I texted Phil when I got to Barwis and then proceeded to get out of my car. As I was in the process of getting out, Deeds opens the door, looks at me, gives me a funny look and then closes the door. I laughed at this but at least they knew I was here so I wasn’t going to freeze to death outside. I transferred to my chair and made my way around the car to the door. I heard Deeds calling out commands to the high school group just on the other side of the door so I knew that all I had to do was to open the door. I did and Deeds pushed me inside – to the middle of the turf facing one direction as he calls out another command to the high school group in the other direction. I turn myself around to see five high school kids walking toward me doing leg raises. I was COMPLETELY in their way!!! This got a HUGE laugh from Deeds as well as from Phil from the other side of the gym. I hurriedly pushed myself back to the door I had just come in to get out of their way.
I made my way over to the chairs when it was safe and waited for Phil. He pushed me over to the plyo boxes and I thought my legs felt pretty loose until he grabbed my left calf then ankle. He stretched me and I told him that I should stand today. He told me NOT to tell him how to do his job. But after a little while longer, he had me push my chair back and he stood up. He pushed me over to the stander. (I KNEW it!).
Phil got me all strapped in and cranked it up. I concentrated on keeping my shoulders back and putting weight on my feet. It felt good! My knees were resisting minimally so that felt even better. Phil uncranked me and said we will stand one more time. The second time he cranked me up felt EVEN BETTER!!! Once I was standing up fully, I told Phil, “This feels good!” He responded that I look good and he pointed out how straight I was standing. Yeah. That felt so good that I said it again! “This feels good!” Because it TOTALLY did!!! I stood for a total of 15 minutes.
TOTAL TIME IN STANDER = 126 minutes
i got in my car ALMOST by myself. Even though I didn’t like Phil’s variation of his “bends,” it still made me laugh. After my chair was stowed, he wished me a good weekend (I wasn’t coming on Friday), and stuck his fist out. We haven’t fist bumped for real in a VERY LONG time so I put my fist out and he “Joystick”ed me and closed the door. It was little progress this time but “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.” I drove home thinking about that and that feels good.