B.R.A.K.E.S. driving school for our girls

As parents of a teen driver, we want them to be safe, courteous and know how to get out of bad situations. Here in Georgia you only need 30 hours of classroom lessons and 6 hours of driving to get your license. Of course you have to pass the test, but that isn't exactly a test of extreme conditions.

 

Last weekend I took both my daughters, 19 and 16 to B.R.A.K.E.S. driving school at Atlanta Dragway. This class is completely different than the 'check box' 6 hours the regular driving schools provide (to be fair, both girls did the default class to get their licenses and to lower the insurance.)

 

So what is special about this school? Instead of focusing on the things they need to know and do in normal situations, they expose the students to things going wrong. Such as a panic stop, turning while braking, skidding on rain soaked pavement and distracted driving. 

 

Our day started with my 16 year-old, who has only had her license 3 weeks, drove us from Kennesaw to Commerce. Yes, 75, to the Cobb Cloverleaf, across 285, over Spaghetti Junction and up 85 for almost an hour. She did great. (for the record she has over 100 hours of driving before she got her license so I knew she'd do well. Her sister has had her license 3 years)

 

First thing you see when you pull up is the 18 wheeler and several cars parked around it (including a gorgeous 2008 Mustang Bullitt) and a dozen or so Kia cars and 'cubes'. Registration was easy, of course we had to sign away all our rights, but I expected that.

 

Then we watched and heard the story of why B.R.A.K.E.S. exists. For those who followed NHRA Drag Racing in the 90's you'll recognize Doug Herbert. Second man to go 300 MPH in a Top Fuel Dragster. But also a father who lost two sons in a car accident. 

 

You can hear Doug tell the story of his loss and how he vowed to do something to help teens be better drivers.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yL28xBLXIU

 

After a few minutes of slides going over what situations they were going to put the kids in, and teach them how to recover from, they separated the kids into groups of 3 and got them out on the track.
 

While the kids were taking turns on the course, one of the instructors took Deb and I out on the course too. After him showing us what the situations are, we got a chance to drive. While it was fun, it was also pretty eye opening when driving a car we were not familiar with. When the anti-lock brakes fired, I wasn't expecting it, nor does the little Kia handle like my Mustang (or Deb's Odyssey!)
 

So here is a breakdown of the situations
 

First we accelerated as fast as possible for about 50 yards, then the instructor yelled 'left' or 'right' and you had to lock up the brakes and STEER around a cardboard cutout of a skateboarder.
 

Next we did a slalom around some cones, again as quick as possible to understand the weight transfer and how it feels to have the car move from side to side.
 

Next we did an 'offroad' exercise where we deliberately dropped the right wheels off the road and how to recover.
 

Next up was an avoidance exercise. Again we drove as fast as possible and at the last second the instructor said 'left' or 'right' and you were supposed to go around an obstacle and recover without stopping.

Then another slalom, but this one at a much higher speed so you could learn how to recover from over and understeer.
 

The last two the parents didn't get to do. First was a skid pad. They had a pumper truck dumping water on the road, then again the students went as fast as possible, the instructor said 'left' or 'right' THEN PULLED THE EMERGENCY BRAKE. Full slides, skids, the car rocking side to side the whole experience of losing control. They wouldn't let the parents do this since this situation chews up tires very fast. One of the guys later told me they go through a set of tires every weekend due to the skid pad.
 

The final course was the distracted driving. They setup several cones, a slalom, obstacles etc. then asked the kids to try to text. While playing with the radio, the sun visions, talking to them etc. Everything you'd expect in a car full of teens. Not one didn't hit something or totally lose track of where they were. Both girls told us it was a shock how quickly they were distracted.
 

For the next 3 hours the kids cycled through the different situations. Each getting several (4+) turns on each. There was at least one other kid in the car with them, and they rotated driving.
 

The instructors turned out to be a very interesting bunch. One guy does driver safety training for U.P.S. he, and all the others, are either professional drivers, or professional driving instructors. All very patient, very willing to explain to the kids and very knowledgeable. Just take a look at their bios: http://www.putonthebrakes.com/driving-schools/instructors/
 

Every kid we saw after they were done, mine included, were excited and scared by what they learned. Several of the kids, mine included, didn't want to be there when we started the afternoon and I didn't see anyone who didn't look like they learned something. I know I did.

