Life In The Ted Lane
Life In The Ted Lane
Enchanting Cape May, Movie Magic, and Heartfelt Caregiving
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Our first episode for the New Year captures a memorable journey through Cape May, highlighting delightful adventures, delicious eats, and festive places. We explore local history, and share personal stories. Next, we talk about Disney's Mufasa, and how much AI should be used in big-budget movies. We also tell you about Walt Disney World's plans for Muppet attractions, and Muppets 3-D. Then, we dive into the current state of autism caregiving, and our hopes for new adventures in 2025.
• Overview of Cape May Christmas adventure
• Experience at Taco Caballito
• Highlights from the Cape May Architecture and History tour
• Significance of Cape May history, including Harriet Tubman
• Enjoying Wawa Gobbler sandwiches
• Exchanging gifts and sharing Christmas joy
• Mufasa, AI and Updates on Muppet attractions at Walt Disney World
• Discussion on the autism caregiving crisis, funding, and what it takes to be a great Direct Support Professional for people with intellectual disabilities or Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Plans for future adventures and explorations
Helpful Links:
Taco Caballito
Cape May MAC: Museums, Arts Culture
'Mufasa’ Climbs Above ‘Sonic 3’ to Lead First Weekend of 2025 from variety.com
BREAKING: MuppetVision 3D Closing, Muppet Roller Coaster to Come, from Toughpigs.com
New Video from Governor Shapiro Highlights Historic Investments in Pennsylvania’s ID/A Community and Support for Direct Support Professionals, from PA.gov
RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us (YouTube link) adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what motivates us at home and in the workplace.
Sound Effect: Game Over Arcade by Mountain_Man -- https://freesound.org/s/382310/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
"Beep" sound effect from Apple Loops
Written, hosted, and edited by Ted Harris.
Co-hosted by Lindsay Harris Friel.
Music by Vincent Friel.
- for more information, visit us at 6630 Productions
- Write us a review on Podchaser or Apple Podcasts
May your life be filled with magic!
Hello and welcome to Life in a Tiddly. I'm your host, ted Harris. This video is by Kofra, my big sister, and Ken, who gets my green hoarder. Let's see how it's frail.
Speaker 1:You know, I really wanted to be the Ken next year, Barbie.
Speaker 2:What Well, we don't always get what we want.
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 2:Sorry.
Speaker 1:You can say whatever you want to say, say it. I just didn't understand.
Speaker 2:Well, we don't always get what we want.
Speaker 1:We always get what we want.
Speaker 2:We don't always get what we want. We always get what we want, we don't always get what we want.
Speaker 1:Oh, we don't always get what we want. I'm just Ken. Anywhere else I'd be a ten. Do I have Kennergy? Yeah, am I Ken-off?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Am I supportive?
Speaker 2:Yes, you are.
Speaker 1:I'm just an accessory and not even one of the good ones very fun, just kidding, all right. So what is this show, ted?
Speaker 2:all right, let's provide what we do. This is the podcast where we talk about adventures, broadway and Hollywood news, but the news was like the autistic.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to talk about our keep me Christmas adventure yes, that is one of the things we're going to talk about. What about the Broadway? Wait, Wait a minute. Ted headlines, Headlines first. Ted headlines first. Read the headlines. So what's after? So we're going to talk about our adventure, which is Cape Mead Christmas Adventure.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. The South of the Wild, the Lion King.
Speaker 1:Mufasa Lion King movie.
Speaker 2:Yep. And then the Muppet News.
Speaker 1:Muppet News. We're going to talk about, then, the Muppet News. Muppet News.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk about what for Muppet News, Ted? We're going to talk about Muppet League closing at Walt Disney World and then moving to Muppet Roller Coaster.
Speaker 1:And what is the fourth headline we're going to talk about?
Speaker 2:About autism caregiving.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So let's get started. So first we're going to talk about adventure news of the suite that was owned by an owner during the summer season. That suite was pretty sweet. As the poet said, beauty is by a beholder, In this case a winner. We had dinner at Taco Caballito, which was a restaurant near the Marquis Lafayette.
