Good sunrise.

Castle Valley Sunrise

I'm a bit dense this week.  I think it's the spring allergy season kicking in.  That and Ben has been having some sleep issues.

I had a post pretty much ready to go, but managed to delete it.  Darn.  I say, "Darn," but I really mean something stronger.  When you only get to write every now and again, losing a post is a blow.

Alright then, nothin' to be done except to move on.

F is for friend

The deceased post was about a weekend we spent in southern Utah in a cabin.  We were there so that Lovely Wife could run in a half-marathon, and we stayed with 3 other couples and 4 other kids.

It was a really fun time.  The thing that struck me most was the importance of friends, for both kids and grown-ups.

One of the boys there is 9 months or so younger than Ben.  He's neurotypical, so he was talking a mile a minute and following Bubba around.  For at least part of the time, Ben latched on to that samba line and was actually, kind of, in a way, playing with another kid.  It may not seem like much, but historically, Ben completely ignores other kids, treating them like inanimate objects.  Hearing Ben actually say something to "C" and getting a response...priceless.  This was a win.

Adorable.

Here's to friends for grown-ups.  When you have a special needs kid, it can be really hard to maintain your friendships with other adults.  When you go to someone else's house, you have to spend 90% of your attention wrangling your kid.

Staying in a cabin with us (or camping, or whatever) is not the same as with typical families.  One of us grown-ups is devoted to the special kid.  The other one may be able to handle everything else, but it's definitely not as easy as hanging out with typical folks.  So...thanks...thanks for hanging out with us.  It means a ton.  It's very easy to get isolated and go days without speaking to an adult (like when LW is on a bidness trip).  BTW, LW is away on a trip right now!



And when you ask me "how's it going?' and I unload the pure and unadulterated agony of failure from the Utah legislature... thanks for not running away (this means you, John V).

Anyway, I've got a dozen things buzzing away in my brain right now, and there's no way to put them into a decent blog post, I'll just have to purge that stuff I guess.  I do have to tell y'all that there's a new study published about the incidence of autism.  Utah is winning!