 

B.R.A.K.E.S. is based out of Concord, NC but have schools in GA, NC, SC and Pomona CA. While I was there they were talking about courses in Florida, Alaska and other parts of California. 

The website is here: http://www.putonthebrakes.com/
 

The cost? Technically free, but you need to put down $99 to hold the spot, with a check. You can get it back at the end, but I didn't see anyone going to where the they had the checks, so basically you made a donation to them. For me $198 was nothing compared to what my girls learned.
 

Remember the truck I mentioned at the beginning? It was there for the kids (and parents) to climb up into and see how little a truck driver can actually see. From the driver's seat you couldn't see the Bullitt parked in front or the cars parked on either side. When both my girls were in the seat I went and stood directly in front and they couldn't see me until I put my hand above my head.
 

I strongly recommend you take your teen to this course. If they don't come to your area, see if you can get them to!

 

While we were waiting for the kids to do their exercises I started talking with Matt Reilly, who is the Director. We talked about a lot of things (including Marketing Automation software, since they are working hard on their marketing this fall) and how great it was to have Kia involved as a sponsor.
 

He told me they are struggling to get the word out about their school and to get corporate sponsors. (They could easily have had 6 more kids in our session, they had the cars and the instructors). So if you know someone in a corporation who would be a good sponsor (UPS, Coca Cola, Firestone, hint hint) please point them to the website or contact Matt directly to get the conversation going. It sounds like if they had the sponsorship they could bring the program to a lot more places.

Bucket of Rocks

It was another boy's day today. Deb took Meghan Prom dress shopping and Courtney had yet another all day Winterguard practice.

So after a couple of hours in the backyard, doing some raking, cutting down some vines etc. Christopher and I loaded up the Bucket of Rocks and went to the lake.

Bucket of Rocks? What is that you ask? One of my better ideas if I say so myself. Homer bucket from Home Depot and a 50 lb bag of rocks used for cement. Total: $9. 

Now he can go to the lake and throw in rocks without having to scrounge for them or take them from around the pool.

So he and I loaded up  3-4" of rocks and walk to the lake. We threw them one at a time, a handful at a time, high in the air, underhanded. You name it, we probably did it. 

 

 

After that he wanted to build a fire, so we came back, chopped some left-over wood from his sandbox and other projects and built a nice little fire. Of course what he REALLY wanted was to put it out with the hose, but I made him wait. 

After it burned most of the way we got the hose and played fireman!

Allstate won't insure my Autistic son

I recently updated my life insurance and got a nasty surprise from Allstate.

In the policy I have had for 10 years I had a rider for a $10,000 death benefit on each of my children. Nothing major, just more of a 'just in case' thing.

Well, Christopher was born in the last 10 years, so went I went to extend for another 20 (so he won't be a minor when the policy expires) Allstate told me that they wouldn't include that rider in the new policy.

Why? Because Christopher has a PDD-NOS (Pervasive Development Disorder, not otherwise specified). In other words, he is Autistic.

I was shocked, so I asked for them to put it in writing. And they did.

I am currently keeping the old policy to cover Christopher since the rider had a 'and any child not yet born' clause that covers him. But that will run out well before he is 18.

Amazing.

The policy was written by Lincoln Benefit Life An Allstate Company.

Next stop: Georgia's Insurance Commissioner to file a complaint. Then do some shopping around to replace ALL my insurance (house, car, life) with someone who doesn't have such barbaric policies.

Huge Sand Table

One thing that Christopher loves is playing with sand (and water!) but the little kid sand table we had wasn't cutting it any more. He couldn't stand up with it and couldn't get the big Tonka trucks in it either.

So we started looking around for a bigger sand table. Unfortunately most, if not all, sand tables are aimed at little kids so what was available wasn't going to meet our needs.

While looking online I came across a website about fire fighters building huge tables with layouts of canyons, valleys etc where there were fires. Looking at them, they looked like picnic tables with tops on them. Bingo. Ferb, I know what we're doing today.

Started with a trip to Home Depot. Found out the new van isn't as long inside as the old one, so we had to tie the lift gate down to get the 10' lumber home.
 

Using designs from online for a picnic table, I built one. Then put a piece of 4x6 3/4" plywood on top and boxed it in. Viola, the biggest sand table I've ever seen. So far 200+ lbs of sand and it is fine.

