Rant #3,153: My Brave Face

How was your Father’s Day?

Mine was pretty quiet.

With everything going on in my family, the celebration had to be low key and that is exactly what it was.

I visited my mother in the hospital, my wife and son gave me gifts, and later in the day, my daughter visited, also gave me a gift, and then we all went out to dinner in a local restaurant, a national chain where the portions have become so small that I was actually hungry directly afterward and for the rest of the day.

A nothing with nothing Father’s Day, but I guess that in my case, that type of celebration had to be on the bill rather than anything extravagant.

Over the weekend, I discovered some new things I did not know about with my new car.

I unwittingly I discovered how to turn on and off some of the supposed safety devices in the car.

I am a good driver and I really don’t need all the bells and whistles going off to alert me that I am this close to that or someone is so close to me.

And I also finally determined, without a shadow of a doubt, that while my car is equipped to carry satellite radio, it is not built into the car as a standard feature.

No big deal, because I can listen to satellite radio through my phone’s app and have it in the car through the car radio via Bluetooth.

It is not as good as just pushing a button and you have it, but it is good enough, at least for now.

I mainly listen to satellite radio on the weekend—during the week I generally listen to the music on a thumb drive that I update every week—so this new setup is slightly annoying, but once you get the hang of it, it really is no big deal.

I did have to go back to the dealer on Friday so that they could explain an icon on the dashboard to me, one which I went through the materials that came with the car and looked up on the Internet, both to no avail.

It is a symbol that pops up on the dashboard when I accelerate the car, and I was worried that it was telling me something negative.

After somehow taking a picture with my phone of the dashboard with the icon (see above), I went back to the dealer, and they told me that the icon simply signified that the automatic lane control was working; I was driving correctly in the lane I was on, and not jutting in and out.

They told me that to test it, when no other cars are around, take my hands off the wheel for a moment, and the car will not veer out of the lane or lean to one side, which I did try, and the explanation was correct.

It is a safety feature that I cannot turn off, so now that I know what it is when it comes up on the dashboard, it tells me that the car is performing as it should be.

Another thing that I found out is that the air conditioning in this car is not as powerful or strong as it was in my previous car.

It works, it does cool you down, but the other car’s air conditioning was seemingly colder than this one, but maybe it is just my imagination … but I don’t think so.

Also, the headlights are a bit stronger on this car, so I can see better while driving at night.

I am sure that there are other things in the car that I have to learn whether on purpose or through driving, so right now, while I still yearn for my other car, I am learning about this new car in a hurry, because I am still doing an inordinate amount of driving, including the mileage I am putting on to go an see my mother in the hospital.

My mom is doing OK right now … which means she is doing the best that she can be doing under the circumstances.

We don’t really know when she will be coming home, but she is going to need a lot of help when she finally gets there, and at least early on, it is going to be a different type of living experience for her, until, or if, she can get her bearings, physically, mentally and emotionally.

It is not going to be easy, but I do believe she will be better in her own home than in the hospital, and can live out her days in the comfort of her own home, however long that may be.

We shall see how all of that works out.

My wife is getting better by the day, but this head injury doesn’t go away so quickly, and she continues to have good days and bad days and days in-between.

But she is much better than she once was, and as she follows the regimen to a “T,” she will benefit now and in the long term as she recovers from this injury.

Like I said, there is just too much going on around me to really have any joy or celebrate anything right now.

I, and for that matter, my sister, are just too pooped and too strung out from the situation with my mother to really let it all hang out, and we are the ones who must remain well, because if we falter, the already heavy load we are bearing will come crashing down upon all of us.

We just have to stay as strong as possible, and I think if we can do that, we are all gong to make it.

Life can be rough, and right now, I think it is really rough, certainly the roughest time I have ever been through in my 66 years of life.

I just have to tell myself each and every day that things will get better, even if in my heart, I have my doubts.

But I have to put on a brave face, and that is exactly what I am doing as we go through all of this day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.

I have an early appointment tomorrow, so I will speak to you again on Wednesday.

Speak to you then.