What do you mean by that?

Today it occurred to me that the word "handicapped" does not mean what I think it does. Question 1 when people see my daughter is what is wrong with your daughter, to which the answer is autism makes her different, I am not sure there is anything wrong with her. Question 2 is What is autism or how does it make her different, to which I have to say I have no idea. To me she seems so normal.
One of my dear daughter's friends, S., was patiently explaining to me that a certain young man on their bus was disruptive and annoying because he, "you know", does not have language. Today Dear Daughter was telling me about another of the students at school - a girl named C. "She is like K.", says DD, "no language". For S. and DD having no language is no more peculiar than being left-handed. One of the sidecar drivers in Brno wheels himself in a wheelchair when he is not driving his sidecar. He won the race, so I would not say that the limited use of his legs is in anyway a handicap. If he cannot walk, is he handicapped? What does it really mean to be handicapped? Do physical or psychological impairments constitute a handicap, or is a handicap how you deal with the cards you are dealt in life?
So, DD reads this over my shoulder and asks "am I handicapped" and I have to say "I do not know. Do you feel handicapped?"

Her Birthday

Truth be told, I would have paid for a birthday party anywhere for my little angel. She wanted to celebrate at the Farm (Jens raises rainbow trout). I was quite touched. Here is a wretched picture of her little classmates and her teachers from the walk we took in the forest. I took some video and gave her the still camera. She apparently thought taking pictures of mushrooms was more fun than taking pictures of people. All a matter of taste, I guess.

Two wheels

When I paid for parking at the AMK/IHRO raceday event, the man gave me to fives as change. "Two wheels" he said. It was quite appropriate!

a beautiful day at the races

Here he is with Bjarne, Helen, and Bent Møller.
On the 20th and 21st Jens participated in sidecar races for the first time in a decade. He was graciously invited by Bjarne Karlsson, the current Swedish champion, to ride as the sandbag (I kid you not - that is the technical word). They won both days, but it would have be fabulous even if they had just finished. Jens was Danish champion in 1986, and I had never seen him ride. This weekend completed the experience for me. Nobody seemed to be in the race to win. It seemed to be much more important to have a good time and to come home in one piece. True, you can only fall about 2 inches from a side car, but at 80mph, that can be far enough.

Nifty disguise.