 

 

 

 

In hindsight I would have bought a table and added the plywood and box instead of building it from scratch. The cost of the wood (plus 5 hours of my time!) was almost as much as buying one off craigslist.

 

Next we sand it, router the corners and stain it (probably in the Spring). Oh and try to find a cover that won't get me in trouble with the HOA.

Hey 50 Cent, this is what an autistic child looks like

Some of the responses are more eloquent, but here's mine:

(not sure what this is about? Go here or here)

Cigna rejecting ABA as 'experimental' same day as US Govt says it isn't

I've been working with our insurance provider for a couple of years to get Christopher's ABA therapy covered. They finally decided last month that they wouldn't cover it. Official statement:

As we discussed, ABA is not covered under the plan for any indication because it is considered experimental, investigational or unproven.

Same day as the rejection, the US Government decided that ABA is NOT experimental and  is medical:

Autism Speaks hailed today’s announcement by the federal government, the nation’s largest employer, that Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), the most widely used behavioral intervention used to treat autism, is a “medical” therapy that qualifies for health insurance coverage, rather than an “educational” service.

So I'm going to talk to Cigna about changing their view, since the Government disagrees with them!


References:


Autism Votes: http://www.autismvotes.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=frKNI3PCImE&b=3930723&ct=11775907

ABA: http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/treatment/applied-behavior-analysis-aba

Cigna: http://www.cigna.com/

Fenced in the backyard

Yesterday we had a fence installed in our backyard. Not a big deal to most people, but something I swore I would never do. 

 

 

About 12 years ago a number of my neighbors had 'privacy' fences installed that totally hid their backyard and whatever their kids were doing. A few really needed it since they had no coverage to prevent everyone looking in their back windows, but I didn't like the others.

Why? 12 years ago my kids were 5 and 2 and always outside on our swings, riding bikes or walking. And they were always looking for someone to play with. Lots of times a 'walk' ended within a few minutes with them playing in someones backyard. Likewise many times kids would see mine in our backyard and come running.

 

With the 6ft privacy fences, you never knew if the kids were out playing nor could they see if mine were. You'd occasionally hear giggles and laughs but it was hard to tell if someone was outside. (Also at that time most of the kids had younger siblings or themselves took naps, so ringing the doorbell mid-afternoon was discouraged.)

 

 

So why did we get one? Well, Christopher has inherited my adventure gene, you know the one that ignores directions from parents to stay in the yard and he likes to go wherever he damn well pleases. Which is dangerous since he doesn't grasp the concept of traffic (and more than a few of our neighbors and guests drive WAY too fast.) He's also learned the 'drop all my weight to the ground and mommy can't pick me up' trick. Doesn't work on me but he'll do it to Deb when she catches up with him. So we need to keep him contained, at least long enough for us to get to him if he wants to wander.

Instead of getting the privacy fence, we went with a 5 ft picket fence that you can see right through, but is high enough Christopher can't climb it before we catch him.

 

 

The dog isn't thrilled. In fact Deb thinks she is pissed at us. Yes, we're getting teenager attitude from the dog. 

 

 

 

Christopher is a little confused but thinks it is cool. We'll see in a few days when the tried to take off and can't how he feels.

 

 

 

 

 

Letter to my first Capri

(recently on the Internet there is a meme for auto enthusiasts to write a letter to their first car. Here in mine.)

To my first car, wherever you are now.

It was a fun, strange ride wasn't it? From my mom of all people bringing you to my attention to parking you on the grass at mom's when we moved to Georgia 5 years later.

I remember my mom coming home from getting gas in her fake-wood panel Ford LTD station wagon telling me she'd seen a car she thought I'd like. As a 16 y/o boy having your mom tell you she found a car that she thinks you'd like, I wasn't holding out much hope for what she found. Well, I was wrong. This was before the Internet, so I hadn't heard of a Mercury Capri before. But I was hooked.

Louie and I went to look at you and did a full inspection. Found a few things wrong but nothing that couldn't be fixed. I led my Dad negotiate the price and John and I went to pick you up (I didn't know how to drive stick yet.) I immediately washed and started compounding you, removing years of neglect on the paint.

