The Mandelbear's Musings

02:34 pm - An outing with the (rolly)Cat

After yummy pancakes for breakfast, the flower_cat went out for a Mother's Day shopping expedition. Unfortunately we didn't find most of the things we were looking for, but we had fun anyway.

A little surprisingly, the wheelchair does not fit in the back seat of my car; it probably would if the passenger-side front seat were pulled up all the way, but that's unlikely to happen. The best way to get it into the trunk is to reach over the chair, grab the folded crossbars between the spokes of the far wheel, and put it into the trunk diagonally, wheels first. Comparatively painless.

We went to Valley Fair, the local mall, mainly in search of three things: a pewter bud vase and a purple laptop bag for the Cat, a new bathroom scale, and a pair of Keen hiking boots for me. We found the scale. You'd think that a mall full of shoe stores would have at least one selling Keens, but you'd be wrong. Macy's had an astounding variety of men's shoes, none of which I'd be caught dead in (but which would kill my feet in short order if I tried). Many stores had an astounding variety of handbags, very few of which were purple and none of which the Cat would be caught dead carrying. Most were so bad that I wouldn't have wanted to be associated with anyone who wanted to carry one.

After the mall we headed for home; I set a course past the Rose Garden, so we stopped there. The wheelchair worked well on the paved paths, but bogged down in the grass. At that point we changed modes and the Cat used it as a walker. It was delightful; it must have been several years since the Cat walked in the Rose Garden. I hadn't realized that she didn't know where the Royal Amethyst was located.

At that point we were both a little too hungry, so we came home and had lunch: yogurt, granola, and strawberries. A little bread and cheese for me, as well. Yum.

08:46 am - A pleasant weekend

We spent a delightful, relaxing weekend with the jenkitty. She got up at some ridiculous hour to fly down from Seattle Saturday morning, and left Sunday evening. We (me, the flower_cat, and the chaoswolf -- the Y.D. wasn't interested in the kinds of things we had partially planned) piled into the van with Colleen's wheelchair and spent all day Saturday driving back from the Oakland airport (which has been extensively renovated since I was last there, and had surprisingly little traffic) by way of San Francisco.

The entire weekend was an exercise in real-time scheduling. We drove along the waterfront, passing up the food paradise of the Ferry Building because of large crowds and a lack of parking, past the tourist traps of Fisherman's Wharf, South on Van Ness, West on Geary past Japantown, and had a late breakfast at the Cliff House. Crab is a house specialty. Yum.

South on the Great Highway to Golden Gate Park, and parked under the de Young Museum. We need more museum time. The textile gallery was showing Turkmen weaving -- wow! The pace and interaction are vastly different when I'm wheeling Colleen around, but it wasn't unpleasant by any means.

After the museum we went next door to the Japanese Tea Garden. This was mostly a matter of Jen and Kat exploring widely while I tried to figure out how to get around with Colleen and the chair. On occasion I failed miserably; fortunately the Cat is still fairly mobile under her own power. No disasters.

Finally, we drove down to San Jose via Skyline Boulevard (as far as Woodside), took a turn past $WORK on Sand Hill Road, and tried to figure out where to have dinner. We'd originally identified a couple of places in Menlo Park and Palo Alto, but it was still too early and the Wolfling really didn't want her sister to be entirely left out, so we went home, let the Kitty take a nap, and headed out to Kobe, our favorite sushi boat place.

The evening was a combination of filking, conversation, and looking at the proofs of the wedding pictures, which artbeco brought over for us to sort through.

Sunday the Kitty slept in while I went out for bagels and Scottish lox, then a walk to the Rose Garden. There was time for Jen to have a bagel before going out "silly food shopping" to Cosentino's with Colleen. Colleen's been shopping there for nearly three decades; most of the staff are old friends. Dinner was huge pieces of lamb (which Colleen pan-broiled with Greek seasoning) with saffron rice and caprese (which I made). Quick, simple, and delicious.

All too soon it was time for Jen to leave. I combined the trip to the airport with dropping the kids off at their gaming session a couple of blocks down Coleman Avenue. All-in-all a delightful weekend; I just wish there was some way to do it more often.

Capped the weekend with a pleasant drive with the Cat.

08:13 am - TSA: Travelers with Disabilities and Medical Conditions

Here, courtesy of cpap.com's mailing list, is the TSA's official web page on Travelers with Disabilities and Medical Conditions.

[...] TSA has established a program for screening of persons with disabilities and their associated equipment, mobility aids, and devices. Our program covers all categories of disabilities (mobility, hearing, visual, and hidden). As part of that program, we established a coalition of over 70 disability-related groups and organizations to help us understand the concerns of persons with disabilities and medical conditions. These groups have assisted TSA with integrating the unique needs of persons with disabilities into our airport operations.

Includes pages about CPAP machines, wheelchairs, Assistive Devices and Mobility Aids, and quite a lot more. Think they've taken a bit of flak over this stuff? Take advantage of it if you need to.

07:39 pm - Modified rapture!

Colleen's wheelchair arrived this morning. It's very heavy -- no way she can get it in and out of the van herself. We may have to see about a crane. It also remains to be seen whether it fits in the trunk of my Honda Civic. (It'll almost certainly fit upright in front of the back seat, but that only works if we have no passengers.)

It marks the start of a transition that I hadn't fully realized was coming up. I should have, but bears are not very perceptive creatures. Luckily they're somewhat adaptable.

04:25 pm - An afternoon at the zoo

Following chaoswolf's suggestion of a couple of days ago, we went to the zoo this morning. Got there a little before noon, and got home about 3:30.

By the time we got there, the main lot was full to the brim, but the handicapped spots around the corner on Sloat were still available. Long walk, though. I hadn't wanted to drop off Colleen and the girls because I didn't know at the time whether there would be parking at all. Next time, I think, we'll leave after lunch and plan on arriving around 2:00 -- there were plenty of places in the main lot by then, and it'll be cheaper if we don't have to buy lunch.

I grumped about the lack of adequate handicapped parking in Member Services, and they gave me a parking ticket so I could drive around and pick up Colleen on the way home. We rented a wheelchair, having discovered on the trip home from FKO what a difference it makes.

Colleen kept apologizing for the extra work she was putting me through, but I was enjoying myself thoroughly. Not only was I able to stay with her the whole time without any extra effort (it's a real strain to slow myself down to her walking pace, and frustrating for both of us), I got a pretty darned good workout to boot.

The zoo was full of "respect the animals" and "please be quiet" signs, and the large cat and bear enclosures all had new glass fences. For obvious reasons. The new fences replace what used to be a pair of railings with a strip of plants in between; they'll be lower maintenance and let you get right up to the edge of the moat and look down. Cool! There's also a little bench built into the concrete footing; probably intended for kids to stand on, but a tired grown-up can sit there, and I saw several doing just that.

I miss the elephants and the pigmy hippo. *sigh* The baby giraffe was cute, though. And it was the first time in the more than three decades I've been going that I saw a warthog standing up where I could see it clearly. I hadn't realized how shaggy they are. And the two grizzly bears sleepily snuggled up next to the window were cute as heck, too.

We'll probably get the flower_cat a wheelchair -- it'll come in handy. It cost us $10 to rent; that will add up, and of course there are plenty of places where you simply can't rent one. The San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, for example, and the Los Gatos Creek bike trail.