The Brookston Family Blog
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Porter returned to school today after a week of Spring Break that included a whirlwind weekend road trip tp Southern California, a Wiggles concert, and much ice cream, popsicles and playing trains in his room. Needless to say, he was not thrilled about going back to school. I think this photo captures his melancholy about his return to the rigors of academic life.

I knew I’d get some reflection, but I didn’t count on the artistic nature of the photo. By artistic, of course, I mean crap.

To say Porter had a terrific time at the Wiggles concert is an understatement. We had great seats in the 16th row on the floor. They showed Wiggles videos on the giant screens before the show, which helped Porter get in the mood for the concert. Once it started, he had a big grin on his face that over the hour and a half of the show turned to out and out wild abandon as Porter took to the dance floor. If there had been a mosh pit, he would have been in it. He’s sleeping it off right now, but I suspect we’ll be watching Wiggles videos when he wakes up.

The three of in front of the stage before the show.

The Wiggles in concert at the Oakland Arena.

Sarah and Porter at the concert.

Here’s a Quicktime movie of Porter dancing at the Wiggles concert. You can either download the movie to your desktop or just click on the link to play it in your web browser (assuming your web browser has the quicktime plug-in installed).

I can’t imagine a more surreal experience than the one we’re about to have. We’re taking Porter to see his beloved Wiggles live and in concert at the Oakland Arena this afternoon. I hope we get out alive.

Porter had his second trip to the dentist this afternoon. The first visit, about six months ago, didn’t go so well. Not only did he kick and scream about it, we also discovered his jaw was misaligned most likely due to the binky pacifier. He’s been off the pacificer since that first visit and we’ve been brushing his teeth and flossing for the past six month so we were hopeful there would be good news this trip but we still weren’t hopeful that his behavior would be improved.

Turns out he had no cavities and his teeth were so clean that the dentist didn’t even need to do a teeth cleaning there. The jaw is still misaligned but there has been some improvement as his notes indicate six months ago his front teeth on the top and bottom couldn’t meet when he closed his mouth whereas now they can, which is great news. And although Porter was clearly not happy about it, he did let the dentist examine his teeth with only a minimum of fussing. All in all, a great result.

These are the stickers Porter got at the dentist today.

April is National Autism Awareness Month

California Cases Declining

According to information released Monday, April 11, by the California Department of Developmental Services, the First Quarter of 2005 (1/4/05 to 4/4/05) produced the smallest number of new cases of professionally diagnosed DSM IV full syndrome autism of any first quarter reporting period since the year 2001. (736 new cases.) California’s autism epidemic is the fastest growing disability in California’s system. Today, California is adding on average eight new children a day, seven days a week, with professionally diagnosed DSM IV full syndrome autism to its system. 80%, or 8 out of 10, of all persons with autism in California’s system are between the ages of 3 and 17 years old. The staggering tidal wave of young children is unique to the autism population and is not evident in any other eligible disability except autism.

Controversial New Book About the Mercury/Autism Link

A new book by David Kirby, entitled Evidence of Harm, Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy. The book has not yet been published, but the introduction, resource list, and other information about it are on the book’s website. According to the website, the book discusses the following:

Evidence of Harm explores both sides of this controversy, which has pitted families and their allies against the federal government, public health agencies, and powerful pharmaceutical giants.

It examines:

• Story of Thimerosal: a mercury-based additive approved by the FDA in the 1930’s as a vaccine preservative and never subsequently tested by the Agency
• Increase in reported autism cases and apparent parallel to the increase in number and frequency of Thimerosal-containing vaccinations
• Private meeting at which FDA, CDC, medical and pharmaceutical company representatives discussed data on neurological childhood disorders related to mercury in vaccines
• Mysterious rider to the 2002 Homeland Security bill which would free drug companies of liability in lawsuits regarding Thimerosal
• State and federal lawsuits filed by families against the drug makers seeking compensation for the lifelong care of their ill children
• New biological research indicating a link between exposure and neurological disorders

Okay, remember how I wrote that we looked at a number of websites devoted to spotting wildflowers? Well, one of the better looking ones, the Desert Wildflower Watch, in their Southern California section, had a picture posted on April 4 that was absolutely stunning. This was exactly what I was looking for to photograph. When I couldn’t sleep Sunday night, I started looking through the websites (I had printed them out before we left) and thought I’d try to see how close this spot was to where we were. It was listed as being near the Carrizo Plain but I couldn’t find any information about where that was at first.

