My younger son, who was until recently the inheritor of Bessie, the '91 Buick LeSabre, has now purchased a new vehicle to replace the now-deceased Bessie. He has gotten himself something most guys in bands want and need: a conversion van. It's old ('95), it's a Chevy, and he says it's immaculate and has ONLY 120,000 miles on it. It gets a whopping 16 mpg. I told my husband he might as well have bought a motor home to drive around in. My son was proud of spending ONLY $1900 for it. Let's hope it will last him at least a couple of years. If nothing else, he can always live in it. The photo is of some generic Chevy conversion van. I have no idea what his looks like as yet.
It's not what we would have picked for him, and I doubt he'll get six months out of it, but he's doing so much better emotionally that I can't rain on his parade. This week he has another musical gig. It's on the same day as his hearing with Social Security. I can't imagine that he'll get any disability benefits. To be honest, I don't think he needs those benefits. The problems he was having (the anxiety and panic attacks) seem to be much, much better now. He's back to being a reasonably upbeat and cheerful person. If only he had more work than three nights a week! But these days, anyone with any job at all should consider him/herself lucky.
My older son, the one who actually could qualify for disability benefits, won't even hear of considering himself disabled. He doesn't seem aware of how odd he looks when he walks. It sounds disloyal of me to even write the words, but he walks very strangely, kind of shuffling and out of balance. He's not in pain. He seems strong and otherwise healthy. But even his uncle noticed and commented on the way he walks. If you try to hug him, he easily gets off-balance, and he told me not long ago that he still cannot and never again will be able to stand on his tiptoes. His right foot still has paralysis. Both his feet look unhealthy. The skin on them seems tight and red, as if his feet are swollen.
The Super Bowl is on, and I've grown rather tired of the game. I watched through half time. Poor Bruce Springsteen seemed to have to resort to shouting out the lyrics of his songs. I certainly would not call it singing. He was physically very agile, which I'm sure the crowd appreciated, but I couldn't understand a word that came from his mouth.
The weather was quite warm today. It got up to 40 degrees. A good bit of melting occurred, but of course the ground is still covered. If only we could continue this moderate trend, but it will end in time for me to have a frozen week.
We purchased a sound machine to add noise to the bedroom in an effort to drown out the snoring. The machine came with several built-in sounds. The heartbeat sound was just too spooky and Edgar Alan Poe-ish ("The Telltale Heart"). The ocean sound caused us both to want to go to the bathroom all night. The summer night sounds (crickets and frogs) seemed a bit inappropriate for this time of year. The tropical jungle noises (monkeys and tropical birds) was too unusual to sleep with. Really, the only sound that worked for us was the waterfall because it sounds more like a fan.
The first day of February.... About all I can say is that I'm grateful to see the end of January.
No comments:
Post a Comment