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Making It Big

Apr 30th, 2012
by Dan.
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My girl’s softball team had been selling tickets for several weeks for a raffle to pay for new fields. If enough tickets were sold, the winner would receive a new car, but if not, the proceeds would be split in half and given to the winner.

1103 out of 1300 tickets required for the car were sold, so the drawing would be for half the proceeds, or around $11,000. The drawing was made Saturday. None of my relatives won.

That may have been a good thing.  Not that we couldn’t use 11 grand, and not that we didn’t earn it by manning the sales booths and canvasing the neighborhoods.

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Posted in: home.

Control?

Apr 15th, 2012
by Dan.
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The nine-year-old upstairs could be heard downstairs, “Mom! Dad’s trying to control me!”

It wasn’t my most favorite thing to hear on Sunday morning.  I had sent her upstairs to get something while I was helping her sister.

When she came back down, we had a little chat:

“Let me ask you something. When I do things that your mom asks, do you think I’m doing it because she’s controlling me?”

“Kinda.” Hey, at least she was honest…

“No.  I do things she asks me to do because I love her. That’s why we do things for each other around here.“

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Posted in: home, religion.

Dual Post: Autism Awareness Day

Apr 2nd, 2012
by Dan.
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The better half made some comments on Facebook today that I thought needed some syndication. After her comments, I added some of my own.

Today is World Autism Awareness Day as well as Light it Up Blue for Autism Speaks Day. The entire month of April is Autism Awareness month. This all sounds great, right? As the day has gone on, I have grown more angry, frustrated, and sad – the most I have been since April of 2006. Awareness and advocacy are great words, but as CDC released new numbers just days ago, it seems there is NOTHING behind these words. As I sat at advocacy training last week with other parents and professionals, the level of desperation that exuded from these parents and professionals was unbelievable. The fact that ALL of our Ohio legislators were then invited to a cocktail party and approximately 4 or 5 of them even bothered to show up shows a height of APATHY that is extraordinary. The fact that there is no help, no funding, no services, no insurance, and we can’t get more than 4-5 of our legislators to come for free drinks and snacks for 30 minutes to listen to our stories, should tell us all something.

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1 in 88

Mar 30th, 2012
by Dan.
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The CDC is now estimating that 1 in only 88 children is now being identified with an autism spectrum disorder. If you don’t already know someone with an ASD, you will soon.

As much as we would like to be able to wave a magic wand and have government fully fund any and all autism research, common sense and history tells us this cannot happen. Money is getting tighter as Congress overspends its revenues and spends 3x more money on debt interest than it does on Afghanistan and Iraq. And we don’t want to get into whether the government has been an honest broker with respect to vaccine research…

We need you. Look at your talents and help someone. Maybe you have money. Maybe you have time. Maybe you have compassion. Maybe you have an ear. Maybe you have prayers. Maybe you have a combination. :) This is your neighbor, your kid’s classmate at school, a kid in your congregation, on your kid’s sports team, in your kid’s scout troop, somewhere. If you have the means but not the target, then go to autismspeaks.org and see what you can do there. Please. :)

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Some Progress You Just Can’t Measure

Mar 27th, 2012
by Dan.
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Twin 2 and I had just returned from the store this morning. As I came into the kitchen from the garage, my back popped just below the shoulder blades, and I couldn’t hold the groceries up for a second. The incident was rather bizarre, as I regularly workout with more weight and with more range of motion than what I was doing then. About 11 hours later, there’s a little bit of pain left which I hope is gone by tomorrow.

When my back popped, I winced, because it was a little bit painful. Twin 2 saw it, and asked, “Are you hurt, Dad?”

I said, “Yes, my back popped.”

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Posted in: autism, home.

A Brief History of Time Out

Mar 27th, 2012
by Dan.
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Hope you liked the Stephen Hawking reference. :)

Time Out is a podcast of scripture, hymns, and orthodox Lutheran Bible commentary that lasts about 15 minutes. The idea for Time Out first started when I was between churches and yet wanted to hear the hymns that I had heard in church as a kid. I had bought several CDs, but the performances embellished the hymns to the point where I could only listen and not sing along. That was frustrating.

In 2008, podcasts were starting up:
June – Table Talk Radio
July  - God Whisperers began. Radical Grace Radio published podcasts. Fighting for the Faith became more frequent.
September – Higher Things Radio
And of course, there was the Issues, Etc., reboot.

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Posted in: audio, media, religion.

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