I drove Kevin out to band practice last night. It was at the drummer’s house and his house is out in the boonies. We live on the south side of town, the drummer lives in a city on the outskirts of the NORTH side of town.
Which is fine, but that meant that I needed to find something to do while they played (because they practiced out in a garage with nothing but an industrial-sized fan blowing on them and I hadn’t brought any bug spray (mosquitoes LOVE to munch on me) and plus, I just didn’t feel comfortable sticking around and encroaching on his “man” time so …
I drove to a library and read while he practiced.
I grew up on the north side of town so driving through that area once again was a bitter sweet experience. I hadn’t been on that side of town in months (a year?) and I was quite shocked to see how everything had changed.
I hardly recognized it any more.
It was so NICE to just sit back and read – no obligations, no appointments, no interruptions … just me, a cool, quiet room and my book. It was heaven. I used to do that a lot when I was younger, in fact, I used to spend entire days just reading.
Though I only had a few hours, it was really nice to escape reality and just slip away somewhere.
Not that I wish to escape my reality, but I’m sure, if you’re a reader, you know what I mean.
When it was time to leave to pick Kevin up, I had to drive through a bunch of construction to get back onto the highway.
This dump truck got ahead of me and I couldn’t see where I was going – I ended up IN the construction area. A pickup truck, (someone with the city) got behind me and started honking his horn, he was trying to warn me that I was in the wrong lane.
Duh. I knew that! I just couldn’t get back into the right lane because there was so much traffic. I was more annoyed than scared – annoyed with myself, not with the guy on my tail honking his fool head off. He finally got even with me (he was driving on the shoulder) and I looked at him and mouthed … I KNOW, to let him know I knew what was going on and I was working on it.
I felt like I was in a scene from a comedy show, or something; it was surreal.
I was finally able to pull back into traffic and after several miles, I finally got my heart rate back down.
What a fool thing to do. I was never really in any danger but I was pretty embarrassed by my idiocy. I’m blaming the dump truck – if he hadn’t gotten ahead of me and pulled into the construction lane then I wouldn’t have either. (No. I don’t really blame the dump truck, that stupid stunt was all me).
I finally made it back to the drummer’s house. I pulled up in time to listen to the last few songs and I have to say, Kevin sounded pretty damn good for a guy in a wheelchair. 🙂 No seriously, I’m not just being biased (okay, maybe a little), but he really sounded good.
And the smile of pure delight on his face totally made the entire trip out there and nearly slamming my car into a construction zone worth it.
I think the entire jam session was like balm on his soul and I’m ONCE AGAIN, so very thankful to our wonderful Lord and Savior for protecting him that day and helping us reach this point.
He has a gig set up for the end of August – it’ll be interesting to see if he’s still in his chair when that time comes.
*****
I’m taking Kevin up to the mall today. He’s itching to practice walking and the mall will give us some space for him to do so. He’s getting more confident with each step he takes.
His knee is no longer bothering him. He tightened up his knee brace and now, he says it doesn’t hurt at all when he walks.
He did really well in rehab yesterday. His range of motion is improving by leaps and bounds and I think staying off his knee and sticking to his wheelchair for a few days really helped him gain the strength he needed to push him over the hump.
I feel like he’s over that hump now.
His progress and growing strength is making him more and more confident and I just can’t tell you how nice it is to see glimpses of the old Kevin emerging from this accident-induced nightmare.
*****
I’ve been reading my New York City guide and planning routes on HopStop.com. We only have about 2 1/2 days in New York, so we are really going to have to be selective on what we do while there. I’m a bit nervous about getting Kevin around in his wheelchair so I’d like to be as prepared as I can possibly be, given the circumstances.
We aren’t using the sliding board to transfer him from his wheelchair to other surfaces anymore. He’s able to stand, turn and make the transfers himself, so I won’t have to worry about taking that with us. I had entertained the thought of possibly NOT taking the wheelchair and only the walker, but unfortunately, he’s just not ready for that yet. Though he’s walking more and more and in fact, will likely be able to endure walking longer distances by the time we leave, New York is ALL ABOUT THE WALKING and I really don’t think he’ll be able to take that much walking so soon.
So, the wheelchair it is.
We’re planning on hanging out at Central Park (I checked the maps on Google, our hotel is two blocks to the south of Central Park, so we should be able to easily walk there) and there is a pretty major Nintendo store in Rockefeller Center the boys would love to go see.
I want to ride the Staten Island ferry so we can ride by the Statue of Liberty (we don’t plan on actually going IN) and though I would like to ride up to the observation deck in the Empire State Building, Dude has made it pretty clear that he’s not going up. (He’s afraid of heights).
And that’s all we have planned at this point. We’ll likely just do a lot of walking and exploring while we’re there and keep the concrete plans to a minimum. It really depends on how Kevin feels and how easy it is to get him around the city.
Write From Karen 