Saturday, July 20, 2013

Oh, This Is Not Good ...

Man sets off homemade bomb at Beijing airport
Katherine Lackey, USA Today - July 20, 2013

Early reports say the man was "paralyzed", and using a wheelchair.

Airport security is awkward enough for people with disabilities. I dread what the TSA will get up to now with wheelchair-using travelers … or for that matter, travelers with any kind of adaptive gear.

Swimming



While watching this, I realized that I haven't been properly swimming since I had my tracheostomy in 1985. By "properly" I mean head under water. I think I got into the water a few times over those years, during family reunions at the 1000 Islands region of the St. Lawrence River, but those were just standing chest deep for awhile, not swimming.

I used to love swimming. For awhile when I was a kid, we had a pool in our back yard, and I and my friends would spend hours in the water, goofing around, picking up pennies from the bottom of the pool, miming action-movie fistfights which for some reason were supposed to be way cooler when done in the water.

It has been so long since I effortlessly jumped into a body of water that I don't exactly miss it. I don't yearn to go swimming. But, I am a bit curious now and I might do something I'm surprised I've never done, and Google "swimming and tracheostomy" to see if there are any tips or accessories for swimming without allowing water to leak in.