Speaker 1:So, teddy, what did you like about Taco Caballito?
Speaker 2:It was delicious. The food was delicious. It's definitely good Mexican food.
Speaker 1:What was the atmosphere like?
Speaker 2:it was really warm and pleasant and all that it was cozy yep and what did they have on all the TV sets?
Speaker 1:they?
Speaker 2:had no logs on all the TVs yeah for the holidays it was. It was we had. On December 24th we got up, we went to the Gingerbread House tour, saw various Gingerbread House tour, so a various Gingerbread Houses tour at the Cape May Convention Center.
Speaker 1:Well, it was a Cape May history tour.
Speaker 2:Yep, it was the history of Cape May.
Speaker 1:And it was about why the houses are built the way they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because basically that place has been hit by fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes northeasterns even Hurricane Monica, even Hurricane floyd, even hurricane hugo and hurricane sandy hurricane sandy but also ted there are.
Speaker 1:Cape may also has a lot of very good people who want to preserve the history and who want to preserve how beautiful the buildings are and how nice the community is right yep, those people there are so strong they just brushed off the storms like an ant, so ted um. We talked on the tour. The first house that we saw that is a national historic landmark. Whose house was it? It was the harriet tubman museum yeah now it was.
Speaker 1:I don't think she owned the house. We didn't get a chance to go inside it no, we didn't but what do we? But we know that harriet tubman worked in cape may so that she could help fund the abolition movement and help fund the underground railroad. So she would work in cape may for periods of time and then go back and get people out of slavery, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:There was also a house. There was owned by a famous abolitionist. They're trying to preserve the house and all that. In fact, one of the first schools elementary schools is in Cape May, a long time ago, the 1800s.
Speaker 1:We will put links in the show notes to this information if you want to learn more about the history of Cape May. But basically, to make a long story short, we learned that Cape May as a community is environmentally delicate, but it has a lot of people who are willing to work hard to make it a nice place, right, ted?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Also, once we saw the Cape May Museum, we came back and had dinner at the Bee's Knees. The bad part was the food was sort of wooden boards on actual plates.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what? This is sort of a trend in restaurants now, that or at least it was for a little while that they serve your food on a wooden board wooden board, and I guess it's supposed to look rustic. Oh, but um, if your plate, there's a reason. The plates are shaped the way they are, right, ted? Yeah, yeah, a cutting board is shaped the way it is to make it easy to prepare food and then move the food from that cutting board to a plate or to a pan or whatever, but a plate is shaped the way it is. Think about it, ted. Why is a plate shaped the way it is?
Speaker 2:So if it's a dishwasher, that's one good reason.
Speaker 1:But you know how a plate usually has raised edges around the sides.
Speaker 2:Yep. What do those raised edges. Do Keep food from falling on the table.
Speaker 1:Exactly Right the sides. Yep, what is that? What are those raised edges do keep food from falling on the table, exactly right, so in any case. So I don't like eating on a wooden board. Yeah, not everybody likes that. Some people do not me, but that's just a thing. I hope that's a trend that can end yep, but other than that, we had a good dinner. It was uh, so that was um. What else did we do, ted?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, yeah, you're gonna have to tell them about what we did for our christmas eve dinner oh, christmas eve dinner we had wobble gobblers right there was delicious birthing, a whole turkey and we saw no ted for the, the folks at home.
Speaker 1:There might be people. It's possible I'm not saying that it's 100% true, but it's possible. There might be people at home who don't know what Wawa is and they don't know what a gobbler is. So for the folks at home, what is Wawa?
Speaker 2:Wawa is like a community-based market. This is a chain of markets around Pennsylvania, delaware, new York and Mrs like a convenience stores.
Speaker 1:I think they have some in New Jersey, I think there's one in Florida and there might be some in Maryland, I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:I think there are a few in New York, there's a lot in Pennsylvania, there's a few in Ohio.
