Accessible Gardening: More Disabled Gardeners Laughing With Joy ..2, 1 by seacanepain

seacanepain wrote:
Expecting your visit will keep us working to improve things and on the right track with good accessibility. You are welcome any time, but I am afraid you would not find it very comfortable if you try it before next fall. The place we work out of is meant to be a two-bedroom home. But, since Kay’s children and Amargia’s kids are all on their own now, I turned the 2nd bedroom into my office. Did not stop to think of the comfort of the regular overnight guest. And, they are part of life when you live an easy drive from the beach. The kids don’t care about roughing it a little. They just treat Amargia like a park with some extra amenities. A camp site with a Jacuzzi. But, the older overnight houseguest doesn’t care for bedding down in my office and the living room.

The one’s who’ve slept in the office complain it took them forever to get to sleep because of all the blinking lights and unexpected noises from the computer equipment that has to run all the time. (We have a small computer-based business.) There are also complaints that when you finally get to sleep; the décor of the room inspires science fiction nightmares. B.E.M.’s and such. (Big Eyed Monsters) The room has a science fiction theme. I get the “When are you going to grow up?” comments.
The people who sleep in the living room say the bedding is comfortable enough. But Taterdog snores horribly and Fenny prowls the house. One overnight guest claims Fenny’s eyes glow in the dark like a wolf’s. He told how he opened his eyes in the middle of the night to find glowing amber-red eyes staring into his. Screamed like a woman! (No offense. I mean he had a very high pitch scream.) The dogs are supposed to sleep in the kitchen, but the kitchen-living room area is an open floor plan. Now, when he and his wife come for an overnight visit. They actually prefer to sleep in the little barn. The wife calls it “quaint” and says she finds the smell of cedar comforting. I think she likes it best because there are no animals there. If it were not for the classic barn roof line, it would make me think of a child’s playhouse. We gave them the master bedroom once, but the woman swears she can still hear Taterdog snore. Kay and I have never noticed that, but it could be. Kay is significantly hard-of-hearing, I am a little bit so from years of working around aircraft engines and Miss Potatohead is a very old dog who does snore.. I guess it doesn’t say much about your abilities to be a good host when people actually prefer to sleep in your barn. It IS a very nice barn though. LOL. It is where I store my valuable comic book collection. No, I don’t have plans to “grow up” any time soon.

The little barn goes over so well with guest, in fact, we are planning to do more “little barns” specifically as guest quarters. Amargia is just off a training path for helicopter pilots. The flight instructors tell us they always know when Amargia’s children are visiting. It looks from the air like the circus is in town. What ever happened to forest green camping tents anyway?

Hopefully, we will have an International grade airport operating in Panama City soon. As things are, you have to drive 4 hours to Atlanta or almost that to Tallahassee. Dothan has a small airport. I worked there. But, it doesn’t even have the facilities to handle 747’s. Kay will only fly if the circumstances demand it. She was a white-knuckles flyer even at the best of times. You can forget small planes.

The fine ladies of Amargia are being nicer to me. I managed to take them down a notch by finding an old adage they couldn’t explain. Thanks, Vickie, I owe it to you. When the ladies think I am being obstinate (In other words, when I disagree with them.) they tell me I am being as “stubborn as a MISSOURI mule.” None of them can explain how mules in Missouri came to have this special reputation. There are a large number of people here who came from Oklahoma in the 1950’s. (Or whose parents or grandparents did.) I think that saying came here with the Okies. But, none of those former Okies know anymore why they say that. It is just something they say because their parents or grandparents said it. Maybe you, Jackie or Leaflady know? Have you heard that one before? Maybe you are too close to Missouri for that one to be used with impunity?

Missed church this morning. Just couldn’t stand the idea of sitting on those hard benches for more than an hour. Want to make evening service. Hope your sermon went well this morning, Carrie. (Jim)

Photo: Fenny looking spooky.