Day 181 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

It is Saturday – Road Trip! I was trying to catch up with work, the paying kind, the volunteer kind and the home kind, so I remained in Glendale. But the intrepid Regina drove over the Grapevine to spend time with Grayson.

She picked him up and they headed off to lunch at Sonic – a cheeseburger, Tater Tots and a peach shake (makes me hungry writing about it!) After lunch, there were errands that needed running, the first being a car wash. At this time of year, there seem to be enormous quantities of bugs in the air, and that translates directly to the windshield, especially as you pass through the farm country of the Southern San Joaquin Valley.

After the car wash, Regina and Grayson headed to Williams-Sonoma to return an item. After leaving the store, they wandered around the outdoor mall in the 90 degree spring heat for a while, soaking up some sun and having some quiet conversation. Well, Regina spoke and Grayson gave a few one and two word answers.

The next stop was McDonalds, where Regina and Grayson purchased a snack, and Regina brought out her laptop. She fired it up, and shared our photographs of yesterday's commencement exercises at USC. Grayson was quite interested, recognizing the places and many of the people. Regina said that it was wonderful to share that experience with him, especially since he couldn't be with us at that very familiar place on Austin's special day.

After Grayson tired of viewing pictures, they returned to the park by the residence and listened to music of Grayson's choosing for a while. Grayson was very quiet today. He spoke little, and was not very interactive. Perhaps this is yet another phase that we are passing through, but it is a bit uncomfortable.

After the music stop, they went back into the residence. There Grayson did his chores (sweep and mop the kitchen floor) before having a light dinner. Regina had brought along his high school graduation quilt, a loving milestone tradition started at our church with Grayson's graduating class in 2004. Grayson spent a long time looking at the quilt this afternoon and telling his residential assistant (RA) about each square. When Regina asked him if he wanted her to fold it up or leave it on his bed, he said to fold it up and take it home. Regina asked him why, and his response was, "Keep it safe."

Grayson had an outing tonight, so after this he walked to "transportation" to hop a bus for another comedy improv show. Regina waved good-bye as he headed off to see the show.

Another good day.

Pax!

Brant