Precious Few

There are precious few advantages to having a blind child, or, I suppose to being blind.   But there are some.   One of them is the handicapped placard for large crowd events.   It turns long, slow lines of traffic to get to a parking spot a long walk away from the venue into what I’d call a LIFO situation.

As a programmer (which I used to be before I became a mother and then a real estate agent), LIFO means Last In First Out.   It’s used in inventory valuation in businesses and is something you learn early on in programming.   Basically the last one in is the first one out.

In our case this evening, we were going to a festival where there were food trucks, rides and then fireworks.   We didn’t want to make an afternoon of it so we arrived quite late.  Without the handicapped parking placard, we would have been in a lengthy line of cars, parking at the very back of the now full parking fields.   Instead, we were diverted to a parking area right beside the event space itself.   We  got out and were in line to get food in less than five minutes and then waited to see the fireworks in our chairs we’d placed in front of our car.

Once the fireworks were over (and I’d gotten my funnel cake after a forty-five minute wait in line) we  got in our car to leave.   Because the parking space we were in was right near the exit, we were back on the road in just a few minutes.   Last to arrive, first to leave.

We told my daughter thanks for letting us used her handicapped placard tonight.   She said she didn’t care.   Which worried me, because that belies something underneath that means she did, in fact, care. I’m going to see if I can get her to talk about it, although I’m guessing she won’t want to.

The Big Boy Update:  My son was very happy to be a the “Third of July” festival tonight.   He wanted dumplings and then didn’t stop dancing around for the next half-hour while we waited in line for ice cream.   He got both sorbet and ice cream and then swirled them together.   It looked unappetizing to me, but he liked it.   The dumplings, he said, were his favorite.   He’s really starting to branch out and like all kinds of food.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter did not like the fireworks.   To be more specific, the sound of the fireworks.   We were quite close and they were loud.   She wanted to get into the car to get away from the noise.   I was sort of on her side with this because I didn’t like the noise level either.   I was hoping she’d be able to see the fireworks though as they’re bright on the night sky.    I got in the car with her and realized she was able to see the fireworks through the windshield of the Model X.   The car’s windshield goes back and overhead much farther than a typical car.   Even through the tinted section of the windshield she said she was able to see the bursting lights in the sky.   Although to her, I’m not sure it’s more than directional light.   She asked me, “mom, can you hear them when they launch?”   She was paying attention to the sound when the firework ignited and then the timing them before they exploded.