An Excess of Water

It has been raining since 11.30am.

As Charlie (hooded, above) and I waited for Jim to return from the train, it saw still raining, leaving me to hope (misguidedly, as it turned out), maybe it will let up for their bike ride. Charlie really wanted his ride.

I got the bikes out from the shed and carried them up to our little porch to keep them dry and there they remained till almost 6pm, long after Jim came home. The rain did not stop.

Charlie waited in his brown chair and very patiently but eventually he and Jim decided the rain had let up enough. They came back after doing only about five miles as the rain started falling hard and Charlie assented to turn around.

Doing so bothered him, of course, though he tried not to let it. We went for a rainy walk and he snacked (still working our way through all the apples I cut up). He listened to more music than the six Disney songs -- Kinks, 'What/'s the Frequency, Kenneth.' He paced and I thought about the refrigerator potentially falling -- yeah, timber! -- and I ordered how we could help him work out frenetic energy without frenzied behavior. For fun (not Charlie's necessarily) I downloaded Angry Birds onto his iPad ; Charlie didn't take even a glance.

He went to bed and turned on the shower at 11 pm and kept it on, while standing beside it or pacing the little upstairs hallway. I checked and checked and found him with a somber face and telling me 'hi' in a way that means 'hello there, I'm very fine thank you, go away!' -- yes 'hi' has evolved into that! But Charlie is communicating his thoughts.

For over an hour, we listened to the sound of running water upstairs and the rain falling outside. A good while after midnight Charlie turned off the shower and we heard him turn on the six Disney songs and tuck himself in bed. All was quiet by the time the last song ended.

Comments

[Monica]

Hmmm ... better forecast today I think. Things were tough yesterday for kids and grownups everywhere in the NYC tri-state area!

(Better find a way to anchor that fridge to the wall.)

[autismvox]

But if we bolt the fridge to the wall some of the wall could get pulled out.... Always something! Glad for drier weather for all of us.