As luck would have it, I couldn't drive you for a few days, mainly because it was Deb's 16th Birthday (you remember her right?) I distinctly remember pointing to you in the driveway when her mom picked me up for Deb's birthday party. (Deb has commented she didn't know that you'd be a rival for my affection for the next 5 years.)

As John taught me to drive a stick we spun the tires more than a few times getting the hang of it. I remember coming out of the parking lot at Danbury High School squealing up the hill! From there I never looked back. I think I put 100,000 miles on you in those 5 years.
As the owner of an 'unusual' car, I got pretty defensive when people called you a Mustang. Heck, even Deb got to the point where she's say 'It's not a Mustang!' when someone called you one.

Had to do a few minor repairs (including replacing the rusted doors!) but with a set of Kelly Charger tires on chrome mag wheels and black louvers you were pretty damn sweet!

We made it through Senior year of High School, a prom and that crazy summer. Deb and I would sit for hours in you talking (mostly :) Had to leave you behind when I went to UMASS that fall, but that didn't last long. 2+ hour rides to/from Amherst racked up the miles, but you were a blast to drive, even with the anemic 2.3L. Your propensity to fishtail in the snow made the rides to campus rather interesting, but still fun.

Even today Deb tells stories about calling the house to see if I was there (before cellphones) and my mom telling her I was outside working on you (usually the weekly wash and wax before we went out.)

The next stage in our relationship involved the engine transplant. Looking back (and lugging a few 2.3L Turbo engines around recently) I don't know how I got that motor home in your backseat. With a slightly peppier engine you were a lot of fun to drive. Still not sure how we made it down to that shop to fix the brakes after the transplant, but everything ended up okay, right?

And drive we did in the summer of 1989 to Houston TX. From entering Mississippi after a tornado (my first experience with the dead calm after such a storm) to driving around Houston with Connecticut plates and getting more than a few 'Yankee' comments, to the Hurricane that dumped 10 inches of rain in an hour and I was stupid enough to drive home in. To giving me a piece of home as I got lonely and tried to figure out what Deb and my relationship meant.

Our first introduction to 'Southern Summer' made it painfully clear to me that I needed A/C in my next car, which meant you probably wouldn't be with me much longer. We did make the most of that summer, going to a drag racing track a couple of times (yeah, 15-flat was fast in the 80's) and that crazy 24-hour drive back to CT with Pat. Including Pat watching the Ferrari blow past us like we were standing still even though we were well above the speed limit. (oh and I still want to know what happened to your passenger window ...)

When I got the offer to move to Georgia, I knew you weren't coming with me without A/C. From what I understand some of my cousins drove you until my Uncle Billy sold you to parties unknown.

Just so you know, I didn't give up on owning another Capri. Took a lot longer than I expected but I'm working on restoring one right now.

Oh and I'm going to try to get a custom tag you'd find funny: 'NO STANG'.

Lego Mini-figs as party favors!

Christopher's 6th birthday party is tomorrow and we are going to have a Lego theme. A few months ago Deb and I had the great idea, give each kid a Mini-fig as a party favor. We found a nice, cheap box of figures and ordered it, thinking it would take a few minutes to separate them.

Well, not quite. None of the figures were assembled NOR WERE THEY EVEN PACKAGED TOGETHER.

All the boy heads were in one package, the girls in another and the bodies and legs in all five. Oops, this is going to take a while!

Dr. Frankenstein?

An hour and thirty minutes later, all assembled and packaged together.

Despite being a pain, I'm sure they will be a hit with the kids.

Christopher doing the Chicken Dance

I'm still not sure why they did this at school tonight, but he had a lot of fun:

Scavenger hunt!

Courtney has been asking for a scavenger hunt for her birthday for years, but being a January baby the weather really hasn't cooperated. This year was different.

First thing to know, this isn't a scavenger hunt like when we were younger (I was teenager in the 80's.) We don't need to collect things. Instead give each team a digital camera with a removable media card and require a picture of everything. This REALLY makes the things to look for much more interesting. (For example, a picture of two of team members in someone's bathtub!)

I started the task of building the list by asking on Facebook for some ideas. My cousin Randy came through with a ton of ideas, many of which I stole. (being 13/14 year olds the various ideas of listing different beers, foods, liquor bottles that they had to bring back was shot down. Fun idea though ...)

