Transport. How do you get around if you can't drive and have to travel?

Let me suggest that if you find yourself in a handicapped position needing transport in the Washington DC area, look at the Metro Access website, http://www.wmata.com/accessibility/metroaccess_service/. Download the application, fill out your part, take it to your health care provider to fill out his or her part.

You must take the original down to the Metro Transit Accessibility Center, 600 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001.

I understand that if you call, a Metro Access van will take you there and home again while your application is reviewed. If accepted, it is a very reasonable cost.

I didn't do that. It was a rushed time. My toe was in distress, I had to act quickly.

Take a cab, Dr. Polun suggested.

Barwood couldn't guarantee that a cabbie would come to the 3rd floor where I live, take the knee scooter down the stairs so I could use it on the landings, put a wooden transfer chair at the top of the landing so I could move safely from scooter to chair to steps, and then stow the chair in a nook in the lobby of my building.

But the gentleman who first responded, Mr. Uessam Vaz, was more than willing to do so. He did the scooter and chair moving while I bumped down, and returning home, back up the stairs.

Let me give my rear a cheer, and God the glory!

Vaz -- or Wes (U is the letter for the sound W in Portuguese, the language of Guinea Bissau in West Africa where he is from) was a delightful driver and became a good friend.

If you want a good cabbie in Montgomery County Md., call him at 703-405-0482.

Hmmm, daily cabs. I thought about it. 




If I were on vacation, I'd have figured out how much it was going to cost,

I'd have that amount, and I'd spend it without worrying.

So it's not the Shenandoah, and
not Rehoboth, and
not Ocean City or Chicoteage and Assateague, but I - 270 is
really lush, green,
and beautiful this time of year.






Photos: The chair Julia's mom antiqued, used as a transfer chair from scooter to top step at the 3rd and 2nd floor landings for getting out and in the condo. Uessam Vaz. I - 270 going north, and I - 270 going south near Democracy Boulevard.