Day 637 - March 14 - Trapped

Connor has been having a few ups and downs this week - some difficult nights, some good nights, some days of pain, some days pain free - in other words, just another week on this journey. In general, though, it does seem that the boy is using less medication overall lately, which is always a good thing.

Our biggest frustration this week is that we're stranded here at the house, and have been since Tuesday evening. That was when I took Connor's van in to the dealer for its 10K mile preventative maintenance, a one-day event for a vehicle that works perfectly well. Sure enough, I picked it up Wednesday evening only to find that now the van won't downshift. Turned around and took it back, "we'll get it straightened out tomorrow". Thursday afternoon and now "we have to wait for a part from Los Angeles, you'll have it Friday". Friday comes and so does the part, and now the van's worse than it was before the new part. Of course, they're not open over the weekend, so now we're looking at Monday night at the earliest before Connor's sole mode of long-distance transportation returns to duty.

Interestingly, they seem to think that the rental car they're providing should make the extra delay OK. It's a tiny little car I call "the four-door Speck". I'm not sure it could carry Connor and his chair even if we could get him into it, so it's not exactly a replacement.

And that's what I think frustrates me the most - how dependent we are on stuff that breaks. I mean, it's one thing to be trapped at home for a week while we wait for a van repair. It's another thing entirely if the van were to break down on the road. If it did, AAA would send out a tow truck in its usual efficient manner. But what do you do when you get towed? You climb up in the truck because they can't tow a vehicle with someone inside it. But wait - Connor can't get into the tow truck...so we're now on the side of the road without transportation. Oh, I know! I'll call a friend to pick us up - no, wait, nobody has a vehicle that we can get into. OK, then I'll call Outreach, the transportation service the county runs for disabled people - assuming we're in the county. No, wait, that won't work either - they don't have the capability to transport more than 400 pounds, and Connor and his chair weigh more than that. Hmmm, how do we get home?

So, we're completely dependent on one thing - and if that breaks, we're hosed. In rock climbing, that's called "relying on a single point of failure", and it's something you really, really, really try to not do. Because while it might work sometimes, one of these days it's not going to; and then you've suddenly quit rock climbing and taken up skydiving, without a chute. Not a good thing.

So, what do we do? Hope it doesn't happen, I guess. We certainly can't afford a second van to sit around in case we need it. And, though I forget sometimes, if anything like that were to happen, it would be occurring in God's plan and timing for the purpose of conforming us more closely to Christ's image, so I guess I should quit worrying about it and focus on things I actually have some influence over, right?

Like making sure I respond to a certain Service Manager in a fashion which glorifies Christ...

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