Turns out it’s just over the border from where we were in Kern County into San Luis Obispo County to our west and it appeared that we’d go right past it as we headed back north on Interstate 5. When I say appeared, I couldn’t say for sure because our AAA map ended just before the pertinent data I needed to say for sure where and how far away it was. Monday morning, before we headed to the Reserve, we stopped by the local AAA office and got a map that included the area we needed. Then I put it in the car and off we went for the day.

After we were done in the Lancaster area, we headed north. This was around 2:30 or 3 p.m. Somewhere in that range. We were making good time. We talked about trying to find the valley in the picture and discussed whether or not we should do so. At this point, I still had not looked at the map but I was also getting sleepy. All I knew for sure was that we needed to take the Buttonwillow exit off of Interstate 5 and take Route 58 west toward the Carrizo Plain.

Sarah happily consented to drive after we made a pit stop in Buttonwillow since my lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. We used the bathrooms, ate a little and filled up the car, a decision which we’d later be extremely pleased we’d made. I even got Porter some ice cream as a treat for doing so well on the road trip (he kept saying, “good job, road trip” throughout the two days we were driving). That decision, it turned out later, was not a good one although in my defense there were mitigating circumstances.

So I crawled in the back with Sarah at the wheel as we headed into the setting sun along Route 58 west. And now, for the first time, I took a good look at the map. It appeared that it was about 42 miles until we would turn off of Route 58 and onto Elkhorn Road. From Elkhorn, I knew it was nine miles, but beyond that I wasn’t sure. I echoed my concerns immediately saying that “I despaired that it was farther than I orginally thought” and offered that we could consider abandoning the side trip if we wanted to. We passed a sign that declared rather ominously, “No Gas for the Next 70 Miles.” Sarah, who much later admitted that she believed it wasn’t very far off of the interstate, was now on a mission.

The road out of Buttonwillow was steep and very windy in parts. At the summit, we were over 3,200 feet above sea level. And the road just kept on going. At one point, just after the summit, the road opened up into a valley where cows lazily grazed and we shot the last picture in the last post from the side of the road. We parked next to another photographer who had also stopped to shoot the picturesque hillside of purple and yellow. She was the last human being that we’d see for many hours.

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally found Elkhorn Road. We almost missed it because we actually had to turn onto the imaginatively named 7-mile Road first and turn left onto Elkhorn Road after a few hundred yards. Though, to be fair, calling Elkhorn a road is far grander than it deserves. It may have been paved at one time, but the ravages of time and neglect have made it little better than a dirt and gravel path cutting a swath parallel to the hills to the east on what must have been the north end of the Carrizo Plain. To say the area was remote is to engage in gross understatement. I’ve been on stretchs of the Appalachian Trail less remote than this. There were signs of human activity, of course. Fences were there, partitioning the grazing land and the ocassional cattle gate greeted us with momentary vibrations. An abandoned car and RV dotted the landscape. And there were the cows.

Along the road to nowhere.

We watched the odometer spin as the nine miles bounced by, with still nothing to see. We were defintely on a plain, with mountains to our east and west and pretty much nothing in between. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see dinosaurs in this lost world. We passed the nine mile marker but still didn’t see the steep road off to the left beyind a cattle gate we were promised at mile nine. In between mile 10 and 11, we came upon it amidst a number of obstinate cows who were blocking our path. Luckily, they ambled out of our way as we drove up to the last partially flat spot where turning around wouldn’t entail the possibility of ending up on the news, the object lesson in a rescue effort. I’m not sure when we lost cellphone service, but were keenly aware that we were on our own now.

Sarah, who at this point seemed very determined to reach our destination went on a reconnaissance mission to see if the car could make it up the steep incline. She disappeared over the horizon and was gone for what seemed like a long time before we watched her slip back down the slope, breaking her Tevas in the process. The report came back that no, we could only continue on foot. There were skid marks where previous cars had attempted the slope and it’s not like we had an all-terrain jeep or something like that. We had a station wagon. With kids in it. No way were driving up the mountain.

Sarah, just before she disappeared over the horizon
(she’s that white speck at the top of the hill).

