Interesting Statistic

Between 1990 and 1994 the number of people using wheelchairs grew by almost 300,000, and the number of people using scooters more than doubled. 

Do you need a scooter, or powerchair, or know someone who does?

I've received several questions as to if this is my personal blog. Yes it is. I do sell Rascals, and the blog is here to talk scooters, selling scooters, owners of scooters, and anything else I want to talk about.  Even more important to introduce myself and give you the opportunity to contact me IF YOU NEED, OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO NEEDS a scooter, powerchair, lift, or anything else that Rascal and I can sell you. I've, for some unknown reason, been tiptoeing around the fact that I'm a salesman, and sell for a living. So, now it's out of the bag let me put it plainly, if you need a scooter, powerchair, or anything else, email me at lmurray@citlink.net...

Lee Murray

PS if you're curious about what else other than Rascals I'm interested in, check out my other blog at: http://stillanotherlife.blogspot.com/

Got my blog back... And other news...then Apple Cider Vinegar-Good Stuff or Bad?

Finally!! Back to where it was, more or less, when I got creative and screwed it up. Figured out how to restore the original  posts as described in the last post. Since then got adsence and amazon back as well as several excellent ads for products that will benefit those of us that need healthcare products.
Speaking  of that, from what I've experienced, and read, what I had at the end of December was a minor stroke, not a mini stroke (TIA). The difference is that if it had been a mini stroke (TIA), it would have cleared up in 24 hours or so, mine is still with me to some degree. I still have some numbness on the right side of  my head and  face, and I still tend to tip over if I'm not careful when I take a step to the side or backwards or step over something, but I can swallow normally again, as long as I take smallish bites. The tipping is the worst, the numb face you can get used to, but it's a little annoying to be 62 and walking like a two year old.  My sister's on my case to cut back on salt and sugar, as was a Dr. and a guy I delivered a scooter to.  But it's harder to do than it sounds.
I discovered online a way to reduce the buildup of deposits in veins and arteries,  drink cider vinegar.  You have to use an organic brand that is not filtered or pasturized so it still has "the mother" in it. I bought Bragg, which is available in supermarkets like Price Chopper where I got mine. There are, of course, opinions for and against. The fors say that vinegar with the mother has many benefits. The againsts say it's all hogwash.

Here is a quote from a site called Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits.com

For centuries people have been using natural apple cider vinegar as both a food and a medicine for themselves and for their pets.  Since 400BC, Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, and others, have used vinegar and vinegar mixed with honey, as an energizing tonic and a healing elixir.  More recently, the health benefits of apple cider vinegar have been promoted by many well-known authors such as Dr Jarvis, Paul C. Bragg and Patricia Bragg.  D.C. Jarvis, a Vermont country doctor, noted that apple cider vinegar was a respected home remedy used by many Vermonters to successfully treat a number of common ailments and nagging aches and pains.  He was so impressed that he went on to write a book on his observations and experimentations with home remedies, especially apple cider vinegar, and its beneficial effects on both people and farm animals.  

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

First let me say that apple cider vinegar is a completely natural product, resulting from the fermentation of apple juice to hard apple cider followed by a second fermentation to apple cider vinegar.  This natural product retains all the nutritional goodness of the apples from which it was made plus it is fortified with the extra acids and enzymes produced during the two fermentation steps.  It's the sum of all these ingredients that give apple cider vinegar its amazing health benefits.

A compilation of many time honored home remedies used for a wide range of health problems is included in the natural healing Home Remedies section.  Apple cider vinegar benefits include many external uses as well. It can be used to sooth sunburns and insect bites, to make your hair shine, and to treat dandruff just to mention a few. Apple cider vinegar fits in well with today's trend towards eating natural healthy whole foods, and away from the over consumption of highly processed convenience foods, which are depleted of much of their original nutrients.

Beware – Not all apple cider vinegars are created equal!

Many commercial apple cider vinegars have been pasteurized, filtered, refined or distilled in order to make the product look good, and thereby more appealing to the general public.  Unfortunately this extra processing destroys much of the healthy goodness and thus many of the apple cider benefits that were in the product in the first place. The best type of apple cider vinegar to use is one made from cold pressed, organically grown whole apples, in which no chemicals or preservatives have been added, which contains the "mother of vinegar", and is not pasteurized. The "mother of vinegar" is a natural gelatinous substance formed during the last fermentation step.  This type of wholesome apple cider vinegar can be readily found in most health food stores and can be purchased online also.  Alternatively, you can brew your own nutritious apple cider vinegar at home. It's surprisingly easy to do and the whole family can be involved.

End of Quote....

Of course it must be said that any claims of health benefits are anecdotal, but I will say that personally I feel better after taking 3 teaspoons in a couple ounces of water before going to bed for the last few weeks.

Apparently it's a combination of acetic, malic and tartaric acids in the vinegar together with the enzymes, potassium, pechtin (a water soluable fiber), amino acids, minerals and good bacteria that help lower blood pressure, reducing cholesterol, and cleaning plaque out our blood vessels. My suggestion is if you need it, read up on it and give it a try. Used sensibly, it can't hurt you, and it just may help.

So Far So Good - Slowly getting my blog back where it was

As I said BE CAREFUL. I just learned how to recover the original posts. By exporting the original screwed up blog, then importing the files to this new one. Of course that meant that I had to delete the posts I copied here the other night, oh well, it's a learning experience. Now all the posts show their original dates and any comments were recovered too. I had backed up the original template with all the stuff on it before I screwed it up, but for some reason when I tried recovering it I got an error message. This time it worked but unfortunately it's the screwed up template so I'll have to redo everything else. But it's a learning experience.