Speaker 1:It's a Philly thing. It is a Philly thing, isn't it? Yep, it is a Philly thing isn't it, yep? And what is so? They have coffee and sandwiches and soups and all kinds of different food, but they also have a lot of convenience store type foods. It's where you go when you're going on a road trip, right, yep? And also, what is a gobbler, ted?
Speaker 2:A gobbler is like a sandwich. That's like a turkey a Thanksgiving, a Christmas dinner one. It's the cranberry sauce, potatoes, stuffing and turkey bits on a roll and added with mayonnaise and mustard.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't think you can add mayonnaise and mustard if you want.
Speaker 2:And basically it's sort of a sandwich or a big hoagie roll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's turkey gravy, cranberry sauce and stuffing on a roll. I like to have American cheese on mine. Do you like to add anything to your gobbler, ted?
Speaker 2:Not me.
Speaker 1:Nope, you like it just the way it is.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:I like it served with macaroni.
Speaker 1:Macaroni and cheese, yeah, yeah. So, um, if you live in delaware, especially like in the wilmington area, I think there's a, I think this this sandwich shop is called capriati's and they serve something called a bobby, which is like a wawa gobbler, but more so, and it's very delicious. So we had Wawa Gobbler, but more so and it's very delicious. So we had Wawa Gobbler sandwiches for Christmas Eve dinner and we had snacks. And then, on Christmas day, what did we do?
Speaker 2:Well, we saw on YouTube Trinity. We saw the King is Born.
Speaker 1:Oh, you watched Trinity Episcopal Church on YouTube.
Speaker 2:Yep. You also saw Scrooge and Albert Finney.
Speaker 1:Because it was your suite and this was your Christmas present from me to you and Mom. You had two televisions and you could both watch whatever you wanted anytime. So you had. We watched A Christmas Story at least twice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we saw Scrooge and Albert Everfitting. We slept all night. I could hear the sugar pumps dancing in my head. I could hear Santa saying Dash out to Philadelphia, my boys, and have Christmas, punch your Ted and give Ted his toys. When I awoke, santa had gone. They must have thought I was in Philadelphia. I could even see all the lights on Santa's. Yes, like those events came up. We had our presents. We had a lot of great fun that season.
Speaker 1:So what did you get for Christmas, Ted?
Speaker 2:A lot of great Muppet toys and all that.
Speaker 1:You got a vintage Ernie Bert, and is that Prairie Dawn or Betty Lou?
Speaker 2:Prairie Dawn.
Speaker 1:And you got those vintage toys.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And you also got a vintage who's green and it's not easy being green Kermit Yep. You got a 1976 vintage stuffed Kermit Yep For your collection.
Speaker 2:Frog Fan 76 for listening to this. Don't sue us.
Speaker 1:And if you were, and what was the book that I got for you?
Speaker 2:what arnie and bert did? Our sort of vacation oddly enough, this book.
Speaker 1:I was very surprised that I could only find it at collector prices. It is a small paperback picture book from the 70s and for some reason I could only find this at collector prices, so we're going to be very careful with it. What was the other book I got for you, ted? Fat glinda summer romance yes, I got you fat glinda summer romance. I don't know why you ask for it every year for christmas, but I was finally able to track down a copy well and what was the but, teddy?
Speaker 1:what was the big paperback book with photographs on the cover that I got you for Christmas? Jim Henson's biography? Yeah, god, do you know how mad I am that you forgot all about it right now? I remember now Ted's face lit up like the top of the Empire State Building when he opened it up. Lit up like the top of the Empire State Building when he opened it up. Your eyes lit up.
Speaker 1:And you said how did you know I wanted this when I didn't even know I wanted this, and you got so excited. So I think we are going to read that book together later this year, after we finish all of the other things that we're listening to.
