CpChic, AKA Crazy Mulching Fruit Ninja

     Someone once said it’s the small things in life that make it worth living. I’m pretty sure they were poor, because with friends and family flying around the world, finding a penny on the sidewalk has lost some of its former luster. Although I must confess, a quarter, now a quarter, that’s worth bending over for.

     But this week I found myself giggling like a little girl about two of the strangest things. It surely means I need to get out more but until I find enough quarters to fly away to some exotic place, these things, among others, will surely help me muddle through.

     Mulch. Mulch made me happy and giggly last weekend. After some reflection and considering what I think mulch is made of, (I should Google it, yet I’m afraid to,) I just realized how sad that statement is. But since it is already out there, I should own it. My name is Claire and I, for some reason, enjoy mulch.

     Long story shorten. My dad decided to plant 135 pecan trees on their land. I think it was a three weekender project. First they staked where they wanted each tree. This was actually quite comical. It involved two extremely intelligent, but hard of hearing men, one spacey pre-teen and one really long rope with notches every so many feet. And they just slowly moved forward in an uncoordinated triangular dance. I really could not help that much, just moseying along in my wheelchair trying to keep my son focus so that I wouldn’t find the rope wrapped around him, either self-inflicted or otherwise.

     The 2^nd weekend, the royal “we” dug holes. All I’m going to say about this process is, one would think that a big bad rented auger drill should be able to slice through the ground like butter. Not so much. Thankfully with patience and persistence, it got done. And on the third weekend, we planted. I guess I was a tad more helpful that weekend, as I pointed out where all the trees should be set. I was like Vanna in overalls. Don’t laugh, finding the holes was almost like playing Where’s Waldo?

     Although until this point, I felt that I made an extremely cute cheerleader, I must admit I felt a little useless. Then it happened. After each tree was planted, a bag of mulch had to be poured and evenly spread around the base. Finally something I could do. And I did, for like 20 trees.  There I was bending from my wheelchair, spreading the mulch by hand, foot, or any limb feeling cooperative at that moment. I felt like I made a contribution and that’s why I now love mulch. Of course after everything was done there was a debate if the mulch needed to be spread further out, Excuse me? I’m rethinking this whole being productive thing. Maybe mulch was just a passing infatuation and next time I’ll return to my goddess cheerleader figurehead.

     There was one other thing that made me giggle this week. Last Christmas we bought our son Nicholas a Xbox Kinect. It’s the game system that you can use your body as a controller. This really intrigued me. Not only as a mom that loves anything that gets Nicholas up and going but probably more importantly as a closeted gamer, just because I’m so bad at any games that requires any amount of coordination.

     Charismas morning, we set it up. It recognized Nicholas, giving him the coveted spot of being player one. It quickly sees bob as player two. Then I get in front of the sensor. Hello? No acknowledgment. No welcome. No let’s set up your player’s avatar. For like a month, I tried everything. Different color clothes. Moving furniture. Shouting. Cursing. Crying “Xbox why don’t you like me?” At my lowest point I even googled “why can’t my Xbox see me in a wheelchair.” Thinking I was out of my mind, betting it would be my first ever Google search that returned with “No results found, get a life.” I was totally shocked to learn that this was a real issue in the disability community and Xbox would be putting out an update to fix this problem soon.

     Slowly I made peace, living with a Xbox that never looked at me. Over time, the hurt became just a numb feeling and I truthfully had forgotten they were working on a patch. Last night Nicholas was playing this silly Xbox Kinect game. I don’t know what possessed me but I tried playing, and ended up squealing with delight that, at least, that particular game, let me play, however badly.

     I haven’t tried playing other games and I’m hoping it wasn’t a freak accident. But for now, I am the Fruit Ninja. A Crazy mulching fruit ninja. I really really need to get out more, but until then, I keep myself amused.