Prepare to enter the wild and wooly world of an adult with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by intellignce, quirks, social difficulties and downright strange and oddish behaviours.

People with Aspergers generally are high functioning in everyday life but have great difficulty connecting with others due to the inability to read faces, body language and subtle verbal clues. They also tend to take words literally and have a hard time multi-tasking.

Oversensitivity to touch (clothing has to be soft and often the tags removed), light (do not leave home without the sunglasses), sound (loud noises and noisey places are avoided), taste (many Aspies have quite a limited diet and are frequently very picky eaters) and smells makes the everyday existence more of a challenge.

Fasten your seatbelts and come on in...
To find out more about what Aspergers is..please check out my earliest blog entries

Monday, May 13, 2013

Inside Autism..A Photo Essay

When I am alone, it's easier to be who I truly am, autistic. Today I went for a walk. Here are my thoughts:

I saw this old wooden sign on a tree. I wonder what it used to say.

A broken piece of glass. I wonder what broke. Was it an accident? Was anyone hurt? Should I pick it up, bury it or leave it alone?

Hmm, an artificial daffodil. I wonder where dead artificial flowers go? It's completely useless and out of its element. I'm at the cemetery,so someone must have placed it on a loved ones grave. I wonder what will happen to it? Probably get chewed up by the lawn mower or raked into one of the piles marked abandon. It isn't mine to take or save. Sure does look real.

Looks like old curbing, no longer wanted or needed. I wonder where it was originally. I wonder if this is it's final resting place. Cement decays so slowly, softly, with not even a hush.

I don't know what these are, but there are piles of them.

An old tire that looks pretty new. I wonder what it fell off of, how it broke

I can't figure that these old oil tanks were ever used in this cemetery. I'm guessing someone, probably one of the cemetery workers, just dumped them out here. You never know what you will find walking the back roads and outskirts of a cemetery.

There were quite a few of these...abandon..urns. Guess they just pile them all up. Someone had paid for them. Probably had plants or flowers in them. I wonder how they lost their place. Maybe they just couldn't figure out which place they belonged to, now they dwell in nomans land.

Ahhh, I found the artificial flower graveyard.

I wasn't sure what to make of this. It might be an old rusted plow. Hmmm, I don't know for sure.

I was going to walk down this two-track, but an old woman spirit stopped me. Apparently, something that would have disturbed me was back there or had taken place in that area. She was a kind and helpful ghost spirit. I could have walked past her. I was veryvery curious. I heeded her warning and stayed away.

Lots of pipes. Probably for irrigation. They looked both interesting and out-of-place.

Miscellaneous concrete slabs left to die. Probably going to rest against that tree forever. Maybe they will even become part of the tree, you know, tree grows over them...if left long enough.

Two posts with a chain and a small piece of that PVC pipe from a previous picture. I had crossed it to get these pictures and look around. I didn't see any no trespassing signs. I don't know if the pipe and chain is like a no trespass sign or like a "watch out, don't drive into the chain and down this path by accident." I didn't feel internally bad when I crossed it, so I think it was alright.

Ahhhh, a whole bunch of pretend flowers hiding behind a pine tree. These flowers had a suspicious, nefarious feel to them...like someone deliberately ripped them off a gravesite, in anger and dismay and callously, with great vengeance, tossed them in the nearest hide spot.

Probably an old flag from last Veterans day. I wasn't going to take a picture because sometimes people get reallyreally upset if they see an American flag crumpled. Then I chuckled to yself and thought, hey, I'm not the only one that an attach huge meaning to inanimate objects!

Contrast...the dead tree, the life trying to grow all on its own in the discarded container. Sometimes life needs nothing but it's own impetus to grow. It doesn't necessarily need anyone or anything but opportunity.

Discarded, in death springs life. Nothing's ever wasted. The end begets the beginning. The cycle of life.

See, I really am at the cemetery. I liked the perspective.

The horse chestnut trees are starting to open their leaves.

A better close-up:)

I am always grateful for the volunteers who put the flags on the veterans graves. I saw them doing it today. Our veterans are our greatest heroes.

I see lines, boundaries where most don't. I have to think and decide if it's okay, acceptable and safe before I cross any. There is a division between the grass, which I had previously deemed, acceptable to walk on and the myrtle, periwinkle coated forest floor. I still felt squimish, unsure setting foot into the myrtle.

A big, man-made concretion, of unknown origin. Looks old judging by the stones conglomerated together. Doesn't look like a house foundation or anything. Unknown.

A closer view. You can see more of the rocky substance and all the moss and plants that call it home.

Well, this was my funnest anomaly in the cemetery...a very old, rusted box spring from a bed. Ya gotta wonder how it ended up here, why no one has removed it and the story behind it:)

Just had to get a nother view:) Cool, huh?

This is a root from a tree that had started growing above ground. Poor tree. The lawn mower has run over and chopped at it dozens of times. It's formed a pretty healthy looking scab scar. The wound is actually quite beautiful and intricate. Poor tree....that had to hurt.

Whilst walking near the forest, I found this piece of very old headstone. I felt kinda sad. I'm guessing it broke apart with age and then unceremoniously got swept away by the plow truck into a pile. The snow melted and left it partially buried. Looks like trucks have driven over it. Sad

Whatssup?

A piece of birch amongst the leaves.

Strange concretion of unknown origin or use. A quiet, silent monolith to....something.

This is where the dead wreaths go. There is a metal burn bucket nearby. Note to self: if I ever place a wreath, remove and dispose of in a timely manner.

This cemetery two-track, also has a chain with little colored flags. They don't want unofficial cars driving down here.

See, the post with wire cable and makeshift flags.

I went back to that broken headstone I found. I just couldn't leave it there to be trampled and run over...so I brushed it off some and put a bunch of sticks upright in the ground so the cemetery workers would notice it. :) I feel a little less sad.

I marveled at this tree with a massive old wound. How did it manage to survive and thrive?

Absolutely amazed and astounded!!! Beautiful, magnificent!

I went for a walk today. This is what I saw and thought.
Autism= the power of one