General topics.

I love the screwdrivers idea! And a Swiss Army knife, maybe?

Thanks everyone, for the great responses and support!
Wanting the luxury version, I do plan on careening down the road a bit on purpose, just for fun.
Maybe I can find a few to race with me in my new Shelby, just for exercise, yeah, right.
I like baby silver blue, or red. The seat will store iced tea and cookies.

Still looking..there are so many choices! Is Nova a good brand? We have some real doozy new roads with steep hills, one where the new senior center is being built-out in the desert somewhere, inaccessible to most seniors, Lol. Sitting on the sturdy seat, I can ride it to the cross valley connector! How long do they last? Lol.

I'm with the rest of 'em Send...Buy the walker~
My Mother Loved hers with the seat and basket and named it "Red".It took her all over the place,including Las Vegas up until her last fall,when she had to go to a wheelchair.I use my Mom's shower chair now along with her Port a Potty and I'm glad to have it.I think cwillie has the right idea...Try some different one's and see what works for You.Good Luck and don't feel bad about it!Falls are the worst..........

My FIL has a walker with a seat and storage when you lift up the seat. He's able to sit when he gets short of breath, and he keeps screwdrivers and such in the storage in case he needs to do a little repair here and there.

FF I found one of those Rollators at a garage sale and only paid $35 and it still had the new tags on it. I love it when I take a walk on the road and can sit and rest anytime.

I hope you kept your Dad's FF. It will come in handy one day. I am amazed at the handicapped equipment I have collected over the past few years including a handicaped tag for my car. Hubby wants me to get a handicapped plate like he has but i refused because the tag is issued to the person not the car so if you are out with someone else you can still use the tag in their car

Sendhelp, I got my Dad one of those rolling walkers [4 wheels] which had hand brakes, a seat, and a basket. Oh my gosh, you'd think I had bought my Dad a Shelby Mustang, he just loved it. In fact it got him up and walking more, and he felt so safe with it going down the driveway to get the mail [threw the mail into the basket] back when he was living at home.... he knew how it set the brakes so it wouldn't roll into the road.

I also tried it and really liked it. In Dad's apartment we used it as an extra "chair" as it was pretty comfortable :)

Well worth the cost, and they come in a variety of different colors.

As for falling, haven't you already been-there-done-that?
Try out a bunch of different models, I would personally opt for one that is easy to get into the car. And like Gershun says, always always always lock the brakes before sitting down!

My Mom had a walker which she hated using. It had a little seat but I was always concerned that she would get tired, sit on the seat but forget to put the brake on and go careening down the road.

Reminds me of an old Benny Hill sketch where he was pretending to be Ironside (anyone out there remember that show?) He was a lawyer who was in a wheelchair. In the comedy sketch he was rolling down the hill muttering to himself, not even realizing that this was happening to him. LOL

Let this be a lesson to you Send. As for your nosy neighbors. Ask them if they will come in and sit with you every day when you fall and then maybe they'll keep their opinions to themselves.

Anyone who tells you that using a walker or rollator (when you need one) is going to result in your being disabled is full of hooey. Check out Costco, if you're a member

Send
Do the neighbors offer to fetch your mail ? If not, give them no further thought

Get the handicapped placard - I see folks who practically skip across the parking lot use them - no guilt for you

Look on Amazon for the walker - might be a better deal and quality with a choice of brands

Frankly I like to lean on the cart while grocery shopping- it's kinda like a walker on wheels - lol

Don't wait until you have a fall -

BUY THE WALKER!! Which is better, staying home because you have pain and are afraid to fall or getting out more often because you have support and a handy seat when you get tired? The neighbours are busybodies who know nothing!

Posting and running here.....
Is this it? I bought a shower chair because it hurt too much to stand in the shower, and I need a daily shower. It has depressed me to think that I need this.
While I was at the really great medical supply pharmacy, gift store, I saw a luxury walker.
Medicare has sent a wheelchair a few years ago that I used as a sort of a walker, and I have tried canes, and crutches. I never use the wheelchair anymore because the neighbors would come out to lecture me that using a wheelchair would result in me never walking again. I was walking, just using the wheelchair for support.

The walker I spied in the store has a seat. I think that I can get out more and take the walker to the swimming pool. Should I buy it? Or, is it true that using these assistive devices may disable a person more? Currently, walking to the car feels unsafe and holding onto t h e walls is not working.
I may need to get a handicapped license plate and a walker. Should I wait?
Things are getting worse, not better. (sciatica).

Ugh!

Self-parody of the day: the restaurant critic reckons that the best dish in the new Chinese place he's reviewing was its cuttlefish toast.

Cuttlefish toast. I ask you.

