Taxi!!

Today's train person

This is going to have to be a fast post. I am scheduled to do a presentation over at 211 i&r AT 3:00and because of events to be explained and taking a taxi service to my meeting. I have know about this meeting since before the holidays. I had forgotten that 211 and the food bank had moved. In their old location there was poor,poor public transit service-- so I was going to drive in today to make this meeting.

So this morning at 6:15 I am dressed and head out to the van. I did not wake Dianne today since I was going to drive in and can just about do all things independent. Anyway, I get in the van—is is dark and sub freezing cold. I have transferred from my power chair into the drivers seat of the van. This is dark, difficult and cold, I reach for the ignition key and twist the key to start the engine the keys fall from the ignition and my hand onto the floor amid curses of frustration and rage. Remember it is very dark in the van and cold. I have to reposition myself in the drivers seat so I can reach down to te floor to find my keys. Luckily I instantly put my hand on the keys and pick them up only to find that I had broken the key in the ignition. Again, this is my fault since I leave my keys in the ignition ( so I know where the keys are at) and being out in the cold made the key brittle and it broke!!

So, I regrouped climbing back into my wheelchair and headed back into the house to warm up and change into my great white coat and then head up to the bus stop to take the train into work. I finally got to work about an hour late which is not too bad. I was going to cancel my presentation but then staff indicated I should take a taxi to my meeting, the office would even pay for the trip. I have never used the taxi service in the city and we really wanted to know how well the system would work and that is what we are going o do. I am scheduled to have the taxi pick me up at 2:00 and then after my meeting the taxi will take me to the train station—sweet!!

Even more sweet. Dianne called mid-morning telling me that she had gone out to try to fix the problem i.e. dig the broke key tip out of the ignition or see how bad the problem was and what she found was the tip of the key lying on the floor of the van right under the steering wheel!!!So, no trip to the lock smith. Or dealership or what ever and I still get to make my 3:00 o-clock meeting!!

So I feel I really dodged the bullet on this one plus we checked out the taxi service to see how well it worked. I am using Yellow Cab—they use gold cross( more on that later) $2.25 to pick up and drop the flag and then 2.20 a mile after that!! This is truly doable—plus I am not returning to work when I am done—heading on home...

Taking calls and giving out info...

Train person on this morning's ride into work.

It is always weird returning to work after an extended amount of time away. I came back today after being gone for more then a week. I was pleased to see and hear there had been no traumas to speak of-I did fill out my time sheet incorrectly and I was “texted” about that and I called into the office and cleared that issue up. I sifted through my emails( I had accessed my account nearlier last week so I had an idea of what was there) an there were no bombs there. There were a few calls to be returned but staff had answered my phones and left pretty good messages. My office was still mess—the way I had left it. The Christmas cards and gifts were scattered round my office looking like orphans. I really need to do something with the mess but I'll start tomorrow. Today is a settle in day—return calls pull a rabbit or two out of the hat just to let staff know I am back, taking calls and giving out info...it's what I do.