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Broken hand controls AGAIN!

This is the THIRD time the cable on my hand controls has snapped.  The THIRD time.  I was driving along Brunswick Street (not even accelerating) when the cable pinged and sprang apart.  There were still a couple of strands connected, but I didn't trust them to hold for much longer that the rest of it.  Fortunately, the cable only controls the accelerator; the brake is operated by a solid bar, so that still works when the accelerator goes.  I was able to get to the Blockbuster carpark, so was at least off the road (and while I was there returned my DVD...).

That's where I ended up the first time this happened, and I spent hours waiting for the RACQ, then the RACQ's buddy, so I could get my car driven home for me.  As I still had cable at this point, I decided to risk it, rather than have all that waiting around again.  I knew I could just stop if I needed to.

On the way, I experimented with using my foot on the accelerator - for the first time in about 13 years!  I have trouble lifting my legs, but I could get my foot on the pedal with my heel still on the floor, so was actually able to accelerate that way, as a back-up to the cable.  By the time I got home I had more or less managed to co-ordinate pressing the pedal with my foot, then releasing and applying the brake with my hand.

That got me home, but I needed to out again in a short while, to a hospital appointment.  As I was pretty upset from this THIRD instance of broken hand controls, I knew I was in no mood to deal with taxis, so I decided that I would be able to manage driving using one pedal and the hand controlled brake.  It was only up at the RBWH, so only a couple of KMs.

I did manage OK, and felt that I was not posing a risk to anyone else, even though my starts were a little slow (but then, I'm always pretty quick off the mark, so I was no worse than anyone else on the road), but my leg started to ache by the time I got to the hospital.  I remember the feeling from when I first started to drive, and first started using that combination of muscles!  Took me back.....

Anyway, I had my appointment, and got home again with no trouble, and really have got the hang of it, but my leg is bloody killing me now, especially my shin and my right hip.  Even though my leg wasn't moving, I was still using muscles that connect to my hip, so it's caused a bit of trouble.  I know from experience that if my hip hurts immediately after doing something ill-advised, it;s gonna hurt like buggery tomorrow.  I won't be driving like that any more.

So I will have an extra-sore hip in the morning, and no transport to work.  I'm going to have to brave the taxi system, as my office is a 35-minute drive away, not just up the road.  It makes me cranky on two counts: broken hand controls (the guy that installed them PROMISED that this super-duper new cable would never break (he said that about the 2nd cable, too), AND having to take a taxi.  I haaaaaaaate taxis.  They're bad enough if one is able-bodied, but the combination of wheelchair and assistance dog just makes a difficult task even more difficult.

Actually, I'm cranky on three counts: I have to get my car to Brighton somehow (it's waaay on the northside of Brisbane) in order for it to be fixed. All this, and no chocolate.  Grrrrr.

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