Inaugural Entry

My first blog.

Mostly.

Who knows how it will go.

So I guess I should start by introducing myself to the faceless imaginary people I suppose will be reading this. I'm a mother to a spectrum child. In other words, I have a son with autism. Often times I refer to him as "the monster", not because of his autism, but because he can be a real character. A charming, cute, manipulative little pain in the ass.

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, I would have started with "I'm an engineer" or "I'm a consultant" but that time has passed. In an alternative universe, I was an ambitious rat who was going to rule the world, ala Pinky, but I was forced off that treadmill by what some call the new epidemic. I'm the tragic heroine of my own Lifetime TV movie of the week (and a bad one at that). Currently, I have no identity. I have no ambition beyond continuing breathing and waking up in the morning.

Cheerful, aren't I? I want to be that strong, exemplar figure to whom people look for wisdom and inspiration.

Uh-uh. Ain't gonna happen. That takes way too much energy and drive. I have little of either. I seem to have left both back on that treadmill I got pushed off of. Instead, I've turned into that whiny, pathetic drama queen who wants to do nothing more than sit on my ever spreading ass, forever lamenting my lot in life and waiting for someone to hand me the solution to all of my problems, or at least the money I can use to drown them.

Ok, that's not me either. I guess the real me is somewhere in between the TV heroine and the societal leper.

And with an introduction like that, who wouldn't want to follow my blog?

I'm just a mom of a child who has a condition for which we don't know the cause, the course, the cure or the treatment. This blog is mostly to keep track of our (as in my and my husband's) current answer to each of those. If someone is interested, cool. If not, well, that's ok too.

The title of the blog is in reference to two things. (1) that Autism use to be blamed on "Refridgerator mom's", women who were unable to connect with their children, thus dooming the children to a life of Rainman, which describes not a single mom I know with a child on the spectrum; and (2) as a nod to what I use to do for a living, make steel (as in melt down scrap in a big furnace and pour it into molds).

So, Hi there! Nice to meet you. Welcome to the exciting, nonstop, never ending ride of a Furnace Mom's Life.

A video, just because