Brain Freeze

I am tired.  I know I owe replies and computer fixes and the like to some of you, but I'm just not up to it right now.

Meanwhile, go read the blog Rachel (of Signing Time) wrote about her family's recent vacation.

The point -- for me -- isn't so much "aww, what a wonderful mom!" (though Rachel is, and the post proves what she'll do for her girls) or even "good Lord, that can't possibly be little baby Lucy I remember from when I worked as an aide," (which is roughly the same reaction I had to an earlier post about Leah's birthday, since it made me realize that the kindergarten-aged kids I worked with when I was an aide are all in, or about to be in, middle school now), but "why call something a glass-bottomed boat if it's an unaccessible submarine" and "why can't the submarine be accessible?"

Back when the new Nemo subs opened at Disneyland, I wondered roughly the same thing -- why couldn't they have a cherry-picker type platform lift?

It also makes me remember the field trip we took to the little zoo thing they have at the community college whose name now escapes me.  They were advertised as fully accessible, but within fifteen minutes, I was carrying the front of one boy's manual wheelchair while his mom carried the back, and several of the strongest male aides we had were trying to get another boy's power chair out of loose gravel.

I do mean to talk about this more, but see above (or below) re: exhausted.