Who? Where?

Yesterday we drove out of Boston on our way to Syracuse. We'd checked the weather channel earlier and were told to expect rain. We didn't get rain. We got snow, heavy snow. It took us almost two and a half hours longer to get to the hotel than we expected. It was frustrating looking at the Ted, our GPS and seeing that he predicted a 9:30 pm arrival time, calculating that meant that we had two and a half hours to go. An hour later, driving carefully, we still had a two and a half hour drive and now the arrival time was 10:30. We got to think that we'd never catch up and we'd be driving forever.

However, we finally made the hotel. Nothing was plowed and it was hard to negotiate the parking lot. But then there was another problem. There was no sidewalk. The van we rent is great but, for my kind of chair, the ramp is a bit steep. It would be fine for a scooter but for the power chair, it's not. I tip forward when the grade drops off too quickly. So we drove around looking at other places that might have sidewalks. It was helpful, we thought, that the hotel was part of a large outdoor mall.

Not a single sidewalk to be had. However when driving back we were turning towards the hotel and I noticed that we'd went down a sharp bump from one lane way to another. We were in a giant parking lot and there was lots of room so I directed Joe to pull up beside the sharp drop and put the ramp down there. It worked perfectly. I was just about to go down when this really huge truck pulled up and came to a stop. The lights looked angrily at us. We were in the way. Neither of us understood why the driver was doing this. There was ample room, really ample room to drive around us. And when I say ample, I mean at least 60 feet and 10 acres of room. But the truck stayed there, letting us know that we were in the way.

We'd driven for hours and hours in horrible weather. We both just wanted to get to the hotel. We both had to pee. There was no way we were going to move. I asked Joe to simply wave him around us, he had plenty of room to go around us. In fact twenty or more cars could arc around us at the same time. But Joe just said, "No. It's not hard to figure out." So we went about our business of getting me out. Eventually the truck drove round us, we could feel the hostile stare of the driver, we didn't care. We don't like being in the way, but in this case, the drive had to work to make us in the way.

We got in. My chair powered through the snow, The room felt wonderful, just being there and being safe. As we talked about it we remembered that throughout the trip, drivers helped drivers out. It was like we were all in this together. During one really bad patch the lead driver put his flashers on so that all of us could see the path he was on and follow in his wake. It was nice.

But one person in a huge parking lot chose to be inconvenienced.. Choose to make a problem where none existed.. We aren't sure why. We don't care why. Sometimes, it seems, it's best to just let it go and think of it no more.

Truck? Snow? Lights? What the hell are you talking about?