Meltdown

Hi everybody!   It seems we’ve been here before.  I remember saying once or twice that these things just don’t happen to other people!  You’re going to love this one!

I was on break in Fairbanks again this week.  I had to talk to my relief mechanic Wednesday morning.  After we finished our business he asked me if I heard about the fire.  What are you talking about I asked.  He proceeded to tell me all about how the camp shop was burning to the ground as we spoke.  I was dumbfounded!

Do you remember the Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse projects I had been working on the last couple weeks?  I was proud of my framed pictures and accent lights.  I was going to sell them online.  This week!  Everything I made was stored in a couple of totes in this very burned out building.

I took a look at where my projects had been.  There was no trace of anything.  It was so hot in that metal oven that even the ashes of my pictures disintegrated.

Now, here’s where the autism angle comes in to play.  I spent a whole lot of time and effort designing and building all of these.  I have a lot riding on the making and selling them.  I should have panicked.  I should have flipped out at the sudden change to my carefully laid plans.  I should have had a complete meltdown for several days while my mind wrapped itself around the potential disaster now in front of me. 

I should have.  I’ve done it before.  The history of my entire life shows meltdowns over the ages when my mind didn’t know or understand how to respond to current stimuli.

 I didn’t have a meltdown.  My brain accepted it immediately.  Instead of panic (oh my, what am I going to do) I felt calm.  Instead of frustration, I felt confidence.  For the first time in my life I can see the positive in something that should have been devastating to me.

I was out nothing other than my time.  Everything I used was Recycle Repurpose, Reuse.  My time is valuable and I am normally very bored working this type of contract.  By creating, I occupied my time and made the days go by much quicker.  I also received a very good hands on lesson on how to set up my jigs to redo all when I get home and my saw is once again running.  My time table may be pushed back a bit but now I know what to do to make everything even better!  I got an education.

By the way…I had one framed picture that survived.  It was the very first one that I built.  The prototype.  It was actually my favorite.  I gave it to the head chef here in camp to hang on a wall in the kitchen.  It was just my way of saying thanks to everybody.  I had to let him know today that the value of his original ArcticArtique artwork had just gone up as the sole remaining piece of my original trial run!

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