The rules were pretty easy:
- the teams could not go to the house of anyone who was playing (with one exception I'll talk about later)
- the teams could not call anyone for help
- the teams could not use any siblings or parents for the items to be found (with one exception below)
- no more than 15 items from any one house so as not to annoy the neighbors
- had to stay in the neighborhood

When thinking about items, I thought (and drove around and looked) at what our neighbors had and what I knew the parents of the kids attending the party had (just to be difficult). So I had things like a stone crocodile that one neighbor has in their yard and a very specific set of vinyl records that I knew the parents of an attendee had, just to mess with the girls.

Off they went and an hour and half later came back with pictures of lots of things, several of which I didn't expect them to find. All the neighbors they went to were cool and very helpful. Each team even got one Dad (different for each team too!) to put on a dress for the 50 points! (no pictures I promised!)

The girls were very creative in their interpretation of the rules, which was what I was hoping for. For example on item was 'a picture of the team on a rock wall'. I knew of 1 rock wall (built from rocks) in the neighborhood, but the girls instead found a climbing wall which they call a rock wall. The best though was the item of 'TV Rabbit Ears Antenna' which the girls found a pair of fuzzy rabbit ears and held it over the big screen TV. I couldn't argue with that one!

The only thing I didn't do which I planned on was the 15 minute special. The idea was 15 minutes before the time was up, call each team leader and tell them they would get 50 points if they brought back someone's mother to our house. Since they couldn't get their own, it would be interesting to see who would agree. (I still remember my brother Patrick's story of one of his scavenger hunts and finding a friend's mother in the back of the van, so this is a twist on that idea) Next time I'll do something similar.

So here is the list we used. Oh, and the one exception mentioned above, we have some die-hard LSU fans in the neighborhood and they would get 50 points if they got a picture of one of them with some Alabama fan stuff. One of their daughters' was at the party so we had to relax the rules. Also note that this was January 2012 so Alabama had just won the national title. Change those items as necessary if you use this list.

(I asked the girls if this was fun or was I being a dork, all said it was fun so I guess I'm 'cool' for a couple of hours now.)

5 points each

Everyone except 1 person on a rock wall
Everyone except 1 person at a swing set (DO NOT GO ON THE SLIDES - in case they collapse with 5 girls on it!)
The number 17
Picture with a non-sibling in Kindergarten to College (so 5 pt for a Kindergarten, 5 for a 6th grader etc.) 5 points for each year, one per year only
A 2011 Calendar
Chocolate Money
Brown Sugar
Black licorice
Wind Chimes
R2-D2, C3PO
Rudolph
Nutcracker
Jack-o-lantern
VHS tape of a Disney animated movie (1 per group only)
Photo with a HS Athlete

10 points each

dog, cat, horse, monkey, parakeet, zebra finch, owl, turtle, iguana, giraffe, hippo, any snake, any other reptile
Dinosaur, griffin, centaur, unicorn, dragon, orc, elf
Bus
Green car, yellow car, any year Camaro, any year Firebird
Red door, Red or Pink wall, Green interior wall
Pink or purple polka dots on anything besides clothes or a notebook
Bald man
Man with a pony tail
The number 42 (+20 if it references the meaning of life)
A yellow flower, a pink flower, a purple flower
Yearbook from the 1980’s or 1990’s
Someone’s aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, grandmother, grandfather
A 2010 Calendar
A January 2013 Calendar
Something from My Little Pony, Star Trek or Power Puff Girls
Stone alligator
An adult female with a football helmet on
A fully clothed Barbie doll
A fully clothed GI Joe
A red tricycle
A Louisville Slugger
Flowers made out of soap
Jawa
Life sized picture of any person/character
Unicycle
two person bicycle

20 points each

Car being repaired/restored
Any house Harry Potter tie or scarf
Bald woman
Globe or map with the Soviet Union
Anything that celebrates the Alabama Football national title
Anything that celebrates an NFL Superbowl win. (+10 points if the Giants)
Anything that celebrates an NCAA Basketball national title
Yearbook from the 1970’s
Team member in a tree
Team members (minus photographer) in a Gazebo
Someone’s great-grandfather or great-grandmother
A non-Curtin in a Giants shirt, a non-Lukasik in a Cowboy’s shirt, a non-Smith/Stagg in an LSU shirt
An album (vinyl) (+5 points if it is Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash  or Def Leopard)
Something from Ren and Stimpy (cartoon)
TV Antenna Rabbit Ears
Two team members in someone’s bath tub
Speed limit sign
Stop sign NOT on the road
License plate from a non-Georgia state (1 per state only) (+10 if non-US)
Silver dollar
$100 bill

