Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Saturday Mornings

Saturday mornings are time to meet friends. It is often the time that I get together with my friend Faith. Faith has MS (multiple sclerosis) and thus does no longer drive. On Saturday mornings her mother comes to town, and Faith and I chat over coffee or breakfast.

Years ago, Faith used to come twice a week to my house to stay with my daughter when I was in grad school. Now I entertain her with stories about my students, neighbors or anything else that has happened during the week that is worth sharing. Lately we have also spent some time updating Faith's Facebook page and reading funny comments posted by her friends.

We used to meet at a small coffee shop that was owned by a Korean lady. About two years ago, "our Korean Lady" closed her coffee shop and her cleaning business and retired. We had to find a new coffee shop that was easily accessible by wheelchair (not as easy as you would think). Last Saturday Faith and I were having breakfast at a nearby diner. We had just sat down when I looked to my left and saw a familiar face: "our Korean Lady" was eating breakfast right next to us!!!! What a wonderful surprise! We had not seen her since she closed up her business. But to our surprise, she is a business woman again! She has opened a new business in town. According to her, retirement did not give her enough to do!!! Can you imagine that??

Somehow Faith and I finished our breakfast really fast, and decided to take a walk outside. I was pushing Faith in the wheelchair up the hill. Workout for me for sure, but also, this walk became an evaluation of our town's sidewalk smoothness. I lost count how many times I had to turn the wheelchair around in order to get over an uneven part of a sidewalk. Should I write the city council a letter and inform them of our findings? They could hire us to walk all the city sidewalks this summer and pass on our evaluation of their suitability for wheelchairs. Might be too costly...

Saturday mornings are always full of surprises! That is why I like to share them with friends!
Do you have a Saturday morning ritual?

7 comments:

  1. Rituals bring comfort when life gets so busy. I'm glad you are back to the Tuesday ritual.
    Sidewalks are so tricky to negotiate when roots and age have played havoc with them.

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  2. I enjoyed reading about your Saturday morning. It sounds lovely. Saturdays are the best. You still have the whole weekend ahead of you without worrying what's got to be done before going back to school on Monday. :)

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  3. I love that you spend time with friends. I usually have coffee, nice and slow and then open up my Choice Literacy newsletter. Right now I love to be on the deck enjoying the weather and hearing the birds. In the winter I love being near the fireplace. xo PS The last few weekends I've been teaching my graduate class and I'm looking forward to my Saturdays coming back in June. xo

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  4. Oh please do mention the difficulties your sidewalks present!

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  5. Saturdays my husband and I always go out for breakfast. This past Saturday we had to wait for a table at our favorite little breakfast place, and so sat outside in chairs by the ice cream shop. I watched a man maneuver his wheelchair across the street and then up to the brick sidewalk, having to avoid a folding sign in the middle of the sidewalk. I then went across the street and moved the sign out of the middle of the sidewalk. Sometimes people just don't think. I think you should do the sidewalk evaluations and just post them in the local paper's editorial page.
    I have made a "found poem"of SOL post titles today and your title is in my poem!

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  6. Glad you're back!

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  7. You are a wonderful friend to Faith - and you should write a letter about accessibility. My son is wheelchair bound and while is quite capable of managing his wheelchair by himself, we have found so many places that are difficult to manage - side walks that have cut-outs but are too narrow, bathrooms that are deep but there is no way a chair can be turned around inside of it! Most disappointing are vacation spots - don't ever let Faith go to Whistler, BC!

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