Outdoor School

Portland public schools have been running
an outdoor school program since 1966. It's
tons of fun, or so I've heard. Mention it
to a person who attended Portland public schools
in 6th grade, and they all say, "Oh! Outdoor
School is so much fun!" The kids spend 5
nights in the woods. Every 6th grader goes.
My daughter goes next month.

Yesterday there was an orientation at the camp-
site. It was basically for the parents to see
where their kids would be for 5 nights. I was
extra thankful for my iBOT because I could
not have toured the place without it. The
paths were gravel and sloped, but the iBOT
handled it with no problems. The dining hall
had a step. Again, no problem for the BOT.

I would not have gotten a look inside the
cabins without the BOT because of the
step.

Check out the view. (Also would have been
inaccessible without the iBOT.)

On clear days, you can see the beautiful Mt.
Hood.

Lucky kids! I didn't grow up in Oregon, so
I never went to Outdoor School. I grew up
in rural WI, and we never did anything like
this.

Biden tells para to stand up

This is hilarious.


http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=42554124

I bet Biden feels like an idiot. He shouldn't
though. That kind of thing happens often. I
thought he handled it pretty well.

McCain stole my bot.

What a jerk.

Comment from a reader

The following is a comment left by an iBOT user.
I wanted to put it "out here" because I think
it's valuable information.

I use an iBot in the mountains of Colorado at 10,000 ft where there's no pavement or sidewalks. On the plus side, the 4wd function is outstanding for accessing places off road, off path and when there's snow, mud, sand, obstacles, etc. The standing function is great for taking walks with friends, reaching high and for viewing over objects (I've used it to get an unobstructed camera angle at times), but don't use it in a public place if you want to be left alone - it's a real attention getter. Most stairs are climbable if there are handrails and your PT has certified you to use them, or if you have a trained assistant along. Very fast in standard mode - 7.8 mph.

My gripes: No suspension - traveling over rough ground can be jarring. Pneumatic tires - no option, I'm just waiting to catch that nail or large thorn when I'm far from home. Joy stick too sensitive - very hard to move slowly and smoothly, especially on rough ground. Tight spaces are a no-no in balance or 4wd - the computers and gyros will try to compensate for external forces - not good. Stairs are scary - never had a problem, but I avoid them when I can. You need to practice often to keep confident. It is not invincible, I have been stuck in 6 inches of snow. It has got to have grip - in all functions. Last, I wish the footrests could be adjusted closer to 90 degrees. They can't because of the large front casters.

In my opinion, the gripes are minor inconveniences compared to the benefits. The iBot will go places and do things that absolutely no other chair can. That being said, I'll still use my power assisted manual chair most often. It's more comfortable, smaller and keeps me more active. Hope this helps.

Brent

--------

Thank you Brent! I agree with every thing you said.

First day of school

My daughter started her first day of Middle
School today. I was waiting out front with
her and her friends for the bell to ring when
a few buses pulled up and kids and more kids
piled off the buses, completely surrounding me.
In my manual chair, I would have gotten a bit
panicky.... everyone towering over me....
backpacks in my face. Thank goodness I was
in Balance Function.

One important thing to remember, turn the speed
to 0 in situations like this. My joystick was
bumped numerous times by backpacks and other
typical Middle School age kid actions. Like
OMG, someone could have bumped my joystick and
I could have totally ran over that guy who looks
just like Joe Jonas!

State Fair

My apologies for not being here in over
a month. Time goes by so fast.

An update about the flat tire problem
I was having - the new rim strips seem
to be doing the job! I have not had
any flats since they were put in.

And now on to other things...

I took my daughter and a friend of hers
to the State Fair yesterday. I knew I was
going to spend a lot of time sitting around
waiting for them while they went on rides,
and I knew that if I spent a lot of time
sitting around while in Balance, a ton of
people would ask me about the bot. I was
right. I didn't get 10 feet through the
entrance before someone asked me about it.
We were there for about 4 hours, and I'm
estimating that 40 people talked to me
about it. I was going to keep track of
it, but I quickly lost count.


What is interesting to me is who was most
interested in it. Actually, not so much
who was most interested in it, but who
was willing to ask me about it and what
they asked. Most of the people who talked
to me were women around my age. Some of
them wanted to know how it balanced, but
most of them just wanted to know how it
affected my life. There were also quite
a few men who wanted to know how it
balanced. None of the men asked me how
it affected my life. No, actually one guy
did say, "How do you like it?", but all
the other guys just wanted to know how it
worked. There were two elderly men who
couldn't believe what they were seeing.
One of them was so worried that I was
going to tip over. He literally asked
me questions, walked away scratching
and shaking his head, turned around and
came back seconds later and asked me more
questions, walked away again scratching
and shaking his head, and then he turned
around again and asked me more questions!
It was amusing. I bet he's still trying
to wrap his brain around it.

There were two young boys who asked me
a bunch of questions about how it worked
and what it did. They were probably about
12 years old. When I was explaining how
it had gyroscopes in it, one of them said,
"Oh, kind of like the Segway!". They were
smart boys. Future engineers/inventors? I
really like it when kids ask me about it and
when they are obviously fascinated by it like
those two boys were.




