Aspergers Ramblings and other random thoughts

My youngest son has Aspergers. Anyone who has been reading my blog for more than a week or so probably already knows this. He struggles every day with the basic things. Too often i struggle to help him. I see how and why he is struggling... but i don't know how to communicate and help him adjust. BUT, my beloved is his champion! I am amazed, almost daily, in how she fights for her son. How she is able to communicate and come alongside him and his aides. She has been recognized by our 'advocate' from Marshall University in her efforts as well. I want to encourage anyone who stumbles across this post to seriously consider what you might be able to help further the research that is affecting more than 1:100 of our children here in the United States. Autism in general is misunderstood, but Aspergers is even more so. I've been yelled at by a mother of an Autistic child because i actually stepped in between him and my son when her child pursued mine as i was calling him out of a situation on a playground. "My son's autistic!" she yelled at me. I looked back at her and said, "So is mine". But i also see the parents of "neurotipical" children stare at my son when he rambles on about the latest Psych episode, or stand up comedian - which he is reciting verbatim - to no one in particular. Or when he talks to strangers in some strange voice, or he's flapping his arms while running around. Aspergers has the double jeopardy of having the outward appearance of someone completely "normal", but the inward affect of them not being able to relate on a typical social "norm" (making eye contact, conversing in mutually interesting topics, etc.) Places like Marshall University have been a God send. There needs to be a way for parents and educators to find resources such as Marshall, and utilize them easier and better. As you can tell i like to use pictures to spruce up the ol' blog. And for the most part they are the little round ones like you see above (and probably below). These are pieces of flair of i have either made, or accumulated via the same Facebook app. But sometimes, like when i posted the picture of the Eldar Pathfinder, i really want to make sure i give credit to the original author, painter, photographer. I always try to remember to put at a minimum a hyperlink in the picture (like i did with the button to the right here) to the original source, but what i would really like to do it place a caption beneath it, with another hyperlink. I have found a good way to do if i center the pictures, but not if i have them aligned to the left or right so the text can "wrap" (like i am doing here). I've read a few webpages on some techniques, but most of it i am not getting. Something about tables, etc. I messed around with a few attempts, but so far i've not been able to get it. If anyone knows of a way - please comment/e-mail/message/whatever me so i can learn how to do this. This past Saturday i came home from DD3's soccer game and there was a little snake, about 8 inches long, sitting behind our van in our garage (the door had been closed). I sent my little girl on into the house while i used my leg to push the thing on out into the grass... but the thing didn't flee! It sat there, raised it's head up with the mouth wide open, and the little tail whipping back and forth very very fast. I tried one more time to get it to run away but it was bound and determined to let me know who was boss. I calmly went back into my garage, got my large square tipped shovel, came back out and planted the shovel about two inches down from it's head. The thing kept trying to get out but i made sure i made it into two snakes. Later when i asked a friend who likes to go on hikes etc. they told me that it could be either a Timber Rattlesnake, or a Black Ratsnake. I really trust this guy (he's worked for the park service forever), but the more i read about the two snakes... i am leaning towards the former. But... i will never know for sure. After the snake deal we headed to our friend's house (same person i asked about the snake) and made home made apple cider. YUM! I literally participated in each step of the process. DS2 and i went out and picked a bucket full of apples from their trees, washed them off, cut them into sections, then ran them through a very old hand powered shredding machine, then took a press and slowly compacted the apple pulp to squeeze out all the juice. Our friends got the machine that pulps and presses the apples from the previous owners of the house. One condition of the sale of the house was that they continue the Cider Saturday tradition. This was the first year i was able to make it. Man that made some seriously good apple cider. I just love the Fall!