Salty Zebra

      After a brief but busy visit to the Disney World Resort area, I thought it would be best to take a break day before heading out on a cruise.  Turns out I would need it more than I realized!     Tuesday evening I dropped the power wheelchair off at the Disney resort I had stayed at and took a Lyft to WorldMark Kingstown Reef about 20 minutes away in Orlando.  I've never been to this resort, but it was opposite to everything I had experience the last two nights.       Physically, I was done on arrival.  It took everything I had to make it to my room, which of course was in the back of the resort furthest from the lobby.  I wonder if that's just a default that computers like to fill rooms in from the back to the front?  There was also bricked sidewalk for half of it. I had never noticed what a popular aesthetic feature brick sidewalk is before I struggled with navigating them.       My room was on the fourth floor for which I was very grateful because it meant I didn't h

      I've spent decades trying to develop a healthy sleep cycle.  It sounds deceptively easy to just go to bed and fall asleep.  In fact, it's something my husband does quite well.  It's happened multiple times that when I spoke to him just a few seconds after he laid down, I woke him up!  On the other side of things, I've spent so very many nights staring at the ceiling longing for rest either when I've gone to bed or when I've woken in the middle of the night.  Part of this is fueled by me being an incredibly light sleeper.  When my kids were younger, I could be in deep sleep but if they woke up and went into the kitchen, several rooms away from me, I would be fully awake and aware of what was happening in the house.  I also struggle with anxiety and when I'm home alone  at night, or the only adult at home, it tends to be the worst.      These days I've found a much better rhythm for the most part, but a lot goes into that.  The first thing I needed t

       As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. "Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." Luke 21:1-4 NIV     This passage was presented on my Pray As You Go devotional this morning and it struck me in a different way.  I don't know how many times I've studied this passage.  It's so meaningful to me that I often wear a "Widow's Mite" on a necklace to remind me that no matter how little I have to give God can use it.  Today what stood out to me was that while I cannot identify with the widow's financial poverty, I have a poverty of my own.  I have so little energy and ability to be physically present that I have, in the past, written off my ability to be of service.  The truth is, God

Here I am sitting on the back of a beautiful ship, trying my hardest not to cry. I am so very blessed to be here. I am so very grateful for the opportunity. I know that many, if not most, don't get to do things like this. But everyone around me does, and I'm struggling with comparing myself against them and being jealous.  Yesterday, embarkation day, I hit a new recent record of over 10,000 steps, over 4 miles. I paid for it dearly. I know better than to walk that much, but I didn't see a way to avoid it. In the future, I will DEFINITELY bring a power wheelchair on a solo cruise. The amount of required activity exhausted me, causing me to have to rest in my cabin for much of the afternoon and evening. I also ended up with a migraine by the time I went to bed. I really wanted ice for my head, but that would have required walking back and forth the length of the ship and I just didn't have it in me.  Today we are spending the day at MSC's private Island, O

So what was it like using Disney Resort transportation with a wheelchair? There were a lot of positive experiences, and a few negative ones. Firstly, I was pleased to discover that there is a separate wheelchair queue for the buses. It's right up front, and allows the driver to see that you will need assistance when they pull up. After the bus has unloaded, the driver closes the front door and opens the doors in the middle of the bus. They cause the bus to dip towards the curb and then extend a ramp. I had to line up the wheelchair with the somewhat narrow ramp, then maneuver up the ramp and pivot sharply into the wheelchair securing spot. Thanks to the maneuverability of this chair, I never had any trouble with this process. Then the driver secures the front and back of the chair to the bus with ratcheting straps and helps you put on a seat belt. They will repeat that process with another wheelchair or scooter if there are more waiting, but they can only take two mobil

I arrived at my Resort after the delivery hours of Randy's Mobility, the company I chose to rent my power wheelchair from. They were kind enough to drop it at my Resort so it would be ready when I arrived. What I did not anticipate was how difficult it would be to figure out on my own. I had to make two phone calls to their incredibly helpful staff, the first one to locate the chair, and the second one to figure out how to turn it on. When I located my chair, it was plugged in and charging outside of the arcade. The seat back was folded down, presumably for transport, and it took me longer than it probably should have to figure out how to flip the seat up using a lever very similar to one on a car seat. Once I had that up, I unplugged the charger and turned on the chair, but when I moved the joystick nothing happened! I tried everything I could think of, but probably because I was unfamiliar with this chair, and power chairs in general, I didn't realize that the cha

There's nothing that quite makes my heart go pity pat like the sound of Disney music piped through the speakers at the entrance to a Disney park. The anticipation and joy almost move me to tears. I've spent many vacations at Disneyland in California, including my honeymoon and 10th anniversary. I know those Parks like the back of my hand, and you could drop me in the middle of them any day and I'd be able to find my way around without trying. For our 25th anniversary next February, however, we decided to go big and visit Disney World. I really had no idea what I was signing up for when we chose this. I found out later that all of Disneyland, California Adventure, and the Downtown Disney District can fit into the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, and the Magic Kingdom is the smallest of the four theme parks! The entire Walt Disney World resort area is 43 square miles, the size of San Francisco or double the size of the island of Manhattan. When I learned this, I kne