We got back from Tahoe on Thursday night, and I was so happy to see my normal, wonderful wheelchair with all of its capabilities. The elevated footrest! The reclining feature! The headrest!

Wow, you know times have changed when this is the stuff that you find exciting.

On Friday, the van was still not in our possession. I had not heard from Mobility Works with any sort of status update, so I called them. The man who answered didn’t have a lot of information for me, but he did know the part they needed had not yet arrived. It had been five days.

When I received a call back several hours later, David, who runs the service department, told me that he had sent someone on his staff up to Sacramento to pick up the part, but he wouldn’t be back until that night. I’ve always found David to be responsive and helpful. He told me that he would have a rental van dropped off at our house, so that we could use it for the weekend. This was great news.

On Saturday afternoon, we got into the rental van (“It’s red!” Scarlet exclaimed excitedly), and headed out for basketball game number two. I rolled into the van and Rob hooked the wheelchair down. When he went to put my seatbelt on, we realized they’d given us the wrong one. There was no way to fasten me safely into the van. But at that point, I just didn’t care. I wanted to get to the game.

I called David on his cell phone, apologizing for bothering him on a Saturday, but explaining that it would be safer for me to ride around wearing a seatbelt, so that I didn’t feel quite as much like I was nestled in a slingshot, waiting to be deployed into freeway traffic. David agreed that this seemed like a good idea, and sent someone out with the correct seatbelt.

But we had to get to the game right then, so there I was, sitting directly in the center of the car and aimed at the windshield, a very bony ballistics missile in Uggs. Rob tried to take the flattest route, which was not the shortest route, but we made it in time, and I was able to watch Scarlett play. Kindergartners playing basketball turned out to be pretty much everything I had imagined. Some of them were just twirling in circles on the court. Scarlett had one hand in her mouth for most of the game. But they all seemed to really enjoy it, and I was just glad to be there.

I’m not sure when we’ll get our van back, but I want to thank everyone who sent and posted words of support, and especially those of you who reached out to Mobility Works yourselves to tell them my story. Their Director of Customer Service called while we were in Tahoe to check on everything, and he did seem to take everything more seriously once they heard that I was flinging names like Gargamel around. You just don’t want to be associated with that guy.

In the grand scheme of everything, this experience is not a big deal. I know that, but I still managed to let it get to me in a pretty major way, and it affected our trip a lot. Now that we’re back and I’m much more comfortable, I’m better able to focus on the positive.

Scarlett is becoming the kind of skier I never was, and she loves it.

I got my nails painted bright blue at the hotel.

Right now, there’s a red Toyota in our driveway with enough seatbelts for everyone.

And for some reason, which is not totally clear to me, Otto is decked out in a multicolored ensemble that makes him look like the Chiquita banana lady.

We’re okay.

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