WideAngle Wednesday: (Merrily) Rolling Along

I took this shot (with my zoom at its widest setting) while walking behind my Dad on his new motorised wheelchair this afternoon. As he was merrily Rolling along, it should fit Bobsblips's challenge to match the blip to the (first or) last letter of OctobeR.

Dad bought the chair as he's become somewhat frustrated by his slow wobbly progress when walking these days. Naturally, driving it really accurately will take a bit of practice, although he's doing very well considering that he only has sight in one eye these days (in spite of my previous occupation!) and has to control it with his left hand (as his [dominant] right hand hasn't worked properly since a nasty fracture of his shoulder damaged the nerves there a few years back).

Anyway he took up my offer to accompany him on his first trip from his flat into town. I'm pleased to say that we didn't meet any significant problems, and managed to find a couple of routes which have "drop kerbs" everywhere necessary.

I was surprised at the extent of the motion effect on the photo, as he was (only) going at the Speedy-Gonzales "breakneck" speed of...about 2 miles an hour when I took it. Clearly the slowish shutter speed helped.

(You may ask why there's a footrest, albeit folded up, at the back of the chair. Sadly it's not so that I can "ride pillion" on it, although that would be fun! It's actually because the seat can turn round 180 degrees so that you can select front or rear wheel drive according to the conditions; it also allows you to swap direction if necessary just by spinning on the seat - happily there's a strong catch to prevent this happening unintentionally...!)