Adam leaves a surprise for the next children on the slide (okay, I brushed it off). 

Not exactly James Dean

mid-life rebellion
psychadelic subconscious
good scotch, fine cigar

Guilty pleasures

Yesterday, I read a post on another blog that indirectly reminded me of one of my guilty pleasures--bad television. DW and I watched "90210" religiously in its early years, and we occasionally looked in on "Melrose Place." We liked "90210" better, because it took itself rather seriously, which made it the funnier of the two shows. Last year, I had a thing for "The O.C." I remember one evening in law school when a friend and I stiffed our study partner, but left a note on the chalkboard stating, "Shatner's on TV--need we say more?" Indeed.



Last week, I watched season one of Showtime's "Weeds" in a mini-marathon. It's like "The O.C." on crack. The premise is that a suburban L.A. widow goes into the marijuana business to keep herself and her children living the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. It's really all about the desperate obsession of some folks with maintaining appearances. There's a lot of wretched excess and socially unacceptable behavior on the show (apart from the whole pot thing), so, of course, I'm looking forward to season two.

A great moment in bad timing

Today, the locally based Ochsner hospital/clinic organization announced that it is purchasing three hospitals from the Tenet Corp., including Memorial Medical Center in Uptown N.O. Ochsner has a good reputation locally, and I use their services myself. Anyhow, in about an hour, the Louisiana A.G. is holding a news conference regarding a doctor and two nurses who are charged with murder for euthanizing patients at Memorial in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Ethical and criminal issues aside, that's not the kind of public relations issue I'd want to deal with regarding a new acquisition.

Pirates of St. Tammany Parish

Toby likes to sink this ship indirectly, by jumping and creating waves that flood the boat through the windows. 

it's listing! 

success! 

dharma warrior

I attended a one-day sesshin at the local Zen temple yesterday. It's always difficult to let go of my usual, everyday concerns, but I had a few fleeting moments in which I was able to drop off mind and body and just drift in the flow of the moment. But then those everyday thoughts and concerns would push back into my head. At least some of those everyday thoughts were pleasant:

zen retreat
enlightenment approacheth
i want to get laid

Two steps forward . . .

We had Adam home for the weekend, then spent yesterday afternoon with Toby in Alexandria. I reported to a few of my gentle readers in another forum last week that Adam had vocalized the tune of "B-I-N-G-O." Saturday morning, he watched my lips as I sang that to him, then he resonded, "B-I-ehh-ehh-ehh." This is the first time that Adam has uttered any discernible language, and thus it is a huge effing deal. I almost cried, quite honestly. I credit the applied behavioral analysis training program at St. Mary's for this development--that program forces him to attend to the adult trainer acrosss the desk from him during some pretty intense sessions. Adam fought like hell against this for several weeks, but now he pretty much goes along with the program. Anyone who has tried to start an ABA program with an autistic child can attest to the difficulty in getting it underway. On the flip-side, Adam's stereotypically autistic traits are kicking up again. He played at the park by making tiny piles of sand with the post-Katrina fill along the walkways, then taking those piles and sliding them down a slide. He insisted on buying several bottles of Pepsi products every time we went to the store, then arranging those bottles on the kitchen counter. Also, he got very agitated at the store the other day when he noticed that the lettering on his favorite automatic door had been covered. Overall, however, Adam is making progress. He's struggling, but he is trying hard.

Toby overcame a big fear yesterday. After a half-hour or so of watching the doors on the hotel elevator, he had me pick him up and take him inside the elevator. We rode up and down for quite a while, with Toby learning how to operate the thing. We also had a lengthy swimming pool session in a pretty wild pool. Unfortunately, Toby's wasteline has thinned, and his swimsuit came off. I managed to get it back on, but it kept falling, so I couldn't toss him into the air as I usually do.

DW had an odd throat ailment the other day. Her throat was aching on Friday night, then it swelled up so badly during the day Saturday that it almost closed. Adam and I had to run her to doc-in-the-box Saturday night, where she got a steroid shot that made things all better. It must not have been contagious, as I'm just fine.

Artiste

Who Should Paint You: Alfred Gockel

All American yet funky, you inspire an artist's imagination And while not everyone will understand your portrait, you will!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?

Quirk test

Your Quirk Factor: 42%

You're a pretty quirky person, but you're just normal enough to hide it. Congratulations - you've fooled other people into thinking you're just like them!

How Quirky Are You?

