Friday, July 18, 2008

Errand Day

Today I took Dennis to one of his doctors, to lunch, the DMV and a final stop to find blinds for our condo. That was 10 times taking the wheel chair out of the car or putting it back into the trunk. In addition, 10 times collapsing the chair, taking off the foot rests and transferring the gel pad from the seat, then lifting the whole chair up and into the back of the car. Upon arriving, the whole deal all over, only backwards.

Did I mention that it was raining, hard, during the first 2 stops?

Now I am not a gal that likes errands, even when everything is going right. We used to split errands, with Dennis probably doing more of the small stops and me doing most of the big stops, or we would do them together. When Dennis could no longer drive, we would do them all together, and I would gripe, but at least the walker was easy to take in and out of the car. Now it's a full fledged wheel chair that needs to be hauled around.

I don't begrudge him the wheel chair or want to limit him to a living full life, but, we must do this a bit smarter next time. I simply can't take him on all the errands, or, at the very least I can't take him to more than 2 stops in a single day.

These are the things that a person doesn't think about until it hits you, smack dab, right in the face. When he mentioned that he wanted to make a few stops after the doctor's visit, my only response was, "only if we go out for lunch, too." That simply added another stop and two more in and outs of the chair. Now I know that probably was not the wisest answer in the world.

When we finally returned home, there was a package from one of my online girlfriends, for Dennis. It was cuttings from succulents from her Southern California rock garden. Easy grow and easy care plants for Dennis' office. This was such a perfect ending to a hectic Minnesota day. Thanks, Meredith.

Until tommorow,

Ann and Dennis

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