Wild Cat

This last weekend I went to Elko NV with my sister, she had to be there for work and my friend Lizzy lives there so I went to visit her. It was a great time we all went out to dinner and watched a small concert and even did a little gambling where I got my butt kicked but at least I tried! During the day my sister would be at work and Lizzy and I would take my wild cat out for a ride and we had a blast up until about 5 hours before we headed back home.

It was a beautiful afternoon Lizzy and I had been ridding all over the hills hitting jumps and flying through the river to get cooled down. We were back at her house and she said, "lets go for one last ride before you go  home," so we took off up the canyon hit a few jumps, climbed a few hills and then we started on our way back to her house...that's when the rear left tire came off.

The studs that hold the lugs nuts on broke off and that let the tire free. So there we sat,  neither of can us walk or really do much of anything to fix our situation although I did throw myself out of the wild cat onto the ground so I could see what the problem was. We called her step-dad Steve to come get us. He brought his truck out and took us back to their house. Steve and I then got into my truck with the trailer and head back up the canyon to pick up the machine. We had to drive the wild cat about 300 yards while dragging the axle on the ground to get close enough to load into the trailer. When we got the wild cat to the trailer Steve went to load it and that's when it decided to take off by itself into the trailer it ripped the door off broke some plastic. Luckily we were both out of the way and no one got hurt.

Apart from the damage to the trailer and wild cat it was a great weekend and a lot of fun!!

The Way I Am

I've been thinking about my life and the way I do things now and how I use to do them. Starting this blog was a good thing for me because sometimes I want to talk about something but I might be embarrassed to say it, but its a lot easier to write about it.

I get up everyday and I workout, practice with my stimulator throughout the day, work on my speeches and try and ride my hand cycle. Just that keeps me pretty busy I also have a lot more that I try and get done sometimes I find myself making up excuses on why not to do them.

Here's what I want to write about and its not that I'm complaining or looking for sympathy I just want to talk about it. I see some of my friends with there wives and kids or my buddies that work out at the mines and they are all just living their life in a way that I thought it should have been for me. My brother works with my dad in our family company doing all the things that I use to do and I know my dad and brother would love to have me back working with them...I just don't see it in my future anymore...as bad as I wish that it was.

An everyday issue for me is going places like to a friends house, concerts, camping, traveling, really anything and having to make sure I can get in there with my wheelchair is a pain. There are all kinds of things that I think about that make me wonder, why did this have to happen to me?

It's ok though because I like to use these feelings for fuel to keep me pushing on and trying to reach my goals. I know it's not going to be easy. I've also had an amazing opportunity to be part of a research program that is improving the lives of people living with spinal cord injuries. I know I have to keep working hard and doing the best I can, not only to benefit myself but to provide the best information to the research ultimately helping everyone with an SCI to reach their goal to walk again.