Things you notice 34 years later

Driving home from work this song came up on my iPod, it was Heart's cover but here is the original.



While listening to the intro I was reminded of the intro to this song.



Cannot believe I have not made the connection until now.

Then I found this online.



I'm glad someone else did too.

Quick update on the Sleep Chronicles.

Last night he got to bed around 11, woke up just after 2AM, fell asleep less than an hour later.

It did not really matter much as school was cancelled due to the weather. We had three inches of snow here and school was called off.

Let that sink in as you realize the North East is about to get 2-3 feet of snow.

A delegation from the Democratic National Committee was here today to continue evaluating the city's worthiness for the 2016 convention. Wonder what went through their heads when they saw all the chaos three inches of snow caused. I know the convention is in the summer, but heaven help us they see a local weather forecast of hyperbole and panic when there is a chance of a thunderstorm. That's how Columbus handles a crisis.

My son's also been bringing me Green Eggs and Ham to read. He hands me the book. Points at the words on the cover of the book and says, "Ham," when he gets to that word.

I also have him saying, "Sam-I-Am," at the appropriate moments - which he does do, but very quietly.

Now he's upstairs jumping on his bed.

An unclear pattern

Having a child with an erratic sleep pattern is a long cause of stress in our lives. His problem here is night waking, in which a couple of hours after he does fall asleep, he wakes up babbling. He does not leave his bedroom or cry out in distress but continues the monologue of whatever show is happening in his head.

The longer this happens the more we hear people ask if he's on medication. He's not on anything, he's twelve and I'm reluctant to put a child going through puberty on barbiturates. We have tried melotonin, even though the opinions of so called experts differ. When he takes melotonin, he falls asleep quicker, say at 10PM but wakes up about four hours later. At his mother's house, he does not fall asleep until much later, say about 1AM, but he sleeps though the night afterwards.

So what is the trade off?

The past two nights we did not give him any melotonin. Friday he fell asleep at about 10:30. and as far as we know did not wake up in the night. I woke him around 8AM and he was still trying to go back to sleep after he ate his breakfast.

Last night he did not fall asleep until about 11:30 and my wife heard him talking to himself briefly around 3:30. Then he woke himself up just after 7AM.

Two nights is not enough to make an assessment, and my son is certainly not giving his opinion or reasons for his sleep difficulties. Every night is different with little consistency. It's another one of the many challenges parents of autistic children can face, every day.

Hunters and gatherers did not have to deal with corporate shelving resets

Finding food that my son will eat is always a challenge. So when we find something he does eat, and prefers to other foods it's a good thing and we try to use the foods he prefers to get him to try something new.

It can get frustrating to shop in one place when one grocery store stops carrying the food that he does eat over other products in the line. Even worse is when the manufacturer stops making that product.

This is what I fear has happened to Yoplait's Thick and Creamy line. He will always choose the vanilla over any other brand so we always try to keep that in the house. It's not at Kroger any more and when we went to Giant Eagle today, the whole line was gone. He will eat the regular vanilla, thank God, so that is something.

Giant Eagle has also stopped carrying the Hormel Compleates Macaroni and Cheese dinner, which he eats with gusto. They've also stopped carrying turkey, another one in the line he eats rather heartily. Those items are readily available at Kroger.

I did speak with the grocery manager about this. I understand he can't control what the makers of the products do, but the products that are made should be carried if they sell. He took my number and we'll see what he has to say. I'd rather get our groceries in one place, and if I have to give up fuel perks so I can get all the food my son eats in one place so be it.

What I'm going to be up do

The new year has brought some excellent reading opportunities with it, in and out of Ohio.

Coming up this Friday I will be a participant in the Haiku Deathmatch at the annual Haiku Nuku reading at First Draft Open Mic at Kafe Kerouac. It's a lot of fun being a part of an event in which I usually get knocked out in the first round. Really, my haiku is weak but it's a blast.

Weather permitting, I will be reading in the Steel City on February 28th as part of a celebration of The Uppagus Journal. The reading will be at the Classic Line bookstore at 5825 Forbes Avenue. Start time 7 p.m. Am really stoked about reading out of state!

Looking further ahead I'll be in Dayton on May 24th as part of the Gem City Poetry Stage series. Very excited to be reading again in Dayton, it's been too long.

So that's what's happening. Now to get cracking on some new haiku and poems to read in these features!

Things no one told you when you became a parent. Reason 60579

After a night in which he fell asleep at 10, woke up and 2AM and did not go back to sleep until about 4:30.

No one told me having a child would be the harbinger of my own death.

A friend just suggested this poem to me. Sounds about right by the title alone.

My son, my executioner

I take you in my arms
Quiet and small and just astir
and whom my body warms

Sweet death, small son,
our instrument of immortality,
your cries and hunger document
our bodily decay.

We twenty two and twenty five,
who seemed to live forever,
observe enduring life in you
and start to die together.

-Donald Hall

Things I learned while the server was being moved

Ohio is full of creatures. This state has it's weirdness, its gateways to Hell, Air Force base hangars that house aliens and whatnot, Mothman and more. Today I learned about the Loveland Frogman, who may or may not be a lizard.

This got me to thinking about my time at CML, and the day two guys came in for library cards and to use our computers for their research. While I was processing their new accounts, they started talking to me about Bigfoot, and how they were seeking its existence in Adams County. I'm sure I wrote a Live Journal post about this, but can't find it. I wrote a lot of posts about the goings on and day to day weirdness and folly at the Hilltop branch. A couple of dudes looking up Bigfoot was not an atypical event. For that place, it was quite scholarly.

Today I found out about a film called Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie, and seriously believe these were the two guys I gave cards to. You can watch it on YouTube, and I did. Here's the link. These two are from the most unkind part of Ohio, Portsmouth, and we see their life struggles. By the end of the hour long documentary, you may not have a clearer conclusion about Bigfoot. However, for all the craziness in this world, you learn these two guys are harmless, and believe in their convictions with pure faith and clarity.

More on Shakespeare and Autism

This segment aired on the local PBS show Broad and High this week. It's about the Shakespeare and Autism Project that Kelly Hunter wrote about in her book.

You can see my son on the lower left, in the audience



I wrote about the performance of this show in this post back in July 2014.

2015 begins

Happy New Year.



Obvious goals: read more, write more.