We kept on hoping he'd outgrow it.

I've been really busy lately, with the webcomic, the Six Sigma Black Belt training, the project, the interviews, the reviews....my job, my life, Brian starting college....

But today I'm especially tickled.

Eric no longer looks like Popeye.

For months...maybe years....Eric's been keeping one eye closed. No reason why. Just an autistic fixation. Only begging would make him relent---momentarily...

I had almost gotten used to it.

Today Barb said,

"Look at Eric. I'm not going to say more than that. I'll jinx it."

Yeppers, both of them were open.

Why?

Who knows.

He can't tell us.

We're just...grateful.

Brian's in college. The tuition is paid for this semester. We have the money for the second semester in reserve.

He's been making money at his own job. It turns out he's a dynamite salesman. He's making house calls, selling knives for a company, and moved over sixty thousand dolllars worth of merchandise in sixteen days.

His grandfather was a salesman.

His great-grandfather was a salesman.

I guess blood will tell.<

Oh, and he and a friend drove back---from California---in my mother's car this summer. Yep, visions of a sex-reversed THEMLA AND LOUISE ran through my head.

But all seems to be working out, for now.

He also did some work with his church group in Mexico without causing a major international incident.

He's grown about half a decade in half a year. He has a car, a job, in college, thinking about moving someplace---like on campus---next semester. He's going to buy his own laptop, with his own money.

We trust him. But it's odd to consider he's now a legal adult...

It's been one of the mildest August in memory.

The Swift Boat veterens have been shown repeatedly to be liars and/or having vested interests in Republican bigwigs.

And now Eric has decided to open both his eyes---

With his long eyelashes---

With his dark, brown, eyes that you can fall into.

He's back in school.

Maybe he's trying to impress some girl.

Something opened his eyes, anyway.

I wish he could talk and tell me...

But I'm just glad my son doesn't look like Popeye...

Popeye with autism.

Now that's an eye-opening image.