"My Husband Drives Me Batty"

 

David with Pipistrel-Meghan

            Often, women claim that their husbands drive them batty, but in my case, the phrase takes on a new meaning. Little David loved bats from an early age. He took felt and fabric to construct his own “Teddy Bat”. He searched the school libraries for any books on bats, checking them out over and over again.

            By the time I met David, his passion for Chiroptera meant our “dates” often consisted of sitting by a field off Bat Cave Road to watch the lively flutter of bats as they left Bracken Cave. Not long after we married, David joined Bat Conservation International, Inc. (http://www.batcon.org/) and pulled me into the world of bats with him.

Western Bats Poster
 by David Chapman

            As an artist, David designed several posters for BCI and the National Parks service on bats in different regions of the United States. He used his skills for a BCI Christmas card, some stickers, and the Discover Bats educational package. He illustrated books on how to care for and rehabilitate captive bats, too.

Townsen's Long-eared Bat
by David Chapman

        Eventually, David registered his name on a list to aid injured bats. It surprised no one when he ended up keeping two pipistrels that couldn’t be released. These two bats visited local schools for years as David conducted his personalized “bat talks” for the children. Caring for bats isn’t easy. The two we had needed to be hand fed. That meant we couldn’t leave town unless we could take them with us, or arranged to train another person to feed them. David taught my father how to feed and care for out bats as our back-up system. My parents would come up to San Antonio, feed bats, cats, and dogs when we left town for more than a day.

Visiting Evening Bat!

            David’s zeal for bats introduced us to wonderfully dedicated scientists and volunteers. We met Merlin Tuttle, Amanda Lollar, and Barbara French. We volunteered long hours at Bracken Cave, cutting back weeds, laying trails, and doing grunt work. David Bamberger invited us along with other volunteers to Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve to witness the construction of The Chiroptorium (http://www.bambergerranch.org/).

Red Bat
by David Chapman

            Over the years, I couldn’t help but absorb some of David’s bat knowledge and bat enthusiasm. Many times we’ve hopped into our car (Paul, too) to run a rescue on a downed or injured bat. Since I’ve retired, I’ve fielded many phone calls from panicked homeowners about a bat on their porch or under a ledge. When we go to the cabin, the bat houses are checked for inhabitants, and I’ve gotten quite good at snapping pictures of a flight at dusk. Our home, too, has more than just David’s bat art on the walls. We never visit a shop without our eyes searching for a little bat to add to David’s collection. Even friends and family members purchase unusual sculptures or carvings and send them to us.

            My fondest memory, though, centers on the very first bat flight I witnessed at Bracken Cave, but I’ll save that story for another day!

Copyright 2011 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

“The Silver Lining”

 
 
            My husband’s company informed him last week that his department will work remotely permanently. My resounding “Whoop!” shook the windows. We definitely celebrated this news.

            David worked for fourteen years from the home as a freelance illustrator. During those years, we loved that our son always came home to a parent in the house. When we decided to homeschool, my son and I designed his coursework, but David daily donned the role of teacher. Working from home meant we could back-burn our oldest car and keep it going for twenty years. It meant I came home to less housework and cooking because David could wash a load of clothes or run the vacuum when he took a break. During my breaks from teaching, we slowed the pace of our days—no alarm clocks all summer long! 

            The disadvantage for this type of work, of course, is that it’s a feast-or-famine financial forage. Income fluctuated dramatically from month to month and contract to contract. There are no benefits like medical coverage unless you pay out-of-pocket. No paid vacations. If David didn’t work, he didn’t earn. His parents would get upset when we couldn’t join the family on one of their various vacations. They didn’t understand that to go on a trip for a couple of weeks meant we’d have to have the money saved for both the cost of the vacation plus two weeks’ pay! Because he never knew when the next round of work would surface, we tried to live as much as possible within my Texas teacher’s low salary.
            With David’s current situation, we have the security of a regular salary and benefits coupled with the easier, slower pace that comes from working from home. David’s six-year-old car’s 75,000 odometer reading no longer worries me. The week before last, my mind ran through the scenario that we’d need to replace it long before my 2005 RX8 since David puts more than 1,400 miles a month on it. Now we’ll use it for errands all within ten miles from the house. I’m already only driving the Mazda weekly for a twenty minute spin to keep it running since I no longer need it for the part-time job I worked before COVID-19.

            We still start our mornings with an alarm clock, only it’s set at 7:15 instead of 5:15! David grabs a bowl of cereal and sets up his laptop for the day instead of rushing out the door for bumper-to-bumper traffic going across San Antonio. His department took walking breaks twice a day. Now that I can walk again, we’ll do the same breaks together. We lunch together, too.  David eats during one episode of House Hunters-International, and we admire the adventuresome spirit of the people highlighted.
            In all of the financial losses, illnesses and deaths caused by a pandemic, we’ve found our silver lining.

Copyright 2020 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman