants to come back so I will probably need to take some more aspirin.  Yeah, it's been more than 4 hours so I ought to be OK. 

We haven't heard anything back from Ron's medical providers but I will also check my email. 

It's been a long day.