DARN!

"Damn!" might be more like it.

It seems that Mr. Bob's driving days are over. Hard news to take after eleven months of doing everything we could figure out to get his driver's license back. We went from doctor to doctor to doctor, until the search for answers finally culminated in enrolling in a Driver Rehabilitation Program at a local hospital where therapy and more therapy took place, trying to strengthen the offending weak ankle.  And then the disappointment of being told that the chances of regaining the right to drive were not good. It seems so odd to me that if the whole picture were recognized, it would fall to me to give up my right to navigate the roads whereas the really good driver in the family, Mr. Bob, could climb back in behind the wheel. But it is not to be.

We never took that extended road trip that was part of our plan when we moved into the Manor. One of my fantasies had been to let them know at the main desk that we'd be back in two months and placing one of those master locks on our apartment doorknob, leaving without a care in the world. No worry about accumulating mail or watering the garden.....none of those things that make a homeowner edgy at the thoughts of leaving town.

Luckily, I edited movies of many of our travels so that when the day came that we could no longer explore the backroads, we might sit back in our comfortable rockers, knitted afghans covering our knees, to watch the places we'd been. I didn't expect that day to arrive quite so soon.

We have the memories

Passing a field of oil wells

When the mustard was in bloom

past the Walt Disney Concert Hall

and Victorian houses in Alameda near Oakland

over the Ridge Route in spring when the poppies were in bloom

near Harrah's in Laughlin, NV

and hurrying back home, but that was in a different time; a different place.

We never know what's around the corner, do we?  
 Now we must think in terms of airplanes, trains, buses and taxis. 
Or of staying at home and watching those movies I made a while ago. The lesson in all this must be the reminder to enjoy the moment, appreciating what we have, the precious present at hand.