Progress

This won't sound like a big deal to anyone, but it's a big deal to me...

Yesterday was a work day for Sam, and on work days, Sam takes the ADA bus - both to and from work. When Sam gets home, he calls me to check in, almost always at the same time, every day.

But not yesterday.

Yesterday, the time for his usual phone call came and went - and when it got to be a good forty minutes or so later, I called home to see how he was doing. No answer. Hmm. That's unusual, but maybe he was busy washing his hands.

I waited a minute or so, and then I texted his phone, asking him if he was still on the bus. Here’s the conversation…

If this had been, not even a year ago, Sam wouldn't have known what to do - and his anxiety would have overwhelmed him. But today, he not only kept it in check, he did exactly the right thing - he took it upon himself to call the bus company to see what was happening. I couldn't believe it.

A few minutes later, when he got home, he called me and I told him how proud I was of him.

And I told him again at dinner.

"Yeah," he said, "but I was feeling pretty concerned."

I didn't tell him that I was, too.

But I did tell him that anyone in the same position, including me, would have been concerned. And I told him (once again,) that it's not just the feelings that matter, what matters is what you do with those feelings. And what he did was perfect.

I'm thrilled.

Signs of Easter

There's a sign, now lying on the ground (through no fault of mine,) that, for the last few weeks or so, I drive past every morning on my way to work. When I first noticed it, I figured it had something to do with somebody running for office - so I ignored it. When I drove past it a few days ago, I caught a glimpse of what it said - or at least I thought I did. By the time I got to work, I figured that I must have read it wrong.

When I passed the sign again the following day, I drove a little slower. Turns out I had read it right the first time...

As you can also see, there's website listed at the bottom of the sign. I went to this site, not because I had any interest in attending, but because I wanted to know if this was for real or not.

Going to the website, I immediately ran into a problem. The problem was that, along with learning that this is an event sponsored by a church (no surprise there,) I was immediately met with a video. The video started with a close up shot of a very happy, very enthusiastic young lady, and since I don’t mix well with those kinds of people, I only watched about three seconds of the video before shutting it off.

Rather than watch the rest of the video, I decided that, much like Easter itself, some things are best left to my imagination.

Still, I wonder about the development of this idea.

Obviously, this idea is too impressive to have been thought up by just a single individual. This idea has "committee" written all over it - and probably not just any kind of committee, but most likely a volunteer committee - probably containing some amount of "parents," as well.

I imagine five or six of these people sitting around a table - in this case trying to come up with some fun, Easter-type activities “for the kids.” Like far too many meetings that I've attended, I picture this meeting rapidly spiraling out of control - ideas flying like shells over the trenches - as it devolves into a frenetic game of one-upmanship.

Before the shell shock subsides, what probably started off as something simple, like dying a few Easter Eggs, had now escalated into the completely awesome idea of hiring a helicopter and having either Jesus or the Easter Bunny throw eggs down at the kids below.

Any sane person sitting at that table would have agreed that this was a fantastic idea - if only to get the hell out of the meeting.

Anyway, it probably wasn’t quite like that, but I'll bet it was close.

Today's Brief Comment

Pretty flowers

I was going to write about where I was in dealing with SSI, etc., but after getting about five or six paragraphs into my rant, I realized that, a) I had only just begun, and b) neither of us would have the time, nor any interest, to read all of it.

And I don't have the energy.

Feel free to take the rest of the day off.

This Evening's Music Video

The Check Is Not In the Mail

A few years ago, I somehow found myself being a subscriber to Wired magazine. To this day, I have no idea how it happened. The subscription started well after a point where any of the kids were coming home with school fundraisers (like, by a decade or more.)

I like the magazine well enough. In fact, it's about the only magazine I read when I find myself in the waiting room on those nights that I bring Sam to speech. Of course, magazine-wise, the waiting room competition consists of some magazines about tennis, something or other about some family-type something, and Highlights magazine. Maybe this is why the magazine seems so much more appealing to me in the waiting room than it does at home.

Starting about a year ago, I began receiving renewal notices in the mail. I didn't bother opening any of these since I had no desire to renew. I figured that if I were interested in anything they had to say then I could continue to mooch off of the speech therapist's copy. But the notices kept coming and I kept tossing them into the recycling bin.

As the months went by, the pace of the renewal notices picked up - to a point where I was receiving two or three of them per week. At some point, for some unknown reason, I found myself opening one up. Instead of finding the expected enticements of valuable gifts being thrown my way, along with offers of deep, deep renewal discounts, what I instead found was a letter threatening to turn my account over to a collection agency if I didn't pay up on my well overdue bill - and pay it up promptly.

Apparently, I not only didn't remember subscribing to this magazine in the first place, but I also didn't remember signing up for their automatic subscription renewal. The problem, aside from not remembering any of this, was that the subscription payment was tied to one of the credit cards I had to cancel.

Not wanting to be declared a deadbeat (at least, not publicly) I took the conveniently, though threateningly, supplied information - and I went online to pay my overdue account - all twenty dollars of it - and to also uncheck the "automatic renewal" box.

Now, I'm starting to get letters again. This time though, the tone is different. Not only is all forgiven, but they now consider me a "Special Subscriber," someone who deserves some(more) "special treatment."

I'm touched.

Tonight's Brief Update

Sam just completed his second full week of part time employment - a job which will last at least until the end of this school year. Endless appointments and endless paperwork and endless phone calls continue, but thankfully, today I got an email from (one of) his job coach(es), who, among other things, had this to say:

Sam is doing very well with his employment ... He is following and understanding his tasks exceedingly well, he is working hard and continues to show an enthusiasm for his job. Cindy, Sam’s direct supervisor is very pleased with the great progress Sam has achieved. Furthermore, Sam is social with his peers and exhibits an appropriate professional demeanor.

I can't begin to describe what a great relief this is to me.

Speaking of Mr. Bean...

...Here's one of many great videos - this one being the first episode from the first season of the show...



When Sam was very young, particularly in the years following his operation, I spent a lot of time trying to find things that would interest him - things that played to his visual strengths and minimized his struggles with language.

This was how his interest in comic books came about (which is a story for another day - one which I've probably told before.) But in terms of videos, Mr. Bean, along with Looney Tunes and Wallace & Gromit were his favorites.

We spent a lot of time together, watching Mr. Bean.

Thank goodness.