After she came back down, I went up, not wanting to have the effort come completely to naught. The altitude was very noticeable, and I was breathing heavily as I crested the spot where Sarah had disappeared. Thinking, or perhaps hoping, that I’d see the valley that had become our Grail once over the crest I was quite disappointed to discover that there were three more summits to be climbed that I could see, and perhaps even more, who knows. Well, Frank’s post in the Wildflower Watch estimated that the distance to the summit from the gate was half a mile, at least half of which we’d already driven, meaning it should have been only a quarter of a mile walk to the top. Well, I don’t know Frank and he may be the nicest person on the planet, but he doesn’t know shit about estimating distances. That much I know for sure. Of course being 46 and out-of-shape may also have been an impediment, but either way, there was no way I was going to make it up to the top and back again and live. Man, but this just felt so remote. It was weird.

This is as far as I got, looking back down the hill from the second summit.

Also, we could tell that the wildflowers that had been at their peak the week before, when Frank had taken his now legendary photo, had packed up for the year. There were some yellow and white clusters of wildflowers but nothing like the profusion that had been there the previous weekend. And that’s just the nature of the beast.

Coming back down the hill with the last remants of sunlight illuminating what remained of this season’s wildflowers.

We got back in the car, a little disappointed but still excited by the adventure of it all, and headed back Elkhorn Road. The cows were again blocking our path but this time seemed determined to stand their ground. Sarah laid on the horn and, happily, they scattered. We were beginning to lose the light but made it back to paved road before darkness enveloped the area. It would still be another hour before we actually saw another human being. We saw lots of evidence of people there (houses, roads, fences, etc.) but we had no actual sightings for quite awhile. We continued west because it seemed shorter than backtracking and picked up Highway 101 in Santa Margarita, a little north of San Luis Obispo. The road was still winding a lot and Porter barfed all over himself and we had to pull over and clean him up. Sure, the ice cream was a factor but the two peanut butter and jelly sanwiches that Sarah gave him didn’t help, either. By this time it was dark and a sliver of a moon was high in the sky. We may not have found our quarry, but the adventure was the thing and I think Sarah and I both caught the wildflower bug this weekend. Next time, though, we’ll need a different car.

We discovered a number of websites while doing research for our trip that monitor the wildflowers areas and report on where the good spots are. There was a wealth of information at these sites and we followed a few of their suggestions to view the wildflowers outside the state park.

Along 110th Street between Avenue J and Avenue K.

Along 140th Street, north of Avenue D (Route 138).

Along 150th Street, north of Avenue D (Route 138). Sarah in a grove of Joshua Trees. This was probably the highlight of the trip. Along the street is a fairly large grove of Joshua Trees surrounded by goldfields, which make it look like a carpet of yellow. At other times of the year, I imagine this place is just a dump, because there is trash dumped all over the place from refrigerators and sofas to shotgun shell casings. Luckily, the goldfields cover most of the trash. The place feels like nature’s cathedral and it had an otherworldy feel to it. It was just breathtaking.

A hill of yellow and purple along Route 58 on our way to the Road to Nowhere.

Well, I woke at 3 a.m. with a sore throat and chills and couldn’t get back to sleep. Aaargh. I’m so sick and tired of being sick and tired! Anyway, we got a later start than I would have liked but we got to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve around 10:30 in the morning and had a very pleasant few hours hiking around and looking at and photographing the wildflowers. Porter wasn’t in the best of moods but we muddled through.

Sarah and Porter at the Visitor’s Center

Porter was not in a mood to walk so I carried him part of the way up to the summit.

The view from the summit.

Down in the valley (the one you can see in the previous picture). Acton Daisies (yellow), Owl’s Clover (purple) and California Poppies (orange).

Porter entertained finally by the footbridge in the valley.

Alice discovered she has a taste for dirt. Yum.

Several years ago, when we were living in Oakland, I discovered a little-known California Impressionist artist by the name of Granville Redmond. The Oakland Museum has a few of his pieces and they did a retrospective of him a few years ago, from which they produced a pretty cool book of his works. He was active in the early part of last century and like many California impressionists painted impressive fields of wildflowers and especially poppies. We have a print of his hanging above the fireplace called Land of Poppies.

Anyway, that got me very interested in seeing these fields of wildflowers but it’s something we never quite found the time to pursue. Well lately, there have been several newspapers articles extolling the wildflowers this year in Southern California because of all the rain they received this winter. The best times are usually mid-March through the end of April but it seemed like every weekend something came up that kept us from heading south. Finally, we gave up and decided a short whirlwind overnighter was better than missing it entirely, so that’s what we did. We loaded up the station wagon Sunday morning and drove all day to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster, California, which is where Edwards Air Force Base is located.

