The other day I mentioned that I never go out by myself without my chest strap on, or without my phone. That night I took my dog for a quick pee check before bed. My chair is in the shop, so I'm in my backup. It has no chest strap. Usually when I go out alone, I put a strap around my headrest and my head and one arm. Since I was just going around the block... I didn't... nor did I take my phone. I'm part way around and my dog pees, so I turn around because it's shorter. My rear wheel slips off the sidewalk into the gravel and is stuck just a bit. My error was I was sitting with my back to far upright. So when my chair jerks when it gets unstuck, I start to fall/tip forward. I've done this before and my reflex is to gun the chair forward to help me sit back. I stop myself / the chair, before I get to the edge, the the fast stop makes me fall forward even more. I hit the joystick with my arm and off I go, right off the curb. Good thing was I was going forward not sideways so no tipping over. Plus my legrest hit the street and stopped my chair from going further into the street. Bad news was my legrest hits the street and I make a dead stop. No momentum to help me sit back up. So I'm stuck half off the curb, tipped forward on my lap, with no phone. At night not many cars drive by. Luckily I was there only about 3-4 minutes when I heard loud taking in the school parking lot across the street. I start yelling "CAN SOMEONE HELP ME" It took a minute of yelling before I heard them yelling back that they were on there way over. A man and lady out jogging. They were so nice, he was trying to sit me back up first, but was so careful. Like he was going to break me. Then they were able to lift my front wheels back up on the sidewalk. Then they asked if I needed them to walk home with me :-)
After 28 years, that was the first time going off a curb. Once my 5/6 year old niece was on my lap driving and we went off our curb going fast, but it is the curved/slopped kind. I go up/down them all the time, but I have to tilt my back to go down it, then tilt all the way up to go up the curb, but I do it very slow. Greg
