My mother would be so proud ...

In our family, my mother was known partly by her camera. Always there -- always ready -- and, yep, I seemed to have inherited it and now I am passing it along it seems.

Today was my first official 'outing' and I was getting rather 'stir' crazy even in our large house! (You can see Sandi's 'thumbs up' sign behind me in the photo.) And where did we go?? To Sam's Club, of course. And why did we pick a Saturday to do that? I have no clue except that I was feeling quite a bit better and thought it would be good to go stock up on a few things. Of course, I'm not a list person and that doesn't go well on a busy Saturday afternoon when everyone and their brother decide to shop at Sam's. And I really can't figure it out -- summer is basically over so kids are back in school and it is not yet Snowbird season, but Sam's was as busy as I have ever seen it. When you don't have a list, you have a tendency to zigzag throughout the store.

Try to maneuver a wheelchair with one leg sticking straight out in front of you through a store -- come to the end of an aisle and you think you need to yell something or other so no one will run you over! I told the girls I really needed just to tie a red bandana at the end of my foot -- it would just look like one of those overload trucks -- okay, so you get the picture and it isn't very pretty.

It is amazing how people get out of your way .. well, some do. Others must think we just add a brace and a wheelchair for effect to allow us to get good parking spots and get through the store more quickly.

So ... Roxanne pushed the wheelchair -- I actually can wheel it myself and could have mustered the strength to get into a motorized one but quite frankly, everyone in Sam's was much safer by my staying in the manual one I was in. (Manual? Wasn't sure what other word to use ...)

Sandi pushed the shopping cart -- and the two didn't always meet. I held stuff until we could find Sandi and she couldn't get to us from where she was and people were EVERYWHERE!!! Didn't they get the memo? It was shopping time for us somewhat limited mobility people ... and I wasn't the only one motoring around like this.

Soooo .. we finally got to the front to check out. Now I can relax .. How about a diet coke for the road .. you can grab a cup/glass right there at checkout -- so Roxanne did and while Sandi and I checked out, she went to the drink machine -- which she found out has been out of commission (sort of) for the past two weeks .. except for, let's see .. iced tea, lemonade and power ade. Okay -- I can do iced tea .. sounds good. Right! Out of four machines, two were working -- but those two had finally given up the ghost, too ... so, Roxanne trotted right back to the checkout area and asked for our money back.

After we got everything loaded into the van at Sam's, Sandi reminded us that she had forgotten to take a picture of me shopping at Sam's .. like that was special? Okay, so it was -- my first outing!! Oh, well .. we may get another one tomorrow ...

So ... that was part of my outing for the day -- except that it got better, sort of! We arrived home after finishing our errands to the remnants of "Fay" still pounding on our door ... it was pouring down rain. Sandi ran inside to grab a plastic bag for my brace -- never mind my head or my hair -- obviously that couldn't look much worse .. but we did need to keep the brace dry, she told me.

So, between raindrops -- and there were lots of them for a few minutes, we unloaded the car and they unloaded me (not necessarily a pretty picture) but we all made it inside safe and sound -- and I think my mind is a little clearer and my mood is better after getting a new perspective on the world -- outside my house!!! I think I'll do it again tomorrow ...

By the way, on a serious note .. thanks to our girls for being such troopers ... and while I won't go into detail here in the many ways that they have helped me because some are too personal to share, they have been of more support than they could possibly know .. Bob and I are blessed beyond measure