Recycle, Water and Autism?

I have a 15 year old son who has Autism.  In short, its a neurological issue that interferes with social and commucation issues.  Over the holidays my son had some new things to share with us.

Do you remember at school when you would cut out pictures from old magazines and then paste them on a sheet of paper with a theme?  Well, my son grab all of my old gun magazines and proceeded to cut them up.  I'm taking a guess that he was doing this in school and thought he would do some extra credit work over the holidays.

He then proceeded to cut up my wife's cookbooks.  Food is one of his biggest passions.  I'm guessing that with the guns and the food pictures his collage was about Thanksgiving and shooting a turkey to put on the table.  Needless to say, mom was not very happy.  I was amused, a little.  So if you need any old magazines recycled my boy is your guy.

The other skill my son has mastered over the holidays is pouring out, our Britta water pitcher.  Again, since we have a communication problem, I have guessed that he is mad that their is no more pop (soda, cold drink or coke) in the house and he doesn't want water.  I'm not of a water drinker so I can understand where he is coming from. 

School starts tomorrow and I can't wait to see what the next holiday break will bring.  I for one think he is doing very well at getting his point across.

Macy's Parade

When, I was a kid it was Christmas that couldn't come soon enough.  Now I really look forward to Thanksgiving.  The first thing I do is get a nice steaming hot cup of coffee or coco with marshmallows.  Then I sit in front of the TV and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  While this is going on I'm being assaulted by the wonderful smells of a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  Then the football!  Three games now!!  Then the meal, the family and then the twilight fog of being fuller than ever.

You probably think that's all pretty normal...well except the parade thing.  I get so much grief for watching the parade.  So, as a healthy macho male, who like guns, girls and gears I will attempt to defend my tradition.  

It starts with my love of old black and white movies.  When I was a kid I grew up with a little 13-inch black and white T.V.  We got three channels and PBS.(I know how did we ever survive?)  So needless to say all my movies were in black and white.  At Christmas time we always looked forward to watching "Its a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street"(If you haven't seen these rent them already.)  In "Miracle" it starts out in New York City at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  As a kid it always fascinated me that it was an actual parade the really took place.  When I was a kid you were told everything you saw on T.V. was fake. (We didn't have reality T.V.)  So one of my many childhood wishes became to attend the Macy's Parade.

Now, I'm not a great fan of parades in general.  I've been to the Rose Bowl Parade, Town parades etc...  They don't interest me at all.  I'm not a fan of clowns, horse droppings or big men in little cars.  Macy's just seems to have a whole different appeal.  Maybe its the comfort factor or the fondness of childhood.  Whatever it is I will be watching.  Okay it's the big balloons crashing into things that I enjoy.  

  

It just keeps coming!

In my household one of my many jobs is to do the laundry.  Laundry is like bills, they or it just keep coming.  Why can't I keep up with the laundry?  Their our only four of us, it can't be that difficult, right?  No matter what I've tried, I never seem to get or break even.

We have a laundry chute.  It's my first one, when I was a kid we did it the old fashion way, dumped it on the floor and let mom pick it up.  So, I'm thinking a chute makes it easier, I don't have to carry all the laundry downstairs.  Well, its easier now for everyone.  They throw clothes down it like they were sinking 3 point shots at a hoop-it up contest.  Sometimes they get it so full, they jam it up.  We don't have anyone small enough to send down it, so we have to use weighted objects like bowling balls or boat anchors.

I only wear one set of clothes a day.  My wife and kids have a three or more a day policy.  I am however a one towel one use guy.  Some people use a towel several times, I just can't get behind that.  A clean towel every shower thank you. (undies also)  Sheets and blankets at least once a week.  These are sane practices I hope.  Even then it shouldn't add up that much, but it does.

The weekend is my catch up time, but important things like football interfere.  Still I try to sneak in loads during timeouts and half-times.  I have completed four loads already by noon and I just heard the chute making a growling sound.  Maybe my kids are sneaking in their friends laundry and my wife is running a fluff and fold on the side.  All I know is that I have more laundry to do...

