Sunday, May 1, 2011

Yacht's, Cook Off's, Markets and Diving

Isolation has not been an issue this weekend.  It has been quite a full weekend and we did do it all.
Below, John shares his fossil bed site for The Shark Tooth Guy collections.

The Shark Tooth Guy, aka John, set up shop yesterday for the last day of the season for The Market at 6000 Goodlette.  Organizer Lesley does a terrific job managing this art and farmer's market.  It has been a wonderful venue for introducing The Shark Tooth Guy to Naples and many seasonal folk.  We are hoping to grow even more in the next year.  John took the kayak out again today to dive about 1 mile offshore in hopes of building our inventory.  Our first prehistoric horse foot rests on my table now.

 The boys, my mom and I had the opportunity to board Lady Serenity yesterday as Freedom Waters Foundation (FWF) hosted The Division of Blind Services.  It was the perfect day to be out yachting around Naples and the volunteers on board catered to each of us.  I do wish more than one other family had taken FWF up on this gift.  I understand the challenges of pulling together a special needs family for any outing, let alone one that requires extra preparation.  However, it is also an opportunity to enjoy our families and ourselves we rarely get the time to appreciate.

After our lovely outing, I dropped my mother and boys off at home.  Riley is quite a handful, I am asking a lot of my mom to do this for an hour.  She does this happily when she is available however.  Strangely, we do regularly find another body helping when we return home.  This is not a problem... yet I do need to establish why this happens.  Does this happen because my mother immediately seeks help for handling Riley?  Or does this happen because she takes the opportunity to visit with the other person.  Should it in fact be the case that this happens for help then I should no longer seek for my mom to be alone with Riley for any length of time at all.  If it happens for company... then I should be alright with it and know that my mother just likes to visit.  Which it is I may never really know.

My next stop, Rodes Fish House for the Chili Cook Off.  John had brought my entry to the bar right after he finished with the market.  His very rare appearance in a bar did not appear to make him the least uncomfortable.  The bartender was somehow under the impression that the lovely young woman seated next to John was his wife and had added her to John's tab.  When I appeared the very confused bartender had such a laugh, hmmm - how insulted should I be - I'm actually not so no worries - John ended the afternoon with a tab of $1.  I really missed something good.  I had a lovely and very much appreciated surprise that my emails and FB posts produced four people to come vote and enjoy the event with us.  Unexpectedly, my bar appearances being quite rare, I was even recognized by another patron as "Kathleen's daughter... Ronan's mom."  He turned out to be Todd the tennis pro from my mom's club, quite out of his usual buttoned down appearance with the chili entry right next to mine.  How fun was that that he could place me so far away.  I wish I was so good at placing people.  It can be a small world.  I did not win... my chili had the great offense of containing beans... but it was fun.

Now for Sunday, it is a day to recover because all that activity is like taking from Riley's bank.  A little extra coddling for Riley and stretching and he can handle it are in order before launching into the week of school and therapy.  Ronan is also quite anxious that I learn to play chess with him.  We will stay home, our day will be full enough.

So dear readers... I am loving that you have found my strange little niche blog from Russia, Denmark, U.K, and even Saudi Arabia among others.  Are you all special needs families as well?  You are more than welcome to tell us about your day.  I, among others, would enjoy hearing about it!  

Quite the rambler today.  Enjoy your Sunday!  Stacie Wiesenbaugh

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