Autism Walk

Sean B., the son of autism blogger Marc, is walking in the Cure Autism Now (CAN) Walk in Houston in October 2006. If you would like to donate, click here. CAN is a most worthwhile organization. If we have another involuntary vacation in Texas this year, I may join the walk myself.

Weekend in CenLa

A balanced diet is extremely important. 

Toby entering Target. We got there around 9 a.m. today, and Toby selected a toy Dodge Ram pickup, a Spider-Man comic book, a SpongeBob notebook, and a pack of pencils. We went back to the hotel for waterplay and elevator play. After that, we took a break in the room, then made our first visit to the better-than-you'd-think Alexandria Zoo. Then we had lunch and took Toby back to his school. Fun day. 

I picked up Adam around 2 p.m. yesterday, then went back to the hotel for some waterplay with DW. Adam evidently thought it would be fun to engage me in a game of chase, and he tore out like a bat out of hell from the car to another part of the hotel, then all the way around our wing of the place. When I finally got him to the room to change into his swimsuit, he demanded some Keebler fudge stripe cookies we had placed in the kitchen. Now, to Adam, a fudge-stripe cookie constitutes a clump of cookies stuck together by chocolate, and there are only 4 cookies per bag by that definition. He ate all 4 of them. Adam is a heavy eater for such a skinny kid. Ah, those were the days . . . Anyway, we had great family fun this weekend. 

Wild, wild west

Is anybody else watching "Deadwood" this season? I'm watching S3 while catching up on S2 via DVD. It's beyond me why this show didn't click with me before now, but now I dig it, cussing, whoring, and all. All I can say about this season is day-umn! IMHO, "Deadwood" this season is at the level of "The Sopranos" in its glory years. If you have HBO, check it out--this season will be followed by two two-hour episodes, and that will be the end. Thank goodness for DVDs.

Crime wave

The crime problem here in New Orleans is getting out of control, so the local authorities imposed a youth curfew and had the Governor send in the National Guard to help out the NOPD. At least they're acknowledging the problem and trying to get on top of it. The idea is for the National Guard to patrol the sparsely populated "wet" parts of town to free up NOPD to focus on the "murder triangle" in Central City and other areas with crime on the rise. Still, it was odd watching the convoy roll into town the other day, and the powers-that-be in the tourism industry are afraid of what impression conventioneers might get when they see American soldiers patrolling a large American city during peacetime. This bit from NOLA.com reminded me of my own tendency to minimize things:

To that end, the Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau distributed hundreds of fliers in hotels reassuring tourists that only parts of the city should be considered off-limits.

The bureau told visitors that the National Guard has been assigned to "outlying damaged and sparsely populated neighborhoods," allowing the NOPD to patrol tourism areas and enhance "the already good safety record these districts enjoy."

The flier describes the recent spate of killings as "enhanced drug-related violence concentrated in a couple of isolated neighborhoods miles away" from the CBD, the French Quarter and the area around the Convention Center.

The one-page message urges visitors to walk the sidewalks of downtown -- but recommends against "venturing into areas of the city that are sparsely populated, particularly after dark."

Old satire

 

Killers with a conscience

We finally watched "Munich" last night. It is well worth a viewing. I can see why it was controversial in some cicles, but that happens with thought-provoking films. "Munich" is thought-provoking indeed. "How does a society best respond to terrorism?" is the central question of the movie, and Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner don't answer that question. However, they do point out that violence can beget more violence in response, and that terrorists who are killed may be quickly replaced by people who may be even worse. Also, the members of the Israeli hit squad have deep ethical concerns about their activities, even as they kill the Black September leaders responsible for murdering the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. As in "Team America, World Police," we see that people like us need people like them in the shadows to keep us safe from even worse people. But we sure as shootin' need to give some thought to the results we want to achieve and use these shadowy figures to achieve those ends. "Hell if I know" would be my answer to the question posed by the film, but it seems worth it to explore the question and the other questions to which it gives rise.

Fathers Day in America

Sometimes one discovers that an old man's ritual can be quite therapeutic. However, my stomach is a tad icky at the moment . . .

I had a nice zazen experience this morning. I had difficulty dropping off body and mind, but it was nice when I accomplished that momentarily. On the way home, I reflected a little on something I read recently about Zen being a puritanical form of Buddhism, in that it has jettisoned almost all dogma and focused on meditation practice. I appreciate the lack of dogma and the radical simplicity of Zen, but to each his/her own. Anyhow, maybe the practice of spiritual traditions is the most important component of those traditions--more important than the doctrines and dogmas to which those traditions ascribe. Some of the finest people I know are deeply religious, and they actually practice the gentleness, humility, and love that they preach.