50 points each
Mr Smith wearing something from Alabama (Abbey’s team can do this one too)
An adult male in a dress
Betamax tape
8 track tape

Christopher starting to ride a bike

Sometimes the little guy catches us off guard. We know he isn't going to have same interests or many of the developmental advances a boy his age would, but we hope that he does eventually. Sometimes he asks or does something so unexpected it takes our breath away. Sunday was one of those times.

He's shown almost no interest in his bike since we got it. He'll watch Courtney or Meghan ride their bikes, but he didn't show any interest in doing it himself. On Sunday, after playing with some sidewalk chalk, he went in the garage, put on the helmet and tried to ride the bike. Down the driveway. By himself.

Deb caught him pretty quickly and I helped him down to the road. He spent a lot of time looking at the pedals and wheels, but eventually was driving himself around.

Getting the hang of it:

Picking his head and looking in front, instead of at the pedals!



Pedaling by himself!

No idea why he wanted to go off roading, but as soon as we got to the pool he wanted to go over the bridge.

He wanted Deb to wear his helmet. He wanted me too, but I didn't let them take a picture.

Finally he wanted to try Courtney's bike for the ride home.

A very geeky Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2011 was quite the geeky week.

Technically it started on the Friday before when I did my annual Career Day presentation to Courtney's Middle School. This was my 6th year presenting to the middle schoolers and my 12th year in a row doing something for one of my kids. I received several good questions and hopefully got a few kids interested in being a software engineer.

The 'honey do' project of the week was to finish the pantry by installing drywall on the stairs. For those keeping track, phase one of the project, knocking down the wall and putting up drywall and shelving was completed about 12 years ago. Really, it doesn't normally take this long, but I though Deb was okay with the open stairs until she said something the other day.

In preparation for Thanksgiving Deb made some cake balls and her famous Reese's peanut butter cup pie. Desert wasn't lacking at our house this year! Thanksgiving day was fun with another family, a big turkey and some football!

The geeky part of the week got into full swing as I helped Courtney build her 3-D atom for AC Science. Nothing some Styrofoam and paint can't help design! This was one of those 'a few hours each day for a week' projects. Oh, and it's not due for 2 weeks!

Saturday afternoon Courtney and I watched the Battlestar Galatica episode where they rescue the remaining humans from New Caprica. She pretended to care as I described why they jumped the Galactica into the atmosphere before launching the fighters and even asked a few good questions (such as why didn't they go back to see if anyone was still on the ground after the Cylons left?). May have a fan here ...

Best part was Sunday afternoon while putting up the Christmas Trees, I put on Star Wars (yes the original one!) and Christopher watched it with me. Even said 'Space ship' and called the Death Star a 'moon'. I politely corrected him :) Best part was when the Millennium Falcon shot the Tie Fighters pursuing Luke he cheered!

Oh, and Christopher likes to be tickled. I got him to say 'Tickle me please' and 'I want to be tickled' before I ate him up (originally he would jump in my lap, shove my head down and say 'eat please!'

Deb's hard work:

Little helper on the Capri

Today the little guy helped me with the THIRD engine for the Capri. Details here.

Teaser:

Beautiful day for throwing some flags!

Last weekend the weather was perfect, so we spent a lot of time outside. Courtney hadn't had much of an opportunity to use her colorguard flags and rifle this summer since she broke her leg, but she's all healed so she got them out!

Here is Deb and Courtney twirling and throwing the flags.

Christopher thought it looked like fun so he threw the small one in the air. He caught it once or twice, but usually hit himself on the head.

Deb giving me a dirty look since I'm taking pictures of her. I promised not to upload any of her getting hit in the head!

Dragon*Con 2012

This could be one of those 'Sometimes a Dad has to do what a Dad has to do' stories, but I think I had more fun than Meghan did!

