Scooter Saga

The Tenison family moved to their new home this week. They are happy campers and so are we–sort of.  We love that our children and their families choose to boomerang back during transitions.  Certainly, we've learned that this house is accommodating and spacious enough to be comfortably multi–generational*.  But, it's always the same—balancing our enthusiasm for a 'new life adventure' with relearning how to be 'empty nesters' again.  When asked how Earl and I were doing with the Tenison family in their own home, we would say "fine, great".  That was true, to be sure, but it also had some downsides. The Tenison Home Life will be much simpler for the housekeepers and Sandie.**  Working in a single house with two individual routines couldn't have been easy.  Initially, it was just Heidi and me during the day.  Then Earl retired and there were 3 generals*** on the premises. It's not that we were three warring camps, just different camp...

Could we spend a week with our two granddaughters while our son and daughter-in-law were in Europe? Sure!  Wait a minute...I knew we wanted to and had always been caring parents, but it had been over 23 years since being caregiving parents with (gulp) responsibility.  Sarah and Kyle had lived with us for eight months, but their parents were always present and in charge. The Tenison family was beginning the move to their new home, so it was a good time to be out of the house.  Now, with my ataxia, I couldn't be an equitable partner to Earl.  While he wouldn't have to take care of me, he would definitely be called on to do more than his share.  Still, we were adults, adored our grandchildren, and were up for this. Jason and Elizabeth set the caregiving bar low for us.  Instructions: Feed Zoe and Lexi, take them to school, keep them alive.  We were certainly up to basic 'goldfish' care rules, could even do a bit better than that, so we enthusia...

My 66th birthday heralded the expiration of both my driver's license and my handicapped parking placard.  I had already made the decision to give up driving*, but for several reasons, still preferred a driver's license as identification over a photo ID.  It was also time to face some of the outcomes of my neurological progression and request renewal for a wheelchair, rather than the basic parking placard.  I realize handicapped parking spaces fill up fast**, but wheelchair–specific parking spaces are less likely to be used for non–essential reasons. I knew that I needed my physician's signature in order to renew the handicapped parking placard and had requested that two months in advance. I thought the renewal process was going to be a simple errand Earl and could do on our way to lunch. Granted, I was now older, but last time I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles, the staff was extremely relaxed about department regulations. However, the DMV staff member ...