With all four of us, plus Sarah’s Mom Ruthanne, we arrived in Lancaster around six in the evening, a little less than an hour and a half before sunset. It was very windy and the poppies had already closed up for the night. We checked into a hotel for the evening in the hopes of getting an early start the next day before driving back home Monday evening.

Porter on the trail Sunday evening.

Porter finds a caterpillar.

Porter, who was looking a little shaggy these days, had his hair cut this afternoon. Usually, it’s a very traumatic experience for Porter and us, which is why we generally wait as long as possible between trimmings. Porter seems to hate anything to do with his head: hats, hair washing, and especially haircuts. Today was still traumatic, but it did go much better than the previous couple of times.

Porter’s new haircut.

Sarah found out about a really cool thing in Marin County called Halleck Creek Ranch. It’s run by the local 4H Club. They run a free program for handicapped kids and kids with other disorders, such as autism. The kids get to take an hour-long ride on a horse through some beautiful Marin coutryside. Every week, they have three sessions. Today we took Porter for orientation. We learned about the program and formally applied to participate. Then we watched the afternoon session so we could see how it worked. Porter was chomping at the bit (pun intended) to ride a horse and was mightily upset when he realized he wasn’t going to be able to this week. Sarah found out about the program from the mother of Ryan, a new kid in Porter’s class, and they were there today, as well. Except for the tantrum at the end, Porter (and Alice) had a great time being outside (it was a beautiful day) and watching the horses.

Sarah told Porter he couldn’t ride the horses unless he wore a helmet. Apparently his desire to ride was greater than his general aversion to headgear because he wore this hat for at least half an hour.

Alice enjoyed being in the sun and fresh air today.

Porter’s still sleeping on the floor but today he built a simple train layout that rings his makeshift bed. We tried to take it apart so he could go to sleep tonight but he started to throw a fit, so we put his pillows over the track on one side of the layout.

Porter, most likely having train dreams.

Our first experiment with cloth diapers was performed this evening. Since we were putting Alice to bed, we doubled her up diaper to last the night. Well, boy are they puffy. Our baby got back.

Our own little A. Lo is modeling a stretch wool Stacinator cover in teal over one of Crickett’s hemp diapers with a snap-in doubler.

p.s. Sarah says to make sure to check out Babies in the Sun for the latest in cloth diapering fashions. They’ve come a long way since the plain cotton ones Sarah’s mom used!

Sarah’s been feeding her creative impulses lately by trading craft projects with friends on the message board she’s active on. They pick a project semi-regularly and then each does one and sends it to another person. This time their assignment was to do a matchbox shrine, which is an old-fashioned box of matches redone with some theme in mind like a miniature work of art. Apparently, they’re not uncommon.

Sarah’s was entitled Cowgirl Dreams and featured a quote by Dale Evans on the back. Those metal objects hanging down below the box are brass balls because, according to Sarah, a cowgirl’s going to need those in a man’s world.

Sarah’s artistic flair.

One of Alice’s favorite new things to do is cruise over to the CD rack and start pulling out discs. Porter liked this game once, as well. I, on the other hand, hate it. I’m more than a little bit anal-retentive about my CDs. Think Daniel Stern’s character in the movie Diner, trying to get his new wife to understand the importance of keeping his record albums in alphabetical order. That’s me. Well kids have a way of upsetting that sense of order in a big way.

On a side note, as I mentioned Porter used to clear entire rows of CDs off the shelf when we lived in Oakland. In an ironic twist, now he’s become the protector of the discs. Defender of the Realm. Anytime Alice starts for the CD rack, he tries to stop her from pulling them down off the shelf. Cries of “no, baby” can be heard as he attempts to keep her at bay. If she does manage to pull some out, he gently pushes her away and then starts putting them back all by himself. It’s so cute to watch. His first spontaneous act of cleaning up after his sister. I’ve watched him do it several times now, so it’s no fluke. He doesn’t always get them back in the right spot and occasionally they even end up jammed in sideways. But he always gets them off the floor. My hero. Next, we’ll have to start working on his alphabetization skills.

At least she has good taste. That’s Aaron Copland’s 3rd Symphony by the NY Phil., conducted by my boy Lenny Bernstein she’s got in her hands.