As I'm sure many of you are aware by now, I am a disabled individual. I get from place to place mostly using a wheelchair with the occasional use of crutches for harder to reach places. Normally, this isn't anything I need to think about apart from watching out for any stray feet that might wander into my path...but then, snow decides that it wants to show up towards the end of the year and mess up everything. I guess that's what I get for living in New Hamshire, right?

You see, wheelchairs, or at least my wheelchairs, have very thin wheels. They are mostly built for getting around on wooden floors, pavement, concrete or, if I'm feeling adventurous, cobblestone (but very roughly). What they are not built for is materials that are more pliable like sand, grass, rugs, loose dirt or snow. Thankfully, most of these things can be avoided but trying to avoid snow in New England is like trying to avoid Dunkin' Donuts in New England: it ain't happening. Unfortunately, unlike Dunkin' Donuts, snow is not delicious.

So what does that mean for my day to day? That means that, for starters, if I want to even leave my house, my back ramp needs to be shoveled by my PCA (personal care attendant/assistant), a helpful friend or family. If I can't get in touch with any of them, I'm out of luck until the snow melts to the point where I can traverse it. Even then, if I'm able to leave my house, you can almost guarantee that the driveway isn't going to be completely snowless, meaning that I need to remember gloves (something that I frequently do not do) or else my hands are going to be freezing while I move myself around. It's bearable but it's not something that I enjoy putting up with.

You're probably thinking by this point that once I've made it out of the driveway, I'm all set now, right? Not necessarily. You see, my household is something that I can somewhat control. If I need help shoveling, I can just call someone in to do so and if I forget my gloves, that's my own stupid fault. Once I'm out and about, however, I have to start relying on other people to have previously shoveled their storefronts, streets, what have you in order for me to get around there. If any snow is left, it is at best an unpleasant, multiple minute long trek to enter a building that should have taken me seconds and at worst a complete roadblock keeping me from obtaining whatever goal I had set out to accomplish that day. I went to the movies recently and the entire sidewalk in front of the theater was cleaned off EXCEPT for the wheelchair ramp I needed to get up there. That really made me angry.

The point I'm trying to get at here is that I have no idea why I'm still living in New England. The other point I'm trying to get at is that if you are going to run a business or have a guest who has trouble getting around, please shovel for us. If you don't, you might not see us for a couple of months in the year.