Monthly Archives: October 2019

Let the record show that in the year of our Lord two thousand nineteen, we visited the Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa, which very narrowly escaped incineration in California’s worst fire of 2017. Three days after our visit…a new and devastating fire, California’s worst of 2019, began to threaten the place again. Before this is over, we’ll all be living like Pigpen. Let the record also show that we are not the victims here. All your and my […]

A couple of weeks ago, Dar’s 7-year-old brother, R, asked to go to our local city library, where he checked out a bunch of Peanuts books. When it comes to collected books of comic strips, my packrat tendencies have paid off during about a thousand bedtimes…but my collection clearly wasn’t enough. R wanted more. And that meant that the time had come to take the boys to the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. Did I say the boys? […]

Dar hits double digits. Whoa. Ten years ago today, wife and I became parents. For the first time ever, here’s a video of Dar. Still getting the hang of this thing and getting the courage to show Dar…uh, in limited doses. Not pictured: his brother blowing out the candles with glee. Maybe he was happier afterward. Or maybe…a lot afterward Entering our second decade of him holding our heart and us holding our breath…let’s do this  

It happened again on Monday. Not the screaming, exactly. Not exactly the screaming as though fire is roasting your genitalia. I mean, I’m used to that. What happened was, in reaction to the screaming, an urgent knock at the door at about 4:15pm. I opened the door. It was a male stranger in his mid-50s, maybe, with a female stranger in her mid-40s, perhaps. He had his iPhone to his ear. “Hi,” I said. “How can I help you?” “What’s […]

Here are ten possible reasons that Dar wakes up most mornings screaming like someone is drilling 17 of his teeth: His caterwaulings are his way of saying “cock-a-doodle-doo,” and Dar is half-rooster, which might explain other things. He doesn’t like his bed because it doesn’t hold him enough. We moved him from a standard child bed to one that holds him more, but maybe we need the full Temple Grandin? He’s trapped in this mute body but he’s really neuro-typical. […]