DAD'S TAXI SERVICE

WOW, almost two weeks without a post! But between my physical therapies during the week and just stuff backing up over the girls being done with summer school, times are tough for free time.

This weekend was sort of a blur, but refreshing because I actually got out of the house a couple of times. The first was yet another excursion into the paranormal. No really, ghost hunting has become a hobby. It's cheap (put out maybe 100$ for equipment and 20$ for a lifetime membership to the NJ Ghosthunters Society; it's conveinient...the cemetary investigations start right around when the girls go to bed; and it lets me utilize my internet investigation techniques to find out about various histories of the area around Monmouth County. Won't get into it all here, maybe I'll start a new blog, rather than clutter my autism blog.

But the real fun started on Sunday morning. Liv has been housebound for several weekends, I had been worried about my ability to lift her over these last few weeks so we hadn't gotten out. Grace was stricken with an ear infection that we discovered on Saturday (and that *I* was the one to push to have her go to the doctors for once). I'm gearing up for the afternoon around 1:00. Aly had been pushing to hang out with her friend, she gets hold of her and decide to go to the movies. 2:10 showing, I have to shower, but I can make it. 1:30 getting set to go, packing Liv to take her along. Dillan gets a call from his friend...playdate at the friends house. OK, I can drop him off first, tell them you'll be over in 10 minutes. Get a little delayed, call Dillan's friend shift that to 1/2 hour. Pick up Aly's friend, drop off at the movies; drop off Dillan. I am now free to roam about the county for the next hour and a half.

Things didn't go as planned for me and Liv. Local bay-front, Laurence Harbor...packed to the gills, both parking lots; swing back around to Keyport, flea market, that lot's packed too. I remember a dirt road back around Union Beach from my travels and decide to take a chance. A quarter mile hike on a road lined with reeds yielded a neat little outcropping on the bay during low tide. We got to wade through gentle flowing water and tide pools full of little fishes, seaweed and hermit crabs. She has a lot of her sensory issues in her feet so the varying sand softness, the shells and water were just to her liking. Fisherman wading 100 yards out into the shallows, a Mexican family clam hunting in the reeds, a photographer taking shots of the scenery and dozens of sailboats dotting the bay and it was a nice little distraction we had to leave all too soon.

Back into the car to pick up the girls at the movies; drop off at her friend's house. Hit up a new take out place for a menu, check out a new supemarket in the area. Back to get Dillan, head home for the dinner break, then back out for my final pickup of Aly. The 1 to 9 shift is finally over.

Certainly not the day I had planned, but all in all a great tour of my local Bayshore area...and I wore Livie out with her being a co-pilot...