Mavericky!!!

We started using the phrase "mavericky" courtesy of Sarah Palin and John McCain, and I guess mostly because of Tina Fey making fun of Sarah Palin. Particulary this sketch, where she really goes after the "maverick" term, talking about, "We'll look at every problem and think 'What would a maverick do?' and do that." That's not a direct quote. Oh it was hilarious though. This is the one: http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/vp-debate-open-palin-biden/727421/

That is some funny stuff. And I guess that's the time the word maverick entered our daily vocabulary. And thank goodness, because I don't know how else to describe today.

I let Tom drive the first time today. Did you know a lot of people with TBI don't drive for SEVERAL months post-accident? Or closer to a year? Or NEVER? A lot of doctors will revoke licenses of TBI patients, but Tom's wasn't revoked, so it's really up to us when he drives. My BIL Reade (according to Tom) looked it up, and there is so much paperwork and rigamoro (there can't be a proper spelling of that word) involved with having someone's license revoked, that doctors don't do it as much as they probably should.

So, one of our big bills is the marina boat slip, which holds the boat that Tom bought during his single days so he could go fish out in the ocean. Well, since we started kayaking, we hardly use the boat, even in the ocean, and our medical bills are extra incentive to FINALLY sell the boat and lose the boat slip. I am SO excited. I hate having stuff we don't need or use.

So, Tom's friend John came today to help us trailer the boat. We are keeping it in a cheaper, non-boat-slip storage while we try to sell it. I knew Tom would be driving the boat onto the trailer.

So, I decided to get all mavericky and let Tom drive us to the marina. Not before driving us around the block first, of course. He did fine. We went to Oreillys for some mechanical thingie, hit Sonic at literally 3:59pm, barely in time for happy hour for a couple of Diet DP's (it was time for my daily headache, and I needed something to wash down the drugs), then went to the marina.

He did great!! I didn't know what to expect because there was so much taboo about brain injured patients driving (for good reason, of course!), but he did really well. And he understands that doesn't mean he can pick up the keys and go get us some ice cream. He went a little faster than I would've liked, but I would've liked him to go about 15 MPH...LOL. Luckily, at 4pm, it was school zone central in our neighborhood, so he couldn't speed off too quickly. It went well, and I'll continue to let him cruise around locally.

We are so freakin' lucky, you know? Life is hard, but it could've been so much worse. A lot of people only see the lucky side and some (even me) think we should just feel lucky and happy with our best-case-scenario, but I hope people (even me) can understand that with the "best-case-scenario", there is still grieving involved with a traumic event like this.

We were in the waiting area at outpatient rehab last week with another couple. They were close to 60, and the man in the wheelchair wore a NAVY hat, so he was probably in the service in the past. He spoke, but we couldn't understand him. His wife had to translate. It seemed to me like she really loved him, and how lucky he is to have a wife, a caretaker, someone who cared enough to learn his "language". How lucky WE are to not have to learn a "new language". It was really touching to me to listen to the man "ramble" on, not understand a word he was saying, but hear his wife respond like normal. Wow. Anyway, Zach, the rehab coordinator dude, a youngish guy who is very friendly, came by and started chatting us up about Tom's incision, which I was really worried about last time we saw him. That incision was kinda mavericky lookin' - we weren't sure if it was just going through this weird gross healing stage or if I was somehow killing him via incision infection. It was the former. Zach said it was looking good, and the NAVY guy said clearly, "Hey, I've got one too!" He pointed to a big incision scar on his head. It was totally healed up like a normal scar, and it made me wonder how long he and his wife have been on this road.

We are SO lucky.

Anyway, more mavericky. Tom hopped on the boat and drove it like a pro to the trailer that John had backed into the boat ramp. Not a single moment of "OMG you're going to run into something!" He did SO WELL. I mean, I'm not clearing him to drive cross country or anything (although he could if he wanted), but what a big step!!!

Then, after dropping it off in a new storage facility, we headed to the new Red Lobster. If cheddar bay biscuits aren't mavericky, I don't know what is. It was good. We even had dessert. And it was SO nice to have dinner with John & Kimberlee. I really enjoyed it.

And now we're sitting at home, Tom' watching Deadliest Catch, and I'm wrapping up this blog so I can go to bed. Bed at 10pm, THAT is mavericky.