It's the boys who are the problem. Unless people are trying to sleep roughly three hours past dawn, at laying time, when the proud mother will feel obliged to announce her new arrival to the entire county - "yes, all RIGHT, Betty! I heard you! Thank you! I'll be in to fetch it in a minute..." But hens don't make a row for the sake of it. And the manure people will pay for, pelleted, from their garden centres.

I agree that companionship, entertainment and ant control are their great strengths, but I must say I haven't had a truly tasty egg since the Night of the Evil Mink. Sniff!

I have to get political now. Letters to the Editor, and The People are up in arms. MPs fiddling their expenses? Vote of no confidence? Tight vote over trade negotiations?

No. The Speaker of the House of Commons has decided that MPs will be allowed to remove their ties in the main chamber during hot weather. It's the end of civilisation as we know it. I quote: "SIR - Mr Bercow [the Speaker] has decreed that ties are no longer essential. How long before the same conclusion is reached about him?"

You know, sometimes I worry I'm going a bit bonkers and reactionary in my old age. Then something like this crops up and I'm reassured that I am in fact the very acme of sanity and moderation.

Every once in a while there is an effort launched somewhere locally by one group or another to repeal the bylaws  that forbid backyard chickens, almost always unsuccessfully. The argument is always centred around egg production, which I think is a foolish angle to pursue, they would do much better if they were presented as pets. Compare the noise and manure output of a few hens with that of a full sized dog or two.... and you can't used doggie waste in the garden!

Starlings do eat a lot of insects, though. And a murmuration on an autumn evening is a sight to behold.

Sparrows I agree are unbelievably noisy - you'd have thought something that size would have more sense than to make itself so obtrusive. I have a family in the garden who've got used to me and are very entertaining. Freddy Feather (identified by a sort of a cowlick in his right wing flight feathers) gets a lot of backchat from one of his male offspring; he's still winning so far, and keeping his grip on power as represented by the right to occupy the old sunflower stem I propped up in the flower bed for them, and to decide whose turn it is to use the birdbath. I think of them as my mini-chickens, though without the egg production bonus obviously. I miss my ladies terribly.

That's funny about the parakeets CM. I personally would be happy if some fools had never imported the starling or the house sparrow to the New World, they are not even pretty, just noisy and messy.

I remember the first time I saw ring-necked parakeets out of my kitchen window. Brilliant green flashes zooming past, and the most unbelievable screeching racket going on. This was 20 years ago, and I couldn't for the life of me think what such exotic birds were doing in a small, drab suburb of North West London on a spring morning - tourists?

Nope, immigrants. They love it here, apparently, and there are now thriving colonies all over the place. It's driving everyone nuts!

Finished watching my entire boxed set of the US 'House of Cards' series last night. This morning I am feeling grumpy about the serious plot flaws. What ambitious, public-spirited lawyer would ever pass up a place on the Supreme Court for the sake of a dodgy stab at the presidency? A lifetime of unchallengeable judicial oversight versus eight years max - and that not even a racing certainty - in the White House. It wouldn't happen. Not In A Million Years. I'd already swallowed actual hands-on murder, shenanigans with the chauffeur, and a sudden politically suicidal public commitment to gay rights far above and beyond the call of duty (not to mention common sense diplomacy). I hate having my willing suspension of disbelief stretched past breaking point.

Good watch, though, and some super acting.

There's a flock of wild parrots that squawk and poop every evening and every morning - I wish they'd bugger off

While driving, I only did this once and never again.... honked at geese as they are flying over. Oops.

Hence, the Hazmat team?
Don't know what they would be doing, except to stand around and watch Mickey, Minnie, and Donald clean up the poo.

Geese are quite big.

Rofl!

Happy Canada Day to my friends in Canada!
There is Gershun, Cwillie, and a few others.

Send, the geese were probably flinging hurtful poo...........!!!!! :)

A f l o c k of g e e s e flew over Disneyland (anaheim)
during the full moon, 9 p.m. Friday.

A hazmat team was called because they pooped on a crowd of people. This really happened in So. California.

I feel funny about it.

Thanks, Send! I'm looking forward to it, and feeling far more calm about this trip than I have in the past. I've had time to prepare and get things done ahead of time, and that's never been the case in the past. That's not to say I won't be running around like the proverbial headless chicken tomorrow, but I've made quite a bit of progress.

Susan,
Have a wonderful time, you deserve it!

Thank you Labs4me , I don't know if I ever thanked you for your answer. I didn't mean to sound greedy, I'm not ,I volunteered to pay for my beloved sons funeral. I was devastated. I was just wondering.

And thanks to you BarbBrooklyn, for the wonderful comment. I'm trying hard to cope with his death. As I practically grew up with my kids and he was my baby.

Thanks Gershun!

You've always sounded like such a super productive person Susan. Please, see if you can send some of that my way. Have a great trip!