Rainy Day and Monday

 

Carrabba's Mezzaluna - YUM!

 

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer so far! I’ve already been to a baseball game and had a double-scoop waffle cone ice cream. It could snow tomorrow and I’d…be miserable. Snow in June? My world would end. Summer is not about having a baseball and ice cream day once; it’s about baseball and ice cream all the time!

On the second day of summer 2014, Sunday, David and I traveled into the Motherland and caught a baseball game in Grand Rapids, the West Michigan Whitecaps. The Whitecaps are the Tigers A-Ball team in the Midwest League. The Whitecaps lost the game 4-2 to the Fort Wayne Tin Caps, which marked the first game of 4 we’ve seen this year that the home team lost. It’s also the second time we’ve watched part of the Tigers family lose! We were at the game in Cleveland where the Tigers miserable lump started! I’d HATE to think that this year we need to stay away from The Tigers!

Saturday was Bike To The Bay, MS bike fundraiser. You’ll recall my friend, Christine, who has MS with drop foot is the captain of Team Leap Frog which is linked in The Chronicles if Nani’s right column. She biked 38 miles Saturday! Her 44-rider team collected nearly $13,000 for MS so far with a few months of fundraising left. Stop by Leap Frog For MS  and give her a “congrats!”

Monday was a cloudy morning with rain in the forecast. David and I went to do a larger grocery trip. The way the groceries work he stops a few times a week to pick up things we need and dinner stuff and I go every couple weeks to stock up on produce and the things I want to choose rather than choose from home. An example; there are about ten different REV wraps and many flavors of yogurt, but if David’s picking them up for me I have to choose from what I remember. About every month to 6 weeks, we gather all the coupons and do a major “staples and new things” trip. That was Monday.

Now, I have a gripe. I much prefer to shop with my power chair and hand baskets than use the go-carts available in store. First off, I can maneuver between all the tables in the bakery and deli areas with my chair. The carts are just too big not to knock into things. The other thing I noticed is that people in general are not as kind or helpful as when I’m in my own chair. Maybe that’s because there are so many people who use them that don’t "look" like they need them. I think passing judgment like that is cruel because you can’t look at someone and SEE why they need the riding carts. Someone with a heart or lung condition may be able to walk, but not for a whole trip to the store and use of that go-cart is the only reason they CAN walk out when they’re done. I know “back in the day” my knee would be fine until about half way through a grocery trip, then I was dragging my leg and left much of my list unbought. Whatever the reason, I feel better treated when I’m in my own chair. There’s also the space problem in parts of the store and reaching so far up to what’s in the cart.

When we left the store, it was raining, I mean REALLY raining! David pulled up close and I got drenched even trying to get close enough to get in the car. He ended up taking the groceries home and came back for me when the rain let up. I had my book, so all was okay until he came back and I’d been in that cart so long I had no strength and almost no feeling in my legs and needed help to get up.

I MUCH prefer taking my power chair to the grocery store!

Last night we finally celebrated Valentine’s Day! I had bought a gift card for our dinner that we never went out for because of frozen pipes, more snow and then just no time! We had a great dinner at Carrabba’s. David had a shrimp and scallops dish with mashed potatoes and I had Mezzaluna; chicken, spinach and ricotta ravioli. We shared Sogna Di Cioccolato, Chocolate Dream, for dessert.

After getting pretty wet earlier at the store, I managed to get in the house with just a few raindrops after dinner. It was a rain-exhausting but good day.