Tonight's Video Clip

To quote Sam, "This never gets old"...

On Vacation

It's been tricky trying to plan a vacation with Sam this year. Sam works hard all year long and the hard work continues through the summer, with additional speech therapy and with working with a job coach. So, I think it's important to try to do something special for him in the way of a vacation, but it's a matter of figuring out what and when.

I had originally planned to take the last full week of August off. I figured by then, Sam would be done with his summer speech therapy and he would have finished up with his job coach.

Well, his speech therapy finished up but he's still working with his job coach. The schedule had been kind of evolving, which had made it a little challenging. The thing is, working with his coach is really important and he really likes his coach, so I don't want to interfere with it. It's been really good for Sam. But for one reason or another, as we've approached the end of summer, the schedule has had to be modified a few times.

I knew things were going to be somewhat fluid so I didn't make any hard plans. I talked about a few options with Sam and the only things he seemed to be definite about, was wanting to go to the Aquarium, the Science Museum and to the park - all of which were perfectly doable.

So as I mentioned, I first took off this last full week of August. But then it came up that even though the coach was going to be finished with Sam by this week, the coach wanted to work with both Sam and I on helping Sam learn how to take the bus - which, by the way, is great. A few dates were kicked around, and after exchanging some emails, it was finally decided that this Saturday would work best.

This was fine, but it meant that whatever we ultimately decided to  do, we needed to make sure we were going to be home by Saturday morning. Since Friday night is Monk Night, it didn't seem like that would be a problem. I'm nearly positive that Sam wouldn't want to miss Monk night.

Then it turned out that Sam and his coach would be working together on both Wednesday and Friday of this week. That's fine, we could go the aquarium on Thursday, but I figured that I might as well go into work on Wednesday and Friday, since Sam would be busy, and then I would take off the following Thursday and Friday to spend with Sam instead.

I went into Wednesday and told the boss about this Friday and about next week. No problem. But when I got home, Sam told me that he won't be with his coach on Friday after all, so we could go to the Science Museum!

I started to tell Sam that I had already rearranged the days, but I could see where it was going. I could see this because Sam slumped against the wall and looked like he was going to cry. So, I got in touch with my boss and told him that I wouldn't be in Friday after all, but I would be in next Thursday instead. Again, no problem.

Yesterday was Thursday and we made it to the Aquarium. It was a long two and a half hour ride each way - made longer on the way home because we stopped at a toy store. Sam had a good time, but I think because of the long ride, Sam reevaluated his plans for Friday. The ride to the Science Museum would be at least that long, likely longer, so Sam decided that going to the park would be a better idea and that "maybe we could save the Science Museum for another time. We could feed the geese and ride the train and play min-golf."

"Fine with me either way," I said. "This is your week. It's all about whatever you want to do."

So, this morning we'll be going to the park. I think. It's early morning and I'm the only one awake - and it's raining outside. I think we'll still go to the park and we'll bring some umbrellas and we'll make it an adventure. If nothing else, the geese will be hungry.

And if that doesn't work as well as we had planned, we'll figure out something else. And whatever it is, we'll spend some time together, he'll feel special, and it'll be fun.

And at the end of the day, no matter what else we end up doing, tonight will still be Monk Night. 

Here's a few photos from yesterday:

Why the Internet Was Invented

From Last Night's Walk

Is this what is referred to as, "Blocking a Scene?"

Things That Bother Me

I spotted this sign in the restroom of a local store and it’s been bothering me ever since.

I’m used to seeing signs that say something like, “Employees MUST wash hands before returning to work.” I’ve always assumed that those signs are for the benefit of the general public - so that we can sleep comfortably at night knowing that this particular establishment, has nothing but our best interests on their minds - and therefore we won’t sue them when we come down with hepatitis A.

I’ve also assumed that most employees routinely ignore these signs. It seems to me, you're either the type of person who washes your hands or you're not. I can’t see someone going to the bathroom, walking over to the mirror, seeing the sign and saying, “Oh yeah, I better wash my hands.”

I think what bothers me about this particular sign is it assumes that an employee doesn’t even know how to wash their hands. That's kind of scary. How big of a problem is this? Is this a problem everywhere or is this only a problem at this particular store? If this is a big problem, it seems like it would be a pretty easy thing to screen for when you were taking in applications.

Even though the sign bothers me, it doesn’t bother me enough to stop shopping there. But I think from now on, when I get home, I’ll spend just a little more time washing the fruits and vegetables. And washing my hands.

Last Night's Walk

It’s been pretty hot lately and because of it, Sam and I haven’t been for a walk in a while. But it rained (finally) over the last day and a half and after the rain left, cooler air came in. Sam and I decided to take advantage of it by going for a walk down to the store.

We didn’t really need anything but it gave us an excuse to get out, look around, and it gave Sam the chance to pretend to be looking at the clothes while really picking off any loose threads he finds.

We walked down to the store and on the way I, like usual, was asking Sam about his day and Sam, like usual, was giving me limited answers. This in turn, led me to ask followup questions to try and draw him out more - and this cycle pretty much repeated itself all the way down to the store.

None of this is unusual. People that don’t know Sam chock this up to him being a teenager. People that do know Sam know that sometimes it can be difficult for him to organize his thoughts, and he can struggle to find the words. But we had plenty of time.

We got to the store and my phone rang. It was Rachael. I told Sam to go ahead in and I would catch up with him. I stood outside, talking to Rachael, occasionally popping back into the store to peek at Sam.

When I peeked in at one point, he was reading one of those supermarket tabloids. When I looked in again, he was, as I had expected, pretending to be casually looking at the clothes while in reality, collecting loose threads off of the clothes.

I finished up with Rachael and I went inside asked Sam how he was doing. He said he was pretty much done and he seemed to be a little bit concerned. I asked him about it and he said, "Well, I was just reading some things and I was wondering about it.”

He showed me the magazine he had been reading and he told me what it was that he was concerned about.

First, he was concerned about Kenny Rogers' health. He doesn't follow Kenny Rogers, strictly speaking, but he does have kind of a soft spot for him, ever since he heard him sing on a commercial a while back.

Sam was also a little concerned that the president's wife was trying to do in Hillary Clinton. I don't know that he knows too much about the president's wife and I don't know that he knows anything at all about Hillary Clinton. But I do know Sam, and the idea of somebody trying to do in somebody else is not an idea that he's comfortable with.

On the walk home, I tried to explain to him that sometimes people write things that are true, but other times people write things that are just not true at all. And what’s maybe even harder to understand is that sometimes people might take a grain of truth and wind a completely made up story around it. Those, for me, are the hardest stories to figure out.

He didn’t understand why anyone would spend time writing things that just weren’t true and I told him that I didn’t understand it either, but it happens. It can be pretty messed up sometimes.

I told him that the best thing you can do, when you hear something or read something, is to check it out - either with a person you trust, or go online to a place you know is honest.

We talked a little bit more about it, but mostly, we just walked.

Back at home, I looked it up and apparently Kenny Rogers’ health really isn’t very good. Maybe I should have, but I didn't mention it to Sam. That’s a conversation for another day.