In hindsight, early 2016 started the steep decline in the quality of all of our lives. As parents, Barbara and I failed to recognize the symptoms of Avner’s decline as a medical problem. The changes and challenges came so fast that we pivoted from crisis to crisis. It feels as if we were the frogs in the slowly warming pot, about to boil to death without realizing the clearly present danger.
In January of 2016, Avner began to change. He became secretive and withdrawn. He was very irritable. Suddenly, he went from struggling with English to struggling in most classes. We worried. We also assumed the cause was puberty.
April 20, 2020 I’m doing something different today. I’m writing as Avner takes his guitar class in the next room. I’m also writing about today, not the events that brought us to today. We are all sheltered in place. The self imposed isolation affects us all differently in interesting ways. We’re all a little less productive. I’m definitely feeling stir crazy and Barbara is feeling stressed for any number of
The first Rocketman Triathlon was run on May fifth 2013. It was my first triathlon. I said that I would be happy with a time under four hours. I finished in just over three and a half hours. My friend Richard joked at the time, “next year in under three hours.” I was heavy, but clearly fit enough to complete the race. In August of 2014, I developed a blister
Avner faced a number of challenges in school. By the time that we finally secured his individualized education plan, more commonly known as an IEP, he was in third grade. Avner received a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Asperger’s Syndrome, now classified under the larger umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). He was classified as twice exceptional, meaning that he also tests with a gifted IQ. Some