Speaker 2:So Lindsay event came up. We had a presence, we had my mom with gobblers. I guess it was really the whole turkey. We headed toward the south end of Cape May. We saw very pancaked houses and houses that were presents for doctors and their wives. We saw the Cape May diamonds. We saw the Cape May berry Farm and the Cape May Nature Reserve. We also saw Congress Hall with their art fair. Vince brought some hot sauce from a vendor. We saw the carousel. We also met some local autistics there.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right, that's right. So there was a person there who seemed to be special needs, who was working at the carousel, and he was very enthusiastic about talking with us.
Speaker 2:He was very nice. He definitely wanted to see Simone.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we had Simone with us. One of the reasons that we wanted to go to Cape May was what Ted To see the Congress Hall. So what is Congress? Hall Ted.
Speaker 2:It's one of the oldest hotels in Cape May and basically it's a. One of the oldest summer resorts in the US Summer resorts, yeah, and we also saw one of the other, autistic, with a wheelchair.
Speaker 1:Well, we don't know if she was autistic. We know she was special needs and we know that she was very excited to see all the Christmas decorations.
Speaker 2:Yep, and there was a statue there that looked like it was going to start the Sgt Pepper tour, and there was also their banquet hall that was decorated and looked like for a Christmas party. We didn't go in because that would be inappropriate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would have been inappropriate.
Speaker 2:And also also we saw these statues, their train and the cut light tours were a lot of car lights, a lot of snowmen. Spelman was digging at the beach and having fun. Then Monday we had to go home. I recommend anyone auditioning to actually see this place, simply worth seeing for the holidays. I recommend that I did some holiday cheer. We did some changes to the arena. Spelman came around and did it for the holidays. I recommend that I need some holiday cheer. We needed some changes to the rain and smoke, a run and dig in the beach. Everything's like gingerbread and there was lots of lights and smells and shore spells. I could hear Love is a Many Splendored Thing by the Four Aces.
Speaker 1:Love is a Many Splendored Thing by the Four Aces. That's a good song, isn't it? I'm gonna have to look that up.
Speaker 2:That place has been famous by Al Walberts and the Four Aces.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So my suggestion for artists and the caregivers for family and friends go early, Don't settle for Christmas weekend. It will be cold. Dress warmly and make sure you have your medicines, your assist devices any laptops as the devices may use and make sure you bring food and snacks and pay money for food meals it gets pretty expensive down there yeah so you do want to.
Speaker 1:If you have particular snacks that you absolutely have to have, you need to make sure that you stock up. There is an acme supermarket down there. Yep, I mean, you're not on the moon, but things get really expensive down there, so and I mean, businesses down there need to make money too. So you do want to support local businesses, but you also should probably pack snacks that are important to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably a plate of root beer, maybe a case or two.
Speaker 1:I don't know, ted, do you need to drink a case of root beer?
Speaker 2:No, we were Christmas style after the holidays and all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you drew a picture. Should I tell people about it?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Ted drew a picture of himself grinning this huge grin with big crazy eyes well. I can't redraw if you like.
Speaker 1:I have the picture right here. It says Ted drew a picture of himself grinning a big, wide grin with big crazy eyes, and it says I'm so happy Christmas is over. I could sparkles. Hee, hee, hee, hee. So yeah, I thought to myself before we planned this trip. I thought there is no amount of Christmas that I can possibly provide for Ted. It's so much work. There is no amount of Christmas that I can provide that meets Ted's standards for christmas. So I thought if you can't bring christmas to ted, bring ted to christmas uh-huh and boy did I ever you were.
Speaker 1:You were walking through a tunnel of sparkles and garlands and candy canes and everything right yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we should see Wonderland at Christmastime.
Speaker 1:What's Wonderland at Christmastime?
Speaker 2:What they do at Macy's one time in the 80s.
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:Broadway and Hollywood news Yay.
Speaker 1:Broadway and Hollywood news.
Speaker 2:It's on Varietycom Mufasa the Lion King advertised by $8 million, or grossed about $1.2 million globally.
Speaker 1:It made billions and billions of dollars. It made a lot of money.
Speaker 2:All right, this is a prequel to the Lion King and is basically about the story about Mufasa's origin, how he befriended Scar and how Mufasa became king. It's directed by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins.
