Adjust and Proceed

It’s expected to reach 100 degrees (38 Celsius) here in the DC region. The hot summer days reminds me of a favorite story. When I was in college, on summer break, my young nieces would spend a lot of time at my parents house, visiting with their Nana and Papap.

One evening, one of my nieces comes charging through the front screen door: “Nana, that crazy guy with the bells…. HE SELLS ICE CREAM!!!”

The Bean and I went to my hometown this weekend — back to the place that spawned my being. I have no immediate family there, just cousins, second cousins and friends.

We took the prerequisite tour – my dad’s grave, the old neighborhood, house, schools, haunts and anything else to bore the hell out of The Bean. “Bean, is this, at all, interesting.” “No.” (A man of few truthful words.)

As a bonus, I was able to see my mom, three of four sisters, some of my nieces, one of my cousin’s family and two other cousins. (More on the last two cousins, later.)

While visiting my cousin’s family, The Bean got to meet one of the youngest members of the family – The Lil’ Guy.  The Lil’ Guy is two and was immediately in awe of The Bean, following him everywhere. The Bean like to pace, and when he went into his pace, The Lil’ Guy followed suite. Then, The Lil’ Guy set up a pile of pillows and announced, “This is The Lion’s den.” and pointed to The Bean.

Being a parent of a teen with Aspergers, you accept the fact your kid isn’t going to intentionally interact with most people, let alone with a two year-old. The Bean was great; He instantly went into “lion mode.” It was fascinating to watch the two interact with each other – The Bean following The Lil’ Guy’s lead.

Today, we visited two more cousins. One had a horrible accident with an ATV a few weeks back and was recently moved to a step-down unit. I prepped The Bean before we arrived. “It’s going to be a tough visit, The Cuz is going to be hooked up to lots of tubes and monitors and he’s not going to look or sound the same as before.”

The Bean handled it like a champ – probably a lot better than his dad. He was a perfect visitor. While he wasn’t talking with The Cuz, he let spend time with The Cuz and his brother – catching up and just talking about life.

During the four-hour drive home, I had a lot of time to think. I’m a connect the dots kind of guy, so I have to, at least, try and make some kind of connective statement regarding the weekend. All I can come up with is there’s a lot of love in family – and The Bean, The Lil’ Guy and The Cuz all have fight in front of them. But, they also have a family, a large family, who loves them dearly.

Keep fighting Cuz!