Chair saga

So.

Yesterday, at the end of church, my chair's side-to-side tilt function half stopped working. It would move left; it would not move right. (And by this, I don't just mean that I couldn't be right-tilted. I mean that I could not even correct any left-tiltedness.)

This led to an awkward and increasingly uncomfortable day. The chair kept getting more and more left-tilted -- sometimes pure accident (the tilt toggle switch thing is within easy reach, which means it can get bumped accidentally), sometimes muscle-memory accident (my brain would notice I'm tilted, and mostly-subconsciously go to fix it, but as the switch is, entertainingly enough, forward-back for a left-right tilt, I never remember which is which, and so sometimes hit the wrong direction first, which is not a problem when I can reverse the tilt, but is a problem when I can't), sometimes semi-intentional (one of the things the tilt gives me is increased reach; much as the wheelchair itself is a substitute for legs, the tilt is a substitute for being able to lean slightly over, and so sometimes I would tilt a bit more on purpose before remembering I couldn't tilt back) -- until it ended the day at full tilt.

Mind you, the tilt only goes ... I think it's 15° ... but that is a fuck of a lot when you are sitting in it. And because of the whole "hi I am completely fucking immobile" thing, I ended up at a very uncomfortable tilt, even after I arranged to have pillows shoved under my left leg so that I was only half as tilty. And because of the whole "hi gravity pulls down" thing, I had the armrest digging into my hip because it was the only thing keeping me in the chair (along with the seatbelt, I suppose, but the seatbelt is designed to keep me from sliding forward, not to keep me from sliding sideways with the chair at full tilt omg). And I kept running into shit because I'm used to driving with my head more or less centered over the chair.

Yesterday was fun.

( So was this morning. )

Upshot: I am back in my proper chair. It does not tilt side to side, either intentionally or accidentally, which is an annoyance but highly preferable to the alternative.

chair saga, part the second

...bother.

I seem to have made my usual mistake, given the company of FAIL, of assuming that fixed meant fixed. (I did this once before: tiltbox indicator light kind of fell down inside the box, and the repairperson put the light back into position but did not test to make sure it worked. It, er, didn't.)

Remember when I said that if the chair is not precisely tilt-centered, it won't go at full speed, and, in fact, goes at a speed that an unmotivated turtle could match?

Either the recentering did not accurately recenter the chair, or the "go ahead and go full speed" logic is tied to the now-unplugged tiltbox, because while I am much more comfortable, the chair is ... well ... slow.

(This is not as bad as last night, when it was slow and tilted. It is, however, highly inconvenient. Especially for, say, tomorrow, when I actually have to go places. [I can get to the localest bus stop in, oh, under five minutes, usually. It will probably take me at least twenty. And if I miss the bus -- which I did thursday, but it's timed such that I can 'walk' there in time; it's nowhere as warm, but it's managable -- I don't have a chance in hell of making it to choir. (I may, in fact, if this is not fixed by tomorrow afternoon, bail on choir on account of chair nonfunctionality.)])

There is a part of me that wants to go see Sherlock Holmes again to cheer myself up, but going anywhere = bad idea. Plus there's the whole money thing...

And to add the last touch of awesome to this already fun & cheery day, the apartment maintenance people have trimmed my roses. Which were in varying stages of full and partial bloom. (And I didn't have a chance to get any; I'd chosen to leave them on the bush because they were pretty, but if I'd had warning of impending snippage I could have clipped some to have at least a few more days of roseness.)

(no subject)

I want to fucking punch something.

(there is nothing around that I can punch, nor can I actually punch anything, but omg what I wouldn't give for a punching bag anyway)

... I would so be buying yarn as therapy, but that requires money. (and I ... kinda overindulged in spending when jmtorres and I went to trader joe's.) and would be counterproductive, in fact, as the type of yarn I would buy is the sort in the twisty skein things, and I have neither a ball winder nor a swift nor the mobility to wind stuff by hand, so it would just be extra super duper frustration.

(I would alternatively be buying office supplies, which is my other comfort food purchandise ... fuck, that isn't even a word, but it amuses me. ... comfort purchasing thing -- particularly, I kind of want a pen that writes smoothly upside down, for purposes of writing in bed, and also decent small-sized but thick notebooks for same -- but again, money, even if I knew where to get such things.)

Instead, I am in WoW smashing stuff in the face. it is amazingly therapeutic.