Prelude to the end of my winter hibernation!

Hello everyone!

It's been quite a while since I've haunted the forums, but I saw a post or two that elicited a twinge of missing the place, so I thought I'd pop my head out from under my duvet (or possibly from somewhere rather more apocryphal!) So, hello again and best wishes to all, whether new or familiar faces! 

So what's with the disappearing act then?

Well, several things. For one, my usual winter hibernation; where on the rare occasions that being awake coincides with the sun being up, I sneak a cautious peek out of the curtains and just think; "Boo; no pretty flowers and green things - sod it, I'm going back to bed!". For two, my trusty old computer finally ran out of magic smoke and departed for silicon heaven (it was nearly a decade old, so I can't really complain - I guess computers must age in "dog years"!) For three; just needing a break in general - when I'm regularly on the forum, I tend to get a bit obsessive about it, and I get a bit burned out from 90% of my interaction with other people being all about the subject of autism after a while. An escape into some good books and tinkering with my Lego was required to restore the balance a little bit.

I also had a rather unexpected reunion with my family whom, for reasons which I have never quite been able to explain, I sporadically lose contact with for months or years at a time. I was putting the bins out one day when someone called me from a car that I didn't recognise - it took me a moment to realise that the voice was so familiar because it was my brother (not quite as bizarre as the time my boss at work had me ID him through a cubicle window because his far-fetched stories about a "long-lost brother" made her suspect that he might be a stalker!) Subsequently, I had a visit from my Mum and step-dad a couple of weeks later.

Oddly, the conversation with my brother was probably the longest and deepest that we've ever had in the nearly half-century that we've known each other. I've mentioned here before that I had strong suspicions that I'm not the only Aspie in the family, and apparently, I was more correct in this than I had imagined. It seems that there are at least three generations of us, and it was a stark reminder of how deceptive "masking" can be that I hadn't had the least suspicion myself about a couple of quite close relatives.

I'm not going to make any promises this time about using the forum only in moderation or never disappearing again - I know full well that I'm only trying to fool myself, not you! So you may see me around a bit more, or maybe not; time will tell.

Best wishes,

Trog.