Lee Murray

I Accidentally Screwed Up My Blog

If you're a newbie like me, be careful, messing around can really set you back. If you've visited before, you'll notice that everything seems to start on Feb. 5th instead of in January as it did. Basically I tried to change the template, and though I saved the old one it won't reload so I am recreating the original as close as I can.

Lee Murray

Yes... I Do Sell Scooters and Other Stuff

I got an interesting call today from a guy that saw this blog and wanted to know if I actually sell scooters or if it's just the name of my blog. He'd called Rascal and got in touch with me. The answer, short and sweet, as I told them when I called him back, is that I DO sell Rascal scooters, powerchairs, and other products.

As I also told him, if YOU need one, or just have questions,  email me at lmurray@citlink.net, and if you include your phone number I'll call you back. If you live within a reasonable distance I will come right to you, or you can come here, and try all the machines you want. If you're too far away or in another state we can do business over the phone, I sold a scooter to a guy in Buena Park Calif, a while back, over the phone, or I can ask a local rep to get in touch with you.

They both were on the phone this am, he said she needs a scooter because she has MS (Multiple Sclerosis) and while she still has good days and bad days, she is finding it increasingly difficult to walk more than a few steps, and has moved from a cane to crutches. Which she said are becoming  more difficult and painful to use. But she said she doesn't think she needs a scooter or chair. She's fine in the house, and using their lawn tractor, or a John Deere Gator to get around outside, and says they work fine.

My aunt, my uncles second wife, Betty has MS, and it's the same thing good days and bad. When she's feeling well, if they're at their camp, near Oxford, she'll come with him to visit. Most of the time he helps her in and out of the car and up and down the steps to the porch. But otherwise she does pretty good, still using a cane. From what this guy said when we spoke his wife's worse off than that. But my aunt won't consider a scooter either. Off the point slightly, My mother and her sister, also my aunt, who live here too are both in their mid 80's and while neither has anything like MS both have a hard time walking, but God help you if you suggest they should get a scooter. It's not an unusual attitude at all to resist getting one, especially if you need it.
MS can be very, very bad, when I first started working with the Canandaigua, NY, VA. I went to see a veteran that lived in Canandaigua about a new three wheel scooter. He was in his early fifties as I remember, had MS and was unable to walk at all,  riding his Rascals 24/7 for something like 20 years. It breaks your heart to see it. I never realized how many sick people there are until I started this job. But he had his life, house, van, all oriented around being on the scooter. He had his life under control.
As it turned out the VA got him a new scooter but the larger seat he hated. They'd ordered a 20" seat do to his size, but he'd been using what we call a Tempress seat that is 18". He insisted on another Tempress seat because the arms, which had been reinforced, made it easier to transfer on and off the scooter, and being narrower helped keep his legs together. He had, due to no muscular control in his legs, what the therapists informally called frog legs, and he liked this seat because he didn't need to use a strap to keep his legs together. We made him a new Tempress with even better reinforced arms, but since the old one was still good, the VA kept the new one as a spare for him. 
A couple years ago, they got him a Rascal powerchair, with a tilt n space seating system. Much against his will, because he was still using the same Rascal scooter and the Tempress seat and saw no need to change. He agreed to try the powerchair mostly to make the therapist happy, but only if he could keep his scooter too. Unfortunately, the powerchair ultimately went to another veteran, as he had passed away, just before I delivered the chair to him.
As it turned out this am, this guy that saw the blog, and his wife are only in their fifties, and live on a farm about twenty miles away over toward Cortland. After we'd talked about an hour his wife said if I'll bring a scooter out there she'll take a look. She started to change her mind, I think, when I told her that it would make shopping, eating out, and visiting friends easier. She can take it with her when she travels, and can't take the lawn tractor or Gator. Anyway we'll see when I get there.

Lee Murray

Need is relative

Yesterday I delivered a scooter to a veteran down in Binghamton, NY. He was like most who get a scooter, able to get around. Many who met him would ask why should he get a scooter? The facts of his pain and inability to go very far are not obvious. True he's not as bad as some I've worked with who may be in either powerchairs or scooters, and absolutely can't get around without them. But that doesn't mean his quality of life hasn't been lowered by his physical problems. The  purpose of a scooter in particular is to improve your quality of life, making it possible to live as you want to. In many ways he reminded me of a guy I met when I first started selling Rascal. I did an in-home appointment with a man and his wife near Cooperstown, for a scooter for the man. If you walked in and met him he looked perfectly normal. You wouldn't see the back problems, and the emphsema. As we talked he said that while he loved his wife, and appreciated everything she did every day to help him, he resented the fact that he was no longer in control of his own life.  That he could no longer do even the simple things that he'd done without thinking every day of his life. 
There's nothing simpler for most people than getting their mail. He told me that for him to go to get their mail was a twenty to thirty minute trip in good weather. No, he wasn't driving to the post office in Cooperstown. He was just walking to the mailbox at the end of the driveway, about 100 feet from his door.  He said that to do it, he carried a small stool with him. He'd walk a few feet, sit on the stool to get his breath back, then walk a few feet more, over and over, out and back. 
When he and his wife watched me take the scooter out of the trunk of my car and assemble it, you could see the doubt in both of their faces they were in their 70's after all. I went over assmbly and disassembly with them and they working together were able to do it easily, putting it in and taking it out of their car. This was when cars still had big trunks. I could carry two scooters in the trunk of my Olds 98.
But driving the scooter was what convinced him. He drove the scooter for the first time, and he went right to the mailbox, and back, in about 30 seconds.  You should have seen the look on this guys face, I'll never forget it, he was normal, once again able to do one of those the things he'd done so easily all his life.  That's the purpose of getting the scooter, or a powerchair for those who need them, to regain as much control as possible.

Lee Murray