Speaker 1:Barry Jenkins.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:He's an Academy Award winning director.
Speaker 2:Yep, and this movie. Everything is being by computer animation or virtual reality or on a video game engine. Why we do this is beyond me and all that.
Speaker 1:Well, Ted, if you were gonna try to make a live action movie about lions, how dangerous would that be?
Speaker 2:Oh, the lions would cooperate.
Speaker 1:Ted, where does a lion sleep?
Speaker 2:In a den. Wherever it wants to Yep, to yep yeah, so basically everything is made by computer animation, virtual reality, and there's a mid-vehicle engine I find this troubling why do you find it troubling?
Speaker 1:I find it troubling because one of the things that's happening a lot in hollywood is studios. Oh, we can use artificial intelligence instead of real actors and save ourselves a lot of money. I find it troubling when human, when living actors are replaced with animation. It bothers me. But if you want to make a movie that looks like it's live action and you have lions and tigers and bears, oh my, it's better to do it with video game animation than it is to do it with real animals, because real animals do not cooperate well, it's also.
Speaker 1:They don't want to cooperate. Why would they want to be like okay, here I am on a movie set, I'm a movie star. They don't want to cooperate. Why would they want to be like okay, here I am on a movie set, I'm a movie star. Now, they don't want to do that, they don't care.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They don't want to do that. They want to run and play and eat and have fun. They don't want to be in a movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, climate change will continue to accelerate Earth's webbing fireball.
Speaker 1:Okay, well.
Speaker 2:Well, that wasn't relevant to the discussion of Mufasa but Could have been with hand-drawn animation and all that.
Speaker 1:Hand-drawn animation is always cool. I don't know, so anyway.
Speaker 2:Safer Pennies and the Original Lion King done in 1987.
Speaker 1:Oh please, I'm sure it's all over Disney+ Alright. Or watch on Disney+ oh please, I'm sure it's all over. I'm sure it's all over Disney.
Speaker 2:Plus. Alright, or watch out Disney Plus.
Speaker 1:Alright, so that was our Hollywood news.
Speaker 2:Okay. So Muppet News, muppet News, muppet News. I've got a major Bummer bullet to this week. Muppet Land is closing for Rock and Roll, roller Coaster and Monsters Inc is moving into Muppet Land.
Speaker 1:Wait a minute. So the Muppet Courtyard is closing and, according to toughpigscom, muppet Vision 3d is closing or has closed and nobody knows where the fountain of the fountain, with the statue of miss piggy dressed up as the statue of liberty, will go and the muppets will be moved over to the rebranding of the rock and roller coaster, which used to be aerosmith themed but now it's going to be muppet themed.
Speaker 2:I have no idea how aerosmith feels about that I don't like the fact how they're always putting these new rides and new things rather than risk doing the necessary repairs.
Speaker 1:Refreshments, the old rides well, ted, you know what I think. Disney has to refresh their rides every so often so that people will keep coming back. Most people don't want to go on the same rides over and over again every year.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:But you've also. They want people to come back to Disney World every year. Oh, and I think you like to go every few years, right? Yep, and you like to go. Or you like to go every so often? Yep, and you like to go, or you like to go every so often yep, yep, like normal people should we are going to get so much hate mail from disney adults right now oh boy oh boy, but no, no disrespect to disney adults.
Speaker 1:I know there's people who love going to disney and they love going as often as possible and they want to experience every part of the park over and over again. And also, ted, you and I are lucky because we didn't have to wait in line as long as people do, so we spend less time in line.
Speaker 2:But so the Muppet Courtyard is getting refit from Wandsworth St Gland. It's getting a new, getting refit from Monster's Inc Land. It's getting a new location for Miss Pinky's statue. The Rock and Roll roller coaster is being refitted for a Muppet theme. We hope they'll find a different spot for Muppet Vision 3D. Maybe they will re-edit to include some new scenes and maybe they will include some new scenes.