The other thing I wanted to write about was that
for the first time in my life, I actually really
enjoyed the fair. Growing up, I went to the
Minnesota State Fair all the time because my
parents took me there. I hated it. People
stared at me and I felt like a freak. Back then,
"freaks" were still a part of the fair and whenever
we went to that section of the fair, I was afraid
that people would think I escaped from my cage.
Really, I did. As an adult, I've never enjoyed
things such as state fairs because they are always
dirty and crowded. A person in a manual chair
gets his/her hands and arms filthy because of this,
and having a view of people's butts is, in my
opinion, not fun. Going to the fair yesterday
in the iBOT made it so much more enjoyable. I
was not looking forward to going, but after being
there for a while, I didn't want to leave. And
I'm thinking about going back again tomorrow. The
change the iBOT has made in my life is amazing.

PAWS wheelchair

Whoa, I'm digging this chair:



Love how you can keep the wheels in the same
position and spin the seat.

TopChair

I'm really interested in this chair and there
is very little information about it on the
internet. Check this out though:

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/topchair/comment3E.htm

Their webpage says the project started in 2001, but
I'm wondering how long it's been on the market.
Selling price? Can you raise the seat so that
you are eye level with a standing adult? Does
it go through sand and gravel? These are the
things I need to find out.

Another stair climbing wheelchair

Whoa, I know nothing about this chair other than
what I see in this video and what I've read on
their website, but this looks really great for
stair climbing. Better than the iBOT even.
The stair climbing function is the biggest
disappointment about the iBOT.



The sad thing is, it'll probably never go anywhere
because there's no money in it since Medicare
would classify it as a "luxury" and therefore
not pay for any of it which means most people
wouldn't be able to purchase one, just like the
iBOT. There is amazing technology out there and
there could be a completely knock your socks off
wheelchair, but someone brilliant and well-known
like Dean Kamen has to be behind it, and a
huge company with tons of money, like Johnson
and Johnson, has to market it.

Frustrating.

What to do when you have a flat

The iBOT manual says to not drive the iBOT
if it has a flat. In my opinion, that's a
ridiculously unrealistic statement. These
tires are not easy to get on and off. The
guy at the bike store yesterday who had
experience and proper tools took at least
15 minutes and a whole lot of swearing to
change just one tire. (He didn't swear
out loud, but I know that it's a lot of
work and I'm pretty sure some bad words
were said in his head!) I know I wouldn't
be able to change a tire myself, and I'm
not about to a) carry the proper tools with
me wherever I go and b) ask an average person
to change it for me. In addition to not
being able to change it myself or ask a
Bob Smith to do it for me, there is no emergency
wheelchair flat tire fixing service such as
AAA. I can't even call a friend to come
pick me up because I can't get the iBOT
into their cars. I could call a cab, but
finding one with a wheelchair lift to come
out right away probably wouldn't be easy.
A reader of this blog suggested public
transportation, which is a great idea...
however, I haven't looked into that yet.
I don't know if they'd be able to take
me to my house, or just the nearest bus
stop which is 2 blocks away. Besides, I
might be in a different town/city where
they do not have accessible public transport
and/or taxi cabs.

Whenever I get a flat, people always say,
"Why not just switch the clusters so that
the flat wheel in the back is in the front?"
That is what I did do when I got my last
flat, but I was really uncomfortable doing
it because you just never know if the iBOT
is going to perform normally with a flat
tire. I've since talked with IT (Independence
Technology) and here is what they recommend:

While in Standard Function, transition to
4-Wheel Drive. Drive the iBOT in 4-Wheel
Drive to a place that can fix it. Rolling
with a flat in 4-Wheel Drive function is much
better than Standard Function because the
other 3 wheels will help keep the weight off
of the flat one.

While rolling in 4-Wheel Drive with a flat
tire could result in wheel damage, the guy at
IT said it's highly unlikely to get damaged
as long as I'm not going over rocks or going
a very far distance. If it did damage the
wheel, I'd have to pay for the cost of a
new wheel, plus a service call because
a tech would have to put the new wheel
on. Putting on the new wheel is NOT something
a bike shop could do. I asked IT how much a
new wheel costs, and he didn't know off the
top of his head, but he's going to find out
and let me know. However much it is though,
I'd rather risk damaging the wheel than
switching the clusters and possibly having
the chair flip over backward or throw me out
forward.

**Some iBOT users do switch the clusters when
they get a flat (and I did it once by using the
stair climbing function), but IT does not
recommend doing this.**

Some random recommendations:
1. Always carry a spare tube with you.
Your local bike shop will not have the right
size tube.
2. If you've got the room, always carry
a spare tire with you.
3. Carry the number of public transport
and taxi services.
4. IT has a 24-hour support line.
1-800-INDE-NOW.
5. If traveling with an iBOT, bring along
a spare manual wheelchair. If you don't have
a spare manual chair, you can purchase a
cheap lightweight foldable travel chair for
about $150.
6. Possible places to fix a flat: bike
shops, Les Schwab, probably gas stations.