Vets Rule!

I am not a veteran.  When I was in High School, their were no wars going on.  I did however have to register for the draft.  So, I thought about it.  I even talked to a recruiter.  When I told him I wanted to be an officer and go to college.  He smiled at me and said, "You'll be in for life!"  Well hint to all recruiters don't tell a 17 year old he has to do something for life.  I couldn't get out of there fast enough.  Some of my close friends went into the Marines.  They kept trying to get me to go, and all I could think of was that life sentence.

Now some 20 years later, I wish I had gone in.  I think my life would have been much richer.  Ah! the road less traveled.  What I'm trying to get at is, I have deep respect for our men in uniform.  They truly are real hero's.  Veteran's day is approaching (11-11-11) and I am trying to make people more  aware of this negelected holiday.

I have a very close friend who is on his third tour of duty in the mideast.  I pray for his family and him as well as all the other soldiers that are working at making this world a better place.  I wish I could get across to everyone the sacrifice these families make, the marriages and relationships that suffer and the emoional pain many of our vets go through upon thier return.

I've made it a practice to shake a vets hand when I see one and thank him for his service.  I want to challenge you to do this.  I never understood what it meant untill I shook a vietnam vets hand and thanked him.  He said, "No one has ever thanked me before."  This man was in his sixites.  It shouldn't take that long.  Thank You to all our Veterans and their families!!

Pumpkin Pie - Hot or Cold?

I am thankful for pumpkin pie!  It is one of my top three pies for sure.  It must be served COLD!  Why do I stress that? 

When I married, I married into a warm pumpkin pie family.  I'll never forget that first Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's.  I had been looking so forward to a nice cold piece of pumpkin pie with a dab of whipped cream on the top.  The perfect ending to a perfect meal!  I bit into my pie, totally unsuspecting the hot mush that enter my mouth.  I almost spat it out over the whole table.  Who in their right mind would serve pumpkin pie warm?  I didn't think that. I said it out loud.  They all looked at me like I was crazy.  We always have it that way I heard their disembodied voices say.  I excused myself and stuck my warm pie into the freezer and then after regaining my senses, apologized.

Since that Thanksgiving we now have a warm pie and a cold pie.  I have converted some of the in-laws to my side, but some still are holding out.  I will continue to preach the importance of a nice cold piece of pie and someday all pumpkin pies will be chilled before they are served, so help me God!

Thanksgiving

I've decided this month to write things I'm thankful for.  I'm starting with friends.  I've been blessed with some of the best friends a guy could want.  In "It's a Wonderful Life" Jimmy Stewart's character becomes the richest man in town, not because of money but because of all his friends.  In that regard, I consider myself very rich.

I wish I could list everyone of them, but this would be to long of a post.  So if you are one of my friends please know how thankful I am for you! 

One quick example of my friends:  We have been friends since childhood.  This story has always stuck in my head about our friendship.  We were in english class and looking at the Magazine "Dynamite"  He poked me in the ribs and he had written on a bald man's head, "Kojak Fan" (T.V. show in the 70's)  It started me laughing out loud.  The teacher of course thought I was laughing at him, so he called me out.  "What's so funny would you like to share with the class?"  Being the rebel I was I replied, "It's not against the law to laugh!"  Well it turns out that it was against classroom law, a whole different beast.  The teacher sentenced me with writing 500 sentences that I would not laugh in english class (shout out to Bart Simpson- I was so ahead of my time)  So my friend says it's his fault and that I shouldn't get in trouble.  So he ends up getting the 500 sentence sentences also.  We called each other back and forth all evening checking to see how far we had gotten.  At that age 500 sentences is alot.  The next day we turned them in and the teacher threw them right in the trash.  So much for my early writing career.

Now my friend could have kept silent but he didn't he took the fall with me and to this day he still is my friend.  I was honored with being best man in his wedding.  Health wise he's not doing so well today, so my thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.  So today I'm very thankful for my friends and as Kojak used to say, "Who love's ya baby!"