Scrabbled

I was making lunch for Kidlet and his friend today when I found a bag of baby carrots in the fruit bowl. I was grabbing a couple of apples to cut up for my two favorite metal-mouths and noticed some plastic sticking up from under the bananas. As I moved the fruit around to see what was underneath, I realized it was not fruit, but veggies. My husband likes to pack his own lunch and usually packs baby carrots. Why they were put in the fruit bowl instead of the veggie bin in the fridge is a mystery.

I had a warning light come on in my car. “Coolant sensor failure”. I know what that means. So I asked Steve if it would be difficult to pick up a new one for me and change it out. He asked me if he could look at my owner’s manual. I suggested that he would probably get more info from the repair manual, but he was welcome to look. So, for the next half hour or so, he did. Look, that is. Nothing in the owner’s manual about changing the sensor, just the coolant.

So then he went and got the repair manual. Another half an hour went by.

“Did you find it?” I asked.

“No, it doesn’t cover it at all,” replied Hubby.

Hmmm. That seemed odd to me. So I picked up the manual and flipped to the index at the back of the book. Under “Coolant” it listed “temperature sensor” in chapter 6 page 16. I flipped to that section and there was a full page of photos and instructions for locating and replacing the sensor. It took me almost ten seconds.

“Here it is Sweetie!” I handed Steve the book.

“That’s not it!” barked He. “That says ‘temperature sensor’ not ‘coolant sensor’.”

“But Sweetie, they are one and the same!” says I.

“You said “Coolant Sensor”! You didn’t say “temperature sensor”! See here? I wrote it down just the way you said it. You get things all scrabbled! Why won’t you just admit you are wrong?” fumes Hubby.

Eeyyii yyiiieeee! I thought about pointing out that I think he means ‘scrambled’ not scrabbled, but figured it was easier to keep my mouth shut. Steve has enough miscommunications every day that leave him feeling like a big dope.

So many people don’t have a clue when it comes to dealing with a person with Asperger’s Syndrome. Because it takes Steve a few minutes to process verbal communication, he often will just stare straight ahead with his mouth hanging open, sometimes his lips even moving, as he tries to figure out what he thinks he heard. Sometimes if he isn’t ready to listen (as his mind is already busy with his own thoughts), he only gets some of the words spoken to him. Sometimes he will stare overly long at someone else while being spoken to which can make him appear strange or weird. Many times his eyes will shift all over the place in order to not make eye contact with the speaker which is interpreted as  being dishonest or creepy.

My hubby may be an Aspie geek, but he’s not any of those other words. And when it is all said and done, I can actually change out the sensor myself now that I see where it is located on the engine. The instructions are simple and clear.

Let’s just hope I don’t ‘scrabble’ anything when I’m under the hood. I like my car just the way it is!