Category Archives: Venting

Dear Mobility Van

Dear Mobility Van,

You are the bane of my existence, the mean girls to my Lindsay Lohan character, the Gargamel to my Smurfs. What I’m getting at here is that there’d be no show without you, but wow do you suck.

To be fair, it’s not just you. It’s the entire company we bought you from: Mobility Works. They have mastered neither customer service nor maintenance, and they appear to be confused by social media.

Your door has been broken for many months now, but Mobility Works claims that only half of the door is covered under their warranty, and the rest is Honda’s problem. So, as though following some weird suggestion by a modern day King Solomon of car parts, they fixed only the bottom of your door. We called Honda to see about getting the top part fixed. You know, so the door would work. Honda said they would need the car for at least 2 to 3 days to fix the problem. Mobility van, as much as I dislike you, I do recognize that I can’t spend 2 to 3 days without you. So the door continues to need a manual push. But isn’t it great that the bottom part is fixed?? Read More>

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Vegas and everything after

Rob was traveling for work this week. He had to go to Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show, which he has been attending every year since at least 2008. That was the year after I started my first blog, and I wrote the following:

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Rob got back last night at 2am from a trip to Las Vegas where he spent several days communing with tech geeks from around the world at the Consumer Electronics Show. So he started his official birthday morning in an unconscious heap of jet lag, accompanied by Smokey, who does not sleep well when Rob is gone and can finally, finally rest. Which means that tonight maybe I can finally, finally rest.

For his birthday dinner Rob has requested pizza and cake. Yes, that’s right, he’s turning nine.

So for practically a decade, each new year has started out for us with CES and Rob’s birthday. I can see how much has changed just by reading that short post I wrote eight years ago. Rob would leave town for work frequently, and it hardly broke my stride at all. Aside, that is, from dealing with two annoying cats. And given the difficulties we face now, cats don’t seem particularly challenging.

I was 29 when I wrote that post. Read More>

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The Way I See It

I’ve been having a hard time getting my contacts in and out. My fingers still have a pretty good amount of dexterity, so that I can get an earbud jammed in for dictation, aim a tortilla chip (or 57 tortilla chips) into my mouth, grip my glass of wine and pull it closer to me to drink through the straw, flip the pages of a book that I’m reading to Scarlett.

But the contacts, so small and thin, are presenting real difficulty these days. Rob opens the case and places it in my lap. I use my left middle finger to fish the lens out, and then raise my left hand with my right hand to get close to my eye. Balancing both hands on my right elbow, I pull my eyelid down with my ring finger and try to wedge the contact in. My hands shake, but sometimes it’s easy and happens quickly. Other times I drop the contact again and again, becoming frustrated and wondering why exactly I’m putting myself through this particular ordeal.

There are three choices, as I see it. The first is that I can continue to struggle until I finally just have to ask someone to do this for me. This does not seem smart, but the lazy and tired part of me feels like sticking with the status quo.

The second option is to wear glasses. I have glasses. I got my first pair when I was in third grade, and a boy named Bobby stopped being my boyfriend pretty shortly after, which I do not think was a coincidence. In third grade, having a boyfriend just meant that he walked me home, and sometimes his older brother prank called my house. But not after the glasses. Read More>

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