Hello

Hello again, folks.  I hope you are all okay.

Tom xx

  • Hi Tom,

    You have been greatly missed.

    Slight smile

  • Thank you for your extremely kind and reassuring words, Deepthought.  I always put great store by what you have to say, and have always thought that your forum name is very appropriate!  So I value those words.

    It's true it's been a difficult year.  Getting back into work has settled me a bit and gotten me out of the habit of drinking too much - something that usually fuels my behavioural extremes, low moods and paranoia.  In another sense, though, it's unsettled me.  I had to get a car because of the traveling, and I've never liked owning a car.  It's having to have some repairs at the moment (I'm off on annual leave this week), and it's the uncertainty that I hate.  Will it be a small job or a major job?  It's already swallowed a chunk of my savings, and I want to have something in reserve.  I may actually look at going back to where I worked before - if I can negotiate with them to do day services only.  It's nearby, and I was relatively happy there.  Having said that, I like only needing to work four days.  On balance, I think I'd sooner have the security of not needing a car for work, though.  The people I'm working with now are mainly at the extremely challenging end of the scale, too, so sometimes there isn't much I can do with them, and there's often very little interaction.

    Christmas is coming, and I've told everyone I'm not 'doing it' this year.  I hope they can all understand.  I met with my brother yesterday to scatter mum's ashes.  We were both civil, chit-chatting about common things, but I knew he felt as uncomfortable as I did.  He couldn't wait to get away when we'd finished.  I'll maintain a connection with him, but I doubt we'll have much more to do with one another.  I don't really know him now.  And I've no desire to see his wife or her daughter again.  I met up with his natural daughter last night for a drink to toast mum.  He wouldn't be happy if he knew we were on good terms and were meeting each other.  He's turned against her - but he's been turned against her by the wife.  It's very sad.  She's living with it all and trying to let it go, but I can guess how hard it must be - to basically be rejected by your own father.  They always had such a good relationship - up until the second wife came on the scene.

    The book is the longest document I've ever written, at 140k words.  I printed it out and it took an entire ream of paper!  I'm going to set to and read through it this week, I've decided.  I think enough time has passed for me to percolate some of the feelings I've expressed in it.

    I'll keep my eye on the forums.  Thanks again.

    Best regards,

    Tom

  • Martian Tom said:

    I'm sorry to you all for my behaviour in the past.

    I really hope you do not mind me being all big and challenging and all that; only your 'behaviour in the past' is why not only I, but also why so many people like your threads and posts, appreciate your insights, respect the work you do, and I really could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about why you are such an amazing inspiration here.

    And ~ the absolute and infinite only knows how many freaked out, scared witless and emotionally fragged and mucked up people have benefited from your caring and compassionate assistance here also.

    Martian Tom said:

    I was being rather silly.

    Needing to take some time out and process the mega-wound you got dealt and do all that you needed to do is so not being rather silly ~ rather responsible actually.

    Martian Tom said:

    I'm okay now.

    That is good to read.

    Martian Tom said:

    Settled into my new job. 

    Getting into a reliable and responsible routine is the bedrock of bedrocks in my Aspergenically biased opinion, nice one.

    Martian Tom said:

    Finished the first draft of my book.

    Congratulations, of the major variety, first draft stage is such an achievement, and going on your account of things so far with your threads and posts here ~ I am under the impression that the final draft would be a very good and worthwhile read. There is a lot I can identify with, some of which quite directly, and the indirect stuff I can also relate with quite readily also.  

  • I trust your cat is an avid campaigner for colour therapy ~ or else did you have to sweep the hair salon professional up afterwards? Smirk cat

  • Thanks, Lonewarrior.  Mixed thoughts, yes!  One thing I'm always certain about is my ambivalence! Slight smile

  • I'm sorry to you all for my behaviour in the past.  I was being rather silly.

    I'm okay now.  Settled into my new job.  Finished the first draft of my book.

    It's an odd time for me at the moment.  It's mum's birthday on Tuesday, and my brother and I are meeting up (first time since the funeral in May) to scatter her ashes.  I'm not looking forward to it.  We've maintained friendly terms with the occasional text, and he always seems conciliatory towards me.  Or maybe it's just that he feels, as a blood brother, that he needs to be.  Maybe he feels guilt about a few things.  I do, too - but then guilt is a constant with me - even if there's nothing to feel guilty about.  I think he knows, without my saying anything outright, that I no longer have any desire to see his wife again.  She has been the source of so much damage over the years.  She's been a very divisive presence in our lives.  Personally, I feel that my brother struggles with his loyalty to her and to his own natural family.  As a friend of mine put it, it isn't necessarily his fault.  He's basically been Stockholmed.  I've said some things in the book, such that if it ever got published and he was to read it, it would finish our relationship.  I've been balanced towards him, I think.  But not towards her.  And I make it clear that I think he's been brainwashed (though I put it with far more subtlety than that, of course).  I don't want to hurt him, really, because I truly think he suffers.  But I can't not speak the truth as I see it.  His natural daughter has suffered greatly because of the breakdown in her relationship with him over the years.  His wife doesn't have a single kind word to say for her.  Whereas my brother's step-daughter is the golden one who can do no wrong.  My niece told me that when she was still a child, she'd go to stay with my brother and his wife every other weekend - and she was always made to feel inferior by her.  The other one was always favoured.  She hated it.  And now, 25 years later, she is quite messed up by it all.  It's tragic.  But it happens so much, I suppose.

    The other thing I'm not looking forward to, of course, is the anniversary itself.  Just recently, I've begun to feel the loss of mum much stronger.  I keep a vigil every Wednesday evening for her (the day she passed).  Last Sunday was 200 days.  And, very strangely, at 3.22 am on her birthday, it will be 5,000 hours.  I hope to keep a small amount of the ashes, which I thought I might have made into a piece of jewellery or an ornament.  There's a company that offers such a service.  I still feel her presence around me, and I feel guided by her.  It gives me a sense of security, and the fortitude to go on.  But I struggle, too.  There's only me now.  I have that self-reliance that is part of the 'gift' of my autism.  But I nonetheless feel adrift in the world sometimes.  I feel exhausted a lot of the time - another legacy of autism, with the difficulties I've had throughout life.  I think life takes a bigger toll on people like us.  We have more challenges to overcome.  In dark moments, I wonder what it's all been for.  Why have I survived like this?  For what purpose?  But I still do feel there's a purpose.  This book has been very important, and will continue to be important - to me, if not to anyone else.  It's a story of struggle and acceptance.  And, most of all, love.  I'm glad I was here to write it.  It's a testament - both to her life, and to mine.

  • Hi tom,mixed thoughts!as ever Lol. We all missed you very much so a sadness of loss, but we know if your not here then things must be kind of ok,so a feeling of happiness,

    so much to say,lots to tell,

    for now welcome home,well here and pop in whenever you feel like it.

    nonpressure to unload just be yourself.

    ()

  • Thanks, Deepthought.  It was a combination!

  • Thanks, oktanol.  I'll try to be a little more temperate this time. Slight smile

  • Greetings again, Martian Tom,

    About the amazing avatar image ~ did you, the cat or a hair salon professional use permanent or temporary colours? Smile cat

  • Hi Tom, nice to see you around again! Hope that's a good sign?