For those of you who are not familiar with some of the inner aspects of my life, I am a father of a son with an autism spectrum disorder. I'm blessed in the sense that Jeremy can talk and function -- more so than he did two-plus years ago -- and he constantly makes progress ever day. But, as some know, there are aspects of autism that will most probably never go away. One of these for Jeremy is his routines. Each day is scheduled as much as can be without driving everyone crazy (that is an exaggeration but you get the idea) and there are some things that you just don't break in his routine or else you he will let you know--sometimes it is an unpleasant experience when he informs you of the break in his routine.
I tell you the above, not to preach or even come close to acting like I have some mass expertise in autism, but to tell you about one of our weekly routines and how though it was nowhere near the usual morning, you still have to stick to some routines.
One of our weekly routines is on Saturday morning, Jeremy and I drive around Slidell, Louisiana. On Saturdays, I take Jeremy and on Sunday, his pawpaw takes him. We do this because Jeremy loves to wake early in the morning and on the weekends we do this so the others can sleep for just a little longer. So I have Saturdays and Jeremy and I usually go fill my truck up with gas for work the next week, get a car wash (and yes I've had to wash the car on rainy days--again, some routines you don't break), stop at Sonic for one of those frozen-crack-concoctions I love so much (the frozen mocha java chiller), then we might drive around some more but it usually ends in McDonald's for the family and then we go home to eat.
Today we followed routine, yet it was definitely a day when routine didn't follow us. Last night the temperature was somewhere in the teens and stayed that way until early morning. Now usually Jeremy and I are up around 7:00 am --on a good day-- and on our way, but because of the temps, we pushed the trip until close to 10:00 so that it wouldn't be too cold and end up with a sick child in the house. First routine broken and yes I paid dearly for that one by him running in the room ever minute, on the minute, to tell me it's time to get up and "let's go, daddy!"
We departed and went to the gas station to fill up and get our car wash. Much like on a rainy day, the car wash was not worth the money. I was not surprised at all. We pull in to the car wash and stopped on signal as usual--Jeremy anxiously awaiting the cleaning bar to sweep across with pressured water, soap and the other cleaning steps the wash makes. If you'd ask Jeremy he could recite each step of the car wash all the way down to the pay box telling you to pull into the wash verbatim. The presoak went as planned and the truck was covered in a light coat of soap. The next pass would have been the pressure washer coming across to spray the soap away…Of course the car wash had been out in the elements so as you can guess, no water came from the wash. Such was the same for all the passes except when the rinse came across and finally the soap was cleaned from the truck. Then the air dry kicked on and such was our car wash--a beautiful waste of money.
Luckily the lack of wash did not cause Jeremy to remind me of the break in routine and I thank God for that. I think McDonald's helped with that.
With that said, have a great weekend and if you get a chance, let everyone know what habit you are a creature of!
