Do I remember how to do this? It's been 8 months since I blogged. I'm hoping that 3 paragraphs/day here will satisfy my English professor son, who every November tries to involve me in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. I may have a novel in me, but he will have to take the raw material I've provided and write it himself. Think of this blog as raw material, Benji.

What has transpired in the time since last I wrote? Nothing of earth-shattering importance. The warm weather of spring evolved much too quickly into scorching summer, which hangs on yet, with high temps today expected to be in the 80's. My AC runs every day and the heat has been on only a couple of nights, so far.

I've made more trips to Plantersville this year than any other year since moving down here in '87. Benji is living in his Dad's home there and gets Pip once a month for a long week-end visit. I've missed only one of those visits, so far. It's a great escape for me with the added bonus of Gramma-time with my youngest grandson.

We usually enjoy a very laid-back time together with the 3 of us focused on separate electronic screens between short bursts of interaction. Pip, like his dad, loves video games. Being autistic, he has the ability to hyper-focus, and he's figured out games that are quite advanced for a 5 year old. He's also a big fan of the old cartoons like Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny, preferring the slap-stick comedy shtick to the newer cartoons of today. Watching him watch them is a real treat, no passive involvement there. He runs, he jumps, he rolls on the floor, he giggles, he gasps, he repeats the whole memorized script.

His speech is improving slowly and can usually be interpreted by paying close attention to the vowel sounds he makes. Every once in a while, he surprises us by talking as clearly as most other children his age, so I believe his delayed speech will soon be a non-issue.