REPOSTING AN OLD BLOG HERE; A TYPICAL DAY FOR US —
Friday I was getting ready to leave for my party way up north of Dayton when I noticed Diane seemed unhappy. Lots to do, but I had to stop and check this out. She is always so upbeat and easily amused. I asked what was the matter.
“Oh… it’s just that… I might have to go to the bathroom,” she said. Oh.
Okay, it was concern for my daughter, who was on her way over to be on hand if Diane needed help. Sure.
I did what I could to reassure her, crouched in front of her wheelchair, that all would be fine. Not much comfort, I know. Not much I could say to address such a personal issue.
Disabled people face such awful challenges, dealing with the ongoing daily train wreck of major impairment, which is peppered with an endless stream of minor humiliations as well. The rest of us seldom realize how good we have it.
There was not much else I could do, so I had to leave her there and dash out to the car and race off toward I-75 North. I had three hours to draw caricatures at a party, and just enough time to get there.
Until … I took a wrong turn. Whoa! When did they cut off this access?? I ended up in East Dayton, lost — after living here since the seventies, now, what an idiot I can be — trying to find the interstate. Yow. And… hey, I was OUT of gasoline! Wonderful.
A couple of bad guesses and I was getting in deeper, zooming down streets I had NEVER been on before, hoping to find some way back to civilization and, God willing, my party. Which is how we pay our bills. Diane can not work. This is our whole income.
Again, yow!
Hey, what was that street?? Super, I made a bat-turn and another connection and zoomed up onto Interstate 75 and – a traffic jam. Aaaaaaaaakkkkkk!!
Calm down, calm down, now. This will work out.
Deep breaths, drive forward twenty feet, stop. Deep breaths.
Traffic slowly began moving, then picked up speed and with a bit of luck I nipped out into the other lane at last and finally got moving pretty well. Flying past Vandalia, I thought about Diane and called up. My daughter was there and things were going fine, of course, two terrific girls both way too concerned about each other. Sure. They were going to do just great. Of course, of course.
I glanced up at my Distance to Empty readout and realized I was next to walking, running on fumes and determination. So, after hanging up I lucked out on finding a convenient exit with a fueling station, got a bit of gasoline and roared on up to Piqua.
I even made it on time!
There are times when I can draw much better that others, and times when I am not that happy with what I can produce. That night was a bit of a mixed bag. At first I thought the resemblances and execution were pretty lame on some of the drawings — but as time went on the control and fluidity of line seemed to kick in. There were lots of rave reviews, which always feels terrific of course.
And a roving pack of delightful little kids. They were hilarious and goofy and found my quick-sketching to be fascinating.
“How do you DO that???,” one little boy kept asking. Cute, cute.
Another one behind me kept yelling every few minutes, “I’m LIKING it!!” Fun kids.
The party could not have gone better, everyone was happy, including me.
Afterward I got home in record time and was happy to see that my daughter and Diane had enjoyed a fine evening together. Nice.
There is not much point to this little post, just a quick peek into our lives here. I hope it’s been interesting. Thank you for reading!
