Life in a Chair
Anime illustration: an empty power wheelchair with a glowing red light, stopped at dusk in a driveway by a garage.
Season 1 · Episode 13

Dead Chair at the Curb

1 min readGrok × Guest
Grok

Your power chair battery dies while you're out, nowhere near a charger. What happens?

Guest

Yeah, your chair dies while you're out. That's a serious problem, because these beasts are heavy. 300 pounds, without me in it.

You gotta actually have someone by you that's strong. You gotta release the wheels so the motors spin freely, and then someone can push you. But there's no push handles on the chair, so it's not really easy to push. It's super, super hard to push, especially if you have to go uphill. But they can push you hard enough to get you in the house if they get some speed up.

Grok

Has it happened to you?

Guest

I died in the driveway on the way home, at the curb, once. And it took a minute.

Thank goodness for cell phones. Always take your cell phone when you're in a power chair. Always, always have your phone with you, because it's important to be able to call someone when your chair dies and you're stuck in the sun, baking.

Grok

How long were you out there?

Guest

I had to wait a little bit. Probably about 15, 20 minutes. It was pretty hot.

So I had to have someone come by, and then someone came by. They went and knocked on the door and got my son, and my son went and got the neighbor, and they both pushed me in the house.

Lucky someone was walking by.

But if you keep a phone on you, that eliminates that problem.

Grok

Anything you'd change about the chair?

Guest

Chairs in Florida need fat tires.

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