All Grown Up

Last night Dianne and I had an actual date. We actually went out in the evening to a screening of the film I heard promoted earlier in the week on local public access channel, KU ER. It was a documentary titled Room 237 a artsy study of Stanley Kubrick's classic The Shining. Yesterday, was my regular workout day at Wellness so we decided that Dianne would drive into the city and pick me up after my workout and we would find somewhere for dinner. This is a typical of what we've been sort of locked into and I have to admit I was excited to get out and play the cool scene for a bit. I was a bit tired even though I had a light workout. I had sort of overexert at myself day before and I was still paying the price. I was also a little concerned that I would be so tired by that point in the day to sleep through the presentation. Fortunately, if that were to happen the loss would be minimal since the price of the movie was free.

We thought it was wise to go directly to the Rose Wagner center, where the movie was being screened, get a parking space and find something downtown for dinner. We ended up settling for Squatters Pub. Squatters is okay, a little trendy but it's a brewpub pretty laid back, lots of T-shirts, tank tops casual dress. A lot of people trying to be seen in just the right settings. Squatters food is okay, I had the Alaskan halibut dinner is pretty happy with it, is probably more grace than I needed but this was a night out and it was fun ordering like grown-ups. The biggest reason for the choice of restaurant is that squatters is essentially across the street from the Rose Wagner center..

I guess you'd say” the Rose Wagner” this is a beautiful facility. I've been in a place the number of times and it's nice but a little deceptive. It's one of those places that is 99% successful. It's not apparent what is not accessible to start living in the building. It's a public building and accessible in general but there were no power doors and they're pretty heavy. But for the most part the person wheelchair does pretty good. The wheelchair seating is a little rough: they basically just yanked a seat out so you end up sitting next to your date kind of. The dates on one level you're on another pretty much but I guess it's better than nothing and it could be better but you never think about it tell you there then space and the moment you leave. This what is not acceptable however is the fact the stalls in the men's bathroom atst has some issues. Like most bathroom stalls the door opens in which always drives me crazy. What happened last night was I got into the stall shut the door behind me and pushed the latch shut and did my business. When it was time to leave there was no way I could open the door. There is nothing to hold on to the old door back, which is what you have to do to get out of the stall. I didn't panic which is good but I was a bit frustrated. Luckily, I had my bungee cord was able slighted between the door and the jam turn the bungee cord and yank it towards being with enough force that it did open. This I also tried moving my feet under the door and tells my chair backs of my toes caught the door and then moved the chair back and that open the door as well. Clearly the door is a challenge for anyone with limited hand function. We made notes to that effect on our survey we are going to submit to the Rose Wagner and hopefully someone will do something about it. It's a little thing, more of an annoyance than anything else is just another example that folks with disabilities can never rest, can never let their guards down or they are out in the cold. Now I have to make sure that the Rose Whitener gets my problem letter and then I will have to follow up to make sure they do something about it. It's just a pain in the hands and why do I have to do it, I am sure there are other Crips going to this place all the time while they do it?

This aside from being momentarily trapped in the bathroom be had a great time. Granted it was late by the time the documentary ended and they had open discussion it was time for this geezer to go to bed so we left. But it was fun being out with Dianne,on a summer s night… All grown up.