Instructions for fitting a towbar: step 1, lower the back of the exhaust from the rear hangar, then lower the heat shield.

Turns out this actually means remove the backbox, which takes all evening...

@NickC - Noice.

Glad it was you and not me ;)

@NickC Have you considered duct tape?

@3Dave - Howdy ... oh, Dave has left the building.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Still around...

Hey Yo :o)

Looking for a lawyer to bring to first day of school this week.

Uh ... okay?

That sounds ominous?

My autistic 9 year-old needs to be held back a year. He's going into 4th grade.

... and testing at 1st grade level.

We brought this up with the ARD (basically, a committee of teachers + administrators that meets with us a few times per year to see how he's doing)

Brought it up with them toward the end of last school year. They said he was testing at a 5th grade level.

Just got the real state-wide standardized test results about two weeks ago: 1st grade.

You had him tested elsewhere?

Oh

Gotcha

The decision to hold a kid back is up to the parents, until they hit 4th grade, which he will start on Thursday.

Everytime we meet in person, it's all sunshine and unicorns.

The numbers tell a very different story.

Frustrating.

/rant

This is why I drink.

Yah, no doubt ... I completely understand. Not quite the same situation as you and your family, but we've had to deal with schools much the same since forever.

It's always different for different kids / families.

I told you my first son was born with Down Syndrome. We had to fight for quite a while to ensure he got what he needed.

That must've been insanely difficult.

I can't imagine.

Oh, I had a wife who was on it.

Well... I can imagine but it's probably like the book vs the movie.

Wow.

Well, have a wife ... same one.

Anyway, then we had our 2nd son who's only problem was he was a rambunctious young man. They would try to tell us "He needs drugs!" and we'd say, "Go screw yourself!"

ROFLMAO

Good man.

We finally took him out and home schooled him.

How did that work out?

If I had the time and resources, I'd either home school him or go private.

Not really feasible, unfortunately.

Pretty well. Again, I have a wife who was "on it". She took care of it and I just paid the bills, lol.

Cool.

It would be a lot harder with an Autistic child, I have no doubt about it.

I'm not sure about that. How hard it is really comes down to (I think, but have a sample size of 1 to work with) the kid and your respective (parent, teacher etc) patience levels.

Wyatt is a great kid. 80% of the time.

Having a 33yo child myself with special needs, we've met a lot of people through the years who have children with special needs as well. A lot of them with DS, but so many other things going on, too. I know Autism has to be one of the toughest.

Is he higher functioning?

I think I asked you that before.

Sure.

And you said he was.

If you spent 30 minutes with him, you'd learn a lot about Minecraft. But, he's mostly "normal."

Until he gets stressed.

I'd argue that Down's is significantly harder, at least on the parents. But, again, I'm not an expert. Just peripheral experience with it.

It's the other 20% which makes it a challenge. All you can do is love him and try to keep the stressers away from him (especially if you know the triggers).

Anyway, cheers. Sometimes I look at the other parents with neurotypical kids and think, "Oh, sure. Go ahead and gloat. I'm judging you silently."

@3Dave - I know Down's isn't harder.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Ok - like I said, I have very limited experience there. Sorry if I was offensive.

Think of this one ... I once met a family who had a Down's child with Autism!

Ouch.

I'm imagining ways that could be worse, and none of them are pretty. "Worse" being harder on parents and kid.

@3Dave - You weren't anywhere close to offensive. I was just trying to tell you I know you've got challenges before you ... a lot of stuff we never had to worry about.

Thanks - I appreciate the support.

No worries. I learned a lot time ago, understanding goes a long ways.

My dad insists on treating him like all the other grandkids, which doesn't work. You can't convince someone to not have a neurological disorder.

And I do understand some of the challenges you face ... but really, it's tough.

@3Dave - that's one of the toughest ones there ... argh.

I understand his reasonings, but ouch.

... so they don't see him much. Fortunately, wife's parents are awesome and involved. Sometimes too much.

I've gotten over it.

lol

Tough for everyone; few get a free pass with perfect kids and a Donna Reed experience.

sorry, I get it.

But she was hot.

:)

Who, Donna Reed?

Or ... ahem ... someone else?

(Mo-n-law ... LOL!)

Image not found ...

:) no hot-linking apparently.

lol

wik.

wiki

oh, well.

ARGH!

HAHA

Speaking of off-topic.

There you go!

Yep, that's it.

Yes, very beautiful :)

I redact "hot" and insert "pretty."

... pretty sexist of me, anyway.

I get it.

Is that actually the same person?

Nope

Garbo?

There's a lot of women from that era in film who I thought were extremely attractive!

hepburn

dammit

Third guess was a charm!

I'll leave it there, but yes, awesome women

Awesome Actresses

I win.

I haven't a clue

I'm sure CiCi would have a field day with this.

Grace Kelley.

But, again, beautiful.

yes

Okay - have to go solve the battle of the GPU lanes.

I should have just hovered over the image and saw the URL, lol

Funny race condition reboots my machine every time I run the program.

@3Dave - That's because you're the man!

Literally. Run: wait 2s... black screen.

Get 'er done!

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Yeah. I've been bumped up the chain to the point where every problem with which I am presented is freaking impossible.

I miss tech support.

Obviously you're running code which really wasn't supposed to be running

You could accidentally hang up.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Right?

lol

I "know" what the issue is. But, the debug tools for GPU stuff are really, really terrible.

I have a question for you when you're not battling the Black Screen of Death.

Debugging is more like slightly-educated guessing.

Sure, whadya got?

Nay ... go take care of your issue.

It'll wait.

Ok.

:o)

Feel free to email or whatever. I tend to check it at 3AM.

ROFL!

ttyl.

Laters, Bro.