You Get Lemons and You Make.......

So I have been, I admit, complaining some about living in a soccer mom enclave/other word starting with an h and denoting something less than pleasant (and very warm). Certainly, the education that Charlie is getting in said town deep in Jersey suburbia is very much worth any inconveniences. The greatest inconvenience (if that's the right word) of all is not to have the right kind of school program for Charlie, and he has that now. For the first part of the school year, there were some issues with the schoolbus; since last month, there's been a new driver who shrugs and nods when Charlie's taking an extra couple of minutes to get out the door in the morning.

I don't know if this is the case where you live, but Jim and I have found that school districts in towns that are not exactly the most liberal have tended to have better programs for special education students in general and for autism in particular. And so here we are.

We always make sure that Charlie gets some good exercise every day, rain or shine. A couple of times a week, Charlie and I take a long walk up and down the main boulevard of our condo complex. There's usually a couple of power walkers; there's no dogs (no pets allowed in this complex). Monday evening Charlie and I did the walk in good time---he has been enjoying running up hills and down hills lately; perhaps the cold is a motivator. After we had gotten back home, I suggested we get a backpack and walk to the grocery store for a few things. I wasn't sure if Charlie would say yes to more walking, but he immediately said "backpack" and returned from his room with the really beat-up lime green LLBean backpack that he's had for years.

Off we went: It's less than ten minutes to a (maybe secret) back entrance to the nearby shopping mall. Charlie knows exactly how to get there, down to the run up and over a grassy knoll beside a big ol' garbage dumpster. Soon we were in the aisles of a semi-gigantic chain grocery store that could, if you were willing to wear Giants t-shirts and mesh gym shorts and sleep and eat off of lawn furniture, provide a human being with most of life's essentials. (And that's not mentioning the rack of gift cards to every conceivable chain restaurant in New Jersey.)

Charlie, as is his habit, checked out the entire bakery section before getting what he usually gets, a six-pack of cupcakes. We stopped for watermelon and bananas and lettuce in the produce section, got a couple of items from the condiment section (while we were there, Jim called me about some things but Charlie did not select the largest possible bottle of ketchup, but the mid-sized one), and then had to check out the (yes, gleaming) cases of frozen food (where Charlie glanced at the mammoth bags of fries and walked away when I said, I didn't think so). Most of the groceries fit into the backpack, which Charlie pulled on easily, and homeward bound we were, under the stars. (I packed the ketchup and pickles in my bag.)

Needless to say, we were the only customers who left on our own two feet and with groceries in our own bags (how green can we get?).

So I may carp about the town but one can only complain so much---you've got to make the most of what you've been given. Trust me, sushi (forgotten to mention that above---as if Charlie could leave a grocery store without his favorite!) and even cupcakes taste better when you've hauled them home on your own back.

Photo by Yogi.