Toe Jam Pizza And Other Stories

Last night we called Mike and Ruby answered the phone. She was really chatty and was catching us up on what was going on in her life, in her school, with her sister and, of course, there was a long story about pizza dough that had ended up on the floor. I asked if she was going to have 'toe jam' pizza, there was a pause and then "ewwwwwwww gross!" I actively work at keeping the 'cool quotient' up when talking with the kids.

Ruby told us about her week at gymnastics camp and at one point how she hurt her back a week bit. I said to her, 'Well, you know you can always borrow my wheelchair if you need it!" She laughed and said, "Thanks that would be fun!" Then Joe asked if she'd like to use the power chair or the manual chair and without question she said she wanted to use the power chair.

For the next few minutes we laughed about how when Joe drives it, he keeps running into walls because he's not very good at driving it. From there we went to all the things that Ruby would run into if she had the chair. We went from trees, to cars, to stores, to people in stores, laughing all the while. It's sometimes hard to know what to talk about for an extended time with little kids, but this topic was a comic goldmine. We exhausted our ideas of the destruction that my chair could havoc with Ruby at the helm and soon she was passing her dad onto the phone. Sadie was busy doing something so she just called 'hi' every now and then, wanting to be in the conversation but not wanting to leave what she was doing.

After we hung up we laughed about our conversation with Ruby. She still sees wheelchairs as a cool way to get around and she still thinks it's cool for a couple of old geezers to tease her about her driving in a wheelchair. In a funny way, it reminded me, really, about how cool these damn chairs actually are.

During work I lectured on a stage that had a very long ramp up to it ... I used my powerchair to whip up and down the ramp. After work we went shopping and got around quite nicely. I managed to get through crowds, and I managed to speed through empty aisles. I still have FUN in both chairs.

FUN

Fun because it's cool.

Ruby cool.

And that, right now, is the ultimate in coolness.