On Friday my oldest daughter, Meghan, who will be 17 next month asked me to take her to Dragon*Con. I was thinking about looking into going this weekend, but we had a bunch of other things to do. That was before Jonas started talking to Meghan. Jonas is Christopher's ABA therapist. Or will be until Tuesday (another story for another day). Jonas is a big fan, and last year told us a lot about Dragon*Con and why Meghan and I should go. This year he was again going down right after Christopher's therapy and kept encouraging Meghan to go (I was out running errands (Machine shop!) so didn't hear it all.)

So at 6 pm on Friday we decided to go to Dragon*Con on Saturday. We did some quick research, figured out the first few things to do and set the alarm.

We were up and out the door by 7 am on our way to the Sandy Springs MARTA station (oh, there was also a concert in downtown, the UGA football game and some literary event I can't find the name of) expecting a ton of people. Buying our tickets we saw the first cosplay character: Dr. Horrible. I didn't say anything to Meghan, but since I had my Battlestar Galactica t-shirt on he started talking to us. Another woman was standing near us and started talking as well. Turns out each of them have a different view on the merits of Star Trek original, vs. DS9 vs Voyager. It was nice disagreement, and Meghan got her first taste of geek conflict.

On the ride down more and more people dressed up, in geek t-shirts or just with badges on got on the train. A few made me realize I didn't warn Meghan about the interesting Cosplay we might she. She of course said she knew all about it and had seen video and pictures from Comic*Con. Though a few of the Gimp pairs made her give me a strange look, which I ignored ;)

Waiting on line for tickets went pretty smooth, even if there were several THOUSAND people on line with us. I ran into a couple of coworker on line, so I think I got some geek-cred for the shirt and even being there! Once we had our tickets we headed up to the parade route to get a good place to stand. We ended up standing next to a guy with his teenage daughter and her friend. And man those girls were giving the dad a hard time. He had a nice camera rig and was taking pictures of everyone interesting, especially the women. Every woman who came by with even the slightest cleavage or leg/ass showing the girls gave him a hard time. Of course then the gladiators, Spartans from 300 and man zombies came by he gave it as good as they did. Meghan was great during all of this, sometimes teasing me, sometimes making comments about outfits and taking it in stride when I told her to cover her eyes because the Spartans were coming ;)

No I didn't take any pictures. That's a little too creepy for me. Though there were people stopping cosplay people and asking for pictures all the time.

The parade was really interesting. Cool, different, strange, bizarre and odd all the same time. About 50 minutes in we left our spot and started working our way to the first session we wanted to see. The sidewalks were packed! She held on to my shirt as I pushed my way through. (I had a few flashbacks to bars in college.)

The first session we saw was about the show 'V'. It was actually pretty bad. Robert Englund and the priest from the reboot where the only ones there. And man does Robert like to talk. I was pretty turned off by him. I was worried they'd all be like this, but the next one definitely made up for it!

We went to panel with several stars from Eureka! and Pete from Warehouse 13. This was the main session Meghan wanted to go when we did a quick look at the schedule the night before. It was excellent! Both funny stories, lots of jokes and some very strange back and forth between the Eureka! actors. I'm pretty sure Jordan Hinson (who played Zoe) didn't pick her outfit out. Even Meghan commented that her top kept sliding off and she was continually adjusting. On 2 huge 30+ foot screens it was pretty obvious. I also think she was drunk or really hung over. Lots of little comments, cracks. Oh and someone tweeted that they thought she was drunk and she went off on him.

Funniest part was when Eddie McClintock (who plays Pete on Warehouse 13) answered a fan question about what products he'd like to endorse on the show. The Eureka! guys made fun of how much they did product placements, especially the Subarus. He commented that the major TV sponsor is Levitra and how he'd like to include that. To quote: "Look out Mrs. Fredricks. You scare the crap out of me, now its my turn!'. Then he made dick jokes the rest of time. And Jordan kept trying to throw in a 'that's what she said', but bombed most of the time.

We then went to a Dr.Who panel with Mark Shepard and Garth David-Lloyd. These guys were great. Meghan has become a big Dr. Who fan lately and had a great time listening to them tell stories and answer questions. Lots of cool information including how Mark Shepard almost didn't do Dr. Who because of a schedule conflict. Everyone told him he was crazy to give up and the producers of the other show changed their schedule for him.

