EASTER! With wheels!

 

#Easter2024 #CovidIsntOver

Cross adorned with flowers

This post is a giant thank you for something RantMom learned about in the process of booking some ACCESS rides recently: she can bring a companion. RantWoman probably should look up the precise details but for now RantWoman just wants to say "THANK YOU."

To start with, RantWoman considers it a great act of divine mercy that the RantWoman, RantMom, and Little Sister have all found separate faith communities. It's Easter and RantWoman feels no call to elaborate.

Originally, the RantFamily planned to go to Little Sister's church for Easter Services and then join RantMom for the holiday brunch offered at her retirement community. Little Sister lives just up the street from her church and can roll there. That church is currently two buses or one ACCESS trip from RantMom's house, and one bus and a little walk from RantWoman. 

Getting to RantMom's after church would still have taken some contortions: Irrepressible Nephew, the only driver in the family would probably have been drafted for chauffeur service. Little sister would have used her manual wheelchair and Nephew might still have done two trips.

Enter #COVID, AGAIN, and gravity. Little Sister had another of her vexing interactions with gravity and wound up needing time to try to get back closer to normal for her. In the process, she learned that she--and probably whole household even though no one else can find tests. has COVID for about the THIRD time. Yuck, Boo, and also the option to rethink the family faith community entourage.

RantWoman finally weighed in: both RantMom's church and Little Sister's church are lovely. RantWoman knows more people at RantMom's church, loves meeting RantMom fans, and can get there on one bus if she pays attention to the readerboard and chooses the right variation. RantMom generally books ACCESS instead of 3 buses. RantMom is not sold on taking her walker on Light Rail. Anyway, it would still be 3 transit segments or just 2 if she REALLY wanted to spend extra time on the bus. PS It still would have been 3 transit segments if RantWoman had looked up Metro flex service areas. Anyway, RantMom's church it was,with the promise that RantWoman could ride home on ACCESS just paying the regular ACCESS fare.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny. There are clouds of tree pollen in the air but the budding trees more or less outweigh this. Off RantMom set on ACCESS. Off RantWoman went on the bus, without double-checking about the right stop and / or whether there might have been a change in the route because it's shakeup weekend. RantWoman did miss the stop, saw the church and had a lovely walk back up the hill from the next stop. It was the kind of day where one does not mind such hiccups.

The service lovely. For one thing, although the interwebs are full of sludge about how terrible iimmigrants are, the pastor invited everyone to say the Lord's prayer "in their heart language." RantWoman summoned her reserves of tiny print capacity and noted prayer versions in English, traditional and modernized, Kirundi, Swahili, French, and Spanish. Some of hte music came with African drums. 

Local African AMerican quilts historian Jim Tharpe shared the story of a quilt his grandmother had made, that recently came back to him. And the RantWomen even had time for some socializing, even though RantMom scheduled a pickup window on the early side in order to avoid that unplanned tourism and very convoluted routing that seems to happen when everyone in town wants to go home at the same time after church.

RantMom got a call early in her pickup window that the bus was on the way. RantWoman had just found a sunny ledge to sit on; RantMom found her big wrap-around sunglasses and a way to sit in the shade, and the bus arrived in short order. RantMom has opinions about loading, but RantWoman is not going to specify. There was one other guy on the bus and he got dropped off on the way to RantMom's. 

For a little while, RantWoman could see Lake Washington, even with her view partly blocked by the bus number sign. Also, RantWoman urged RantMom to look before remembering that RantMom probably would not hear her and the view of the lake did not last long enough for RantWoman to text and urge RantMom to look.

Mostly a smooth trip home. No unplanned tourism. And the RantWoman got to RantMom's in plenty of time to feast on the Easter buffet AND RantWoman learned that someone else RantWoman knows now also live's in RantMom's retirement community.

The story of Jim Tharpe's family quilts

Seattle times article

The ACCESS RIDE Home

Small note: RantWoman is squeamish about some religious imagery. Today RantWoman decided she took the photo; therefore she is not going to fuss about copyright issues for other people's work.