Segway, of course, is not much help to people who have balance issues and/or trouble standing for longish periods of time, or who have spinal or other joint issues that make jostling problematic.

Had a fun chat with one friend yesterday about scooters. One relative is urging a scooter. He freaked out. We talked about logistics. There IS nowhere he can scooter at home, and he is not strong enough to get it in and out of the car to take it anywhere.

BUT, I explained, when he decides to give up his home and move into the the assisted-living place he's considering where he has loads of friends, THEN he can scooter into town and do whatever he wants all day. (An inspiration came to me to tell him to just think of it as a little car, not as a fast wheelchair.)

NOW a scooter is a dream, not a nightmare, because now it's handle-able, mentally. He does use one at WalMart, so he does know how it will b a benefit..... and NOW he's thinking about it on his own.

He has talked all year about selling up to move into that facility, and I think the winter will decide hiom, if swine flu doesn't take him first.

Up here we're gonna lose a lot of our dear old folks to that. It's my latest conspiracy theory-- SF to reduce the Social Security rolls. Don't even bother to tell me I'm nuts-- I've been right way too many times already. Love your old folks while you have them, people. Learn what you can while you can!

~Susan