Ben Comen - CP'er cross country runner

You fall down...you get back up. Pretty much summarizes cerebral palsy.

The story of a true champion.

Thanks Kathryn for sharing this with me.

I am ready for the Rapture!

We saw the Weinermobile today at Wood Village Fred Meyer. I have now seen it all.

I am ready to be raptured!

From BLOG

Seth Reder, new artist with amazing voice

My work cube neighbor's nephew is out with his first demo. Great acoustics and vocals!

Please give a listen:

Happy birthday Bono!

I am an "Important Person!"

We husbands say stupid things all the time. It is part of our job description.

When Woman #1 is mad, you say nothing. Husbands know that. Total no-brainer.

Yesterday I slipped.

Eric's varsity baseball team had a game in Tualatin at Horizon Christian. We thought our favorite third string catcher might get to catch, but instead a junior was pulled in from the outfield for the catching duties.

Jodie likes to position her powerchair as close as she can to home plate.

Horizon has a beautiful baseball field. When we first got there we saw the team folding up the tarp that covered the whole field. Dugouts were nicely built with cinder block. There was a low cable fence separating the field from the parking lot. From the backstop to the outfield fence, it was a beautiful field.

Behind the backstop, the ground was rock and hilly. There was a eight inch curb. The only curb cut was blocked by shrubs at the top. There was no way for Jodie to get up to the spectator area.

Jodie was upset. She could not believe the lack of accessibility to get up to the field.


We parked in the lot down by third base. We could see everything from there except the most important part of the field - home plate.

I told Jodie, "This is terrible that there is no accessible way to the field. If there was an important person on the board or at the school that needed access, there would be access."

Jodie shot back "I am an important person!"

Ouch! I said the wrong thing!

A big fault of mine is that I can see many sides of things. Accessibility is spendy, and how many disabled come to watch baseball games?

Jodie totally did not share my sentiment.

I moved our van over behind the backstop, as close as we could get, which was not very close. We could see parts of the batter, depending on which way the crowd was moving.

Jodie was not happy not being able to see much of the game, but people watching is always priceless.

There was a couple dogs at the field. A lady brought her dog behind the crowd. The dog did his duty #2. The lady covered it with the bark that was covering the ground. She used her toe to lightly cover it. The lady looked up and saw Jodie and I watching her. She shrugged and giggled with a 'oops' look on her face.

We then watched a multitude of people walk over that spot and tried to guess who got the surprise on their shoe.

We lost the game to Horizon 5 to 3. Portland Christian's first loss of the season.

I don't think it's possible for a non-disabled person to understand a barrier of an eight inch curb. Until you are in a wheelchair and you can't get somewhere you really want to get, you won't understand.

Us "important people" understand.

Garmin...Google Map...where am I going?

Eric is on the varsity and the junior varsity baseball teams for his school, Portland Christian. He counts the hits, is the warm up catcher, and backs up first for the varsity team. He does not see much playing time for varsity, but Jodie and I don't miss a game.

Yesterday, there was a game at Western Mennonite High School. I put the address into our Garmin. It directed us to go over the Wheatland Ferry. I didn't want to go over a ferry with our big Sprinter van. I went to Google and got a map that directed us to take Highway 99, to 18, to 221. It seemed simpler. If I missed a turn, we'd wind up at the casino...not so bad.

I was not in the right lane for the Tualatin exit off I-5. I could not get over. I've gone that way many times...no idea what I was thinking. I took the next exit and made my way back to the Tualatin/Sherwood Road.

We made it down Highway 99. The Garmin kept telling us to turn everywhere. I left it on so that when we got close to the school, it would let us know.

We got caught in that bottleneck area on Highway 99...took us forever!

The school is on Highway 221, northwest of Salem, between Lincoln and Hopeveil, two small towns I did not know existed. Farmland, fresh air, a very beautiful setting for a school.

We made our way to the parking area. It was a grave lot, except for a couple cement slabs for disabled parking. I parked in one of the slabs. Jodie moved her chair onto the lift. I let her down. The gravel was a slight down hill slop. The lip at the end of the ramp would not go down. I had Jodie get back into the van and I drove to the other disabled spot. Save for the nasty mud hole I had to slog through to open the back doors of the van, I was able to unload Jodie in her powerchair and my scooter without trouble.

People were looking on with curiosity as we unloaded. I got the feeling the the disabled parking spots don't get used much at that school, and they probably don't see many lift vans there.

The boys won. Eric counted the hits. Jodie was not sure about letting Eric drive us home, but I knew he could do it.

We followed the team bus into Salem. We grabbed dinner at a Dairy Queen drive-thru, parked to eat, watched a guy bum some change from a gal sitting in her car a few spaces from us. We watched him go into the market across from us, come out with a brown paper bag, and disappear behind the Tru Value store.

Eric drove us home and did a fine job.

Now, I need to find LaSalle high tomorrow, Sherwood high on Friday, and Horizon Christian on Saturday.

Ahhh...baseball season...