Still, I Rise

For a person who spent three hours and forty-five minutes in her car last evening, I feel surprisingly cheerful today.

I turned the corner to Highway 12 at 5:40 p.m., right after a bad accident on the Rio Vista Bridge.  I debated for an hour as to whether I should try to inch out and go have dinner.  I texted a co-worker but didn’t get a reply until close to eight, by which time I felt vested in the wait.  I got home at 9:30 p.m.  For perspective, the drive would typically take twelve minutes.

I occupied my time posting to the Delta News Facebook group.  This little virtual corner cafe has given me some interesting connections.  I’ve met other transplants and some native dwellers.  I’ve learned about events, parks, history, and the trials and tribulations of boat life.  Through the Delta News, I’ve gotten to know a few of the twenty artists who are showing at an Art Fest where I live (tomorrow!!!) and at which I’m volunteering (you saw that coming!) .

As the car idled, I kept the group updated on what I saw.  When westbound traffic started over the bridge at 7:45, a surge of hopefulness flowed through my fingers and I cheered! though silently, with all caps, on the keyboard of my phone.  One or two folks posted replies, identifying themselves and where they sat in the same line.  Eastbound traffic didn’t start up until an hour and change later.  We commiserated via replies to each other’s posts.  A bridge-tender shared pictures of the crash taken by another member, a photographer.  When a guy in a pickup forced his way in front of my car and flipped me off, I posted his license plate and learned that the same vehicle has been seen speeding carelessly through the Delta.  (I laughed at his eagerness to get in front of me; he then sat, in the exact spot which he’d nearly hit my car to claim, for two hours.)

This morning, I made it to physical therapy before the scheduled time and brewed a cup of coffee with their little Keurig.  When the therapist arrived, she marveled that I was bright-eyed and bouncy.  I told her about getting stuck in traffic for four hours.  She shook her head.  “You amaze me!” she exclaimed.  I had to laugh.  I told her that sometimes, I amaze myself.

One of the coolest connections that I have made through the Delta News is with a local gal and photographer named Demi Stewart.  She astounds me; talk about a gal who rose from adversity!  You can read my profile of  her HERE.  You’ll read that she works as a bridge-tender.  Today I drove under the little house in which she works on my way to and from my physical therapy appointment.  I alerted her to my impending arrival on the return trip.  You have not lived until you drive under a bridge-tender’s house and see the bridge-tender’s smiling face and cheerful wave!  What could be better than the #deltalife?

I’ve been thinking a lot about my personal detractors.  They crawl out of the woodwork now and then, sometimes in the world around me, sometimes as spectres in my brain, old voices that I cannot exorcise.  I don’t have much going for me that anyone would envy.  But one thing about me cannot be denied.  As the Honorable Peggy Stephens McGraw once judicially noted, I am relentless.

It’s the twelfth day (sorry for the three-day hiatus!) of the sixty-seventh month of My Year Without Complaining.  Life continues.

For an updated tour of Angel’s Haven, my tiny house, click HERE!

KANSAS CITY AREA FANS:  Mark Your Calendar! 05 September 2019, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Prospero’s in Westport — Corinne Corley’s Birthday Bash and Benefit for Rose Brooks Center!

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