We then went to dinner (at Hooters, since it was the only place with a small line. Heck the waitresses looked like nuns compared to some of the costumes ;) and got on line to see an early release of the latest Dr. Who episode. We waited for an hour and a half then got jammed into a ball room with 1400 other people. Oh and 1400 others who stood on line in the Atlanta heat all day. Or who hadn't showered or who were just really large. It was VERY tight and very loud. But we saw the episode early.

The one picture I wish I had taken was the woman in front of us with a formal/prom gown made into a Tardis. It was really good.

Then we headed back to home on MARTA. Met another group and talked about Warehouse 13, Dr. Who and Eureka. And Nightmare On Elm Street since one of the ladies was dressed as a female Freddie Kruger (a very nice costume too. Not too revealing but enough to fit in.)

As always we had to have some drama on anything we do, so we got off at the wrong MARTA station. Oops. Had to pay for a taxi to drive us < 1 mile from the Dunwoody station to Sandy Springs.

I have a feeling we'll be doing multiple days next year ...

Autism Awareness - Service Dogs

A friend of ours, who has two autistic sons has started a website to draw attention to the laws and needs for service dogs. The website is here.

We've seen first hand how people don't understand the need for the service dog or what the rules are. At Christopher's birthday party last year she had to explain to the manager at DAC Kids why Barkley must be allowed in with the boys.

Unfortunately she had an incident with a McDonald's manager a few months ago who chased her out of the McDonalds and punched her because the manager didn't want the dog in the restaurant. Our friend panicked when one of the boys took off and she dropped a cup of soda when looking for the boy and the manager thought she threw it at her. The manager followed her into the parking lot and hit her.

Video about it here.

Is the increase in Autism diagnoses because the geeks are able to mate now?

This week there has been a lot of talk about an article in Time (http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/19/could-the-way-we-mate-and-marry-boost-rates-of-autism/) that looks at the possibility of 'clusters' of Autism in general and Asperger's in particular around technical business centers or hi-tech university alumni. This isn't the first time I've heard about this, but one of the first I've seen it discussed in mainstream press. I was forwarded the Time article by at least 3 people and this was a topic of discussion at a birthday party yesterday.

For those who haven't been following the stories, the question about where Autism and Aspeger's is growing is related to how the parents of these children are meeting and mating. One of the stranger arguments is that since women are now in the math, science and engineering fields they are meeting more men and are marrying and having children. And these children have an increase incidence of Autism because the parents are technically or process inclined. In the Time article they talk about the number of children of MIT graduates who are Autistic. Another article earlier in the spring talked about clusters of Autistic children around Huntsville, Alabama (Rocket City, where a lot of the NASA engineers live and work over the last 50 years) and Eindhoven, Netherlands, the Dutch Silicon Valley.

The articles point out that in the last 50 years (last 20 specifically) it has become socially acceptable to be an engineer or 'geek'. The pay in these industries can be significantly higher than others as well. All of which leads to the premise that the 'geeks' are now able to attract mates that traditionally hadn't been available to them. And this attraction is leading to the increase in Autism since more 'carriers' are 'being allowed' to mate than any other time. In case you missed it, the 'carriers' are the geeks, male and female. Stretching it a little, the geeks and spinsters of the 1800's and first part of the 20th century couldn't attract mates, so the 'chance' of having an Autistic child were low, now that there are places for them to meet, or the socioeconomic changes mean it is now okay to marry them so the rates of incidence are increasing.

This research strongly suggests (but doesn't scientifically prove) that Autism and Asperger's is genetic. Like many diseases where both parents need to be carriers to trigger a recessive trait, is it possible that Autism is recessive? Or when the combination of the strong, but not indicative traits of Autism in engineers, mathematicians and other 'geeks', combines with some genes in our mates to cause this?

I don't know and expect to see a lot more research into this, but it does kind of make sense. The number of parents we've met in our travels with Christopher suggest that a lot of them (or both) are 'geeky' like I am. And not just engineers, programmers etc, but parents who were 'gifted and talented' or excelled in school to become lawyers and doctors.

Honestly, I don't know how I feel about this. At one level it is nice to hear they are making progress in identifying what causes his Autism, but at the same time it points to me being the reason. (I know, I'm reading too much into this, so please no calls from family ;). It also suggests that new parents with 'geeky' or 'gifted' backgrounds should have their children screened sooner to get jump on the treatments.

Wordless Wednesday - Belize

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