Outing Wednesday May 25th.

Friends of Ed;

          I am planning to take father to the Centralaires concert at the Aviation museum this coming Sunday and I thought it wise to do a trial run to find out what the problems might be. Today was a beautiful day so I drove over to Alta Vista Manor with the idea of doing an outing. The on street parking was full so I had to use the parking lot. This meant that I approached the Manor from the side opposite father’s room. He was sitting out on the patio and he noticed me coming in and waved which quite surprised me – he was obviously being very alert! After getting a few things squared away I got father into the wheelchair with the portable oxygen and wheeled him out to the car after signing him out at the front desk. He was able to get into the car quite easily.

          We then drove down to Beechwood Cemetery and he transferred from the car back to the wheelchair.  I wheeled him along the stone pathways which was quite easy and then over the grass to mother’s marker. The wheelchair doesn’t roll over the grass nearly as well as the pathway but it wasn’t too bad. We stayed there for quite a while chatting and remembering things. I then wheeled him back to the stone path and along to one of the big round intersections where I parked the chair as father wanted to try walking a bit. This he did very well for about 100 metres. I carried the oxygen tank slung over my shoulder and walked at his side, but he didn’t need any help at all. It was great to see! When we got back to the wheelchair I took him on a gentle 45 minute walk around the pathways. It was a glorious day… Bright and sunny, a nice temperature, gentle winds, the birds chirping, the trees rustling in the breeze...

          We then drove back to Elmvale acres, taking the Beechwood / Vanier Parkway / Alta Vista route for variety. I drove slowly down Tweed Ave so father could look at his house, but we didn’t have time to go in. We got back to AVM about 16:45, so there were quite a few people waiting to go into the first dinner seating. I took father over to the piano and he did some playing – which garnered a bit of applause. I think he really could do better though if he put his mind to it – he doesn’t like that piano. Stiff action and some of the keys are sticking. At 17:00 we went in to dinner and table 5 had a couple of ladies at it today so father got into some good conversations with them.

          All in all we spent almost 4 hours out of his room and the oxygen tank still said about half full so perhaps the oxygen duration may not be as much of a problem as I thought. I wonder whether the chart I consulted is wrong, or is perhaps for a smaller tank. Maybe the flow rate is actually lower than marked on the dial or maybe the gauge is wrong? More testing is required, I guess.

          Vince