Speaker 1:I don't know about that.
Speaker 2:I thought it was perfect the way it was, and then maybe I think they should re-broadcast it in the theaters. I hope the Henson Company will actually edit new scenes and some new scenes. This was the last scene that Jim Henson gave the world before his death. I think it's very unfair. I hope they re-edit to include some new that Jim Henson gave the world before his death. I think it's very, very unfair and I hope they re-edit and close some new scenes and all that Re-retrofit some new scenes.
Speaker 2:I think it would be cool if they should show it in the theaters for a new generation, for new people and all that An actor, movie theater for new people.
Speaker 1:Well, I think it wouldn't work in just any movie theater, and I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but there's elements that occur in the theater space around you that can't be done in just any movie theater, right?
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's what makes it feel like such a special experience. I think it could be done in a Broadway-style theater. Yep, yeah, and that's what makes it feel like such a special experience. I think it could be done in a Broadway-style theater. Yep, what do you think, ted? The Academy of Music would look right for it, because the Academy of Music in Philadelphia really looks like the Muppet Theater, doesn't it? Yep, yeah.
Speaker 2:The Media Theater, kyle, they'll say the Muppet Theater, don't you agree?
Speaker 1:Not as much as the Academy of Music. But yeah, the media theater doesn't have boxes on the sides.
Speaker 2:Yep, what should we do? We'll keep you up to date on some things. We'll keep you up to date as things go on, and we'll keep you up to date as things go on. Hey, ted, how do you feel about Monsters Inc? Monster Sink was pretty good. I was basically learning about friendship and learning about respecting kids and respecting families. And respecting monsters and respecting monsters, all that Yep and some things are not always what you think they are.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And some things are not expected and what is expected was said.
Speaker 1:I hear they're funny funny.
Speaker 2:They're actually very funny. It's got john goodman in it and billy crystal in it.
Speaker 1:A lot of comedy grades yeah, but I also think um, what I'm noticing here in this conversation that we're having ted, is it seems like there's a big shift between human created content and computer created content.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:Lindsay. Ted, tell me to shut up. Lindsay shut up. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Pipe down. Can I continue?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. So. Autism news Autism news Autism news Autism news. Autism news. The long term for working for support act is sure can be a new career in the home-based facilities. Some news the Long-Term Working for Support Act is sure can be a new career in the home-based facilities. It is sure to have a strong pipeline of workers. As Senator Casey said, he will have the greatest caregiving.
Speaker 1:Hey, Ted, can I clarify that for the folks at home?
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Okay. So last April April 2024, representative Debbie Dingell I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing her name right co-chair of the Assistant Caregivers Today Caucus, along with Senators Bob Casey, senator Tim Kaine and Senator Tammy Baldwin, introduced legislation to tackle the caregiving crisis with the Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act, which would ensure that caregiving can be a sustainable lifelong career by providing substantial new funding to support workers in every part of the long-term care industry, from nursing homes to home care to assisted living facilities. And the important thing here I'm just reading this we have a crisis of caregiving in this country and it's a crisis that stems largely from a lack of support for, and investment in, our caregiving workforce, said Senator Casey. We cannot claim to be the greatest country in the world if we do not have the greatest caregiving in the world. We need to invest in these workers, not just to ensure that caregiving can be a sustainable lifelong career career, but to improve the quality and availability of care for all who need it a little bit louder, for those in the back, to improve the quality and availability of care for all who need it. So the good news is that the white house did approve funding for long-term care support Yay.
Speaker 1:The bad news is oh well, the good news is also Debbie Dingell or Dingell got re-elected. Tammy Baldwin got re-elected. Tim Kaine got re-elected. The sad news is Bob Casey did not got re-elected. The sad news is bob casey did not. Yeah, so we're sad. That stinks, right. Ted yep and um. As we record this for everybody at home, ted is watching the waveform of his voice on the screen and getting absolutely fascinated with it all right.
Speaker 1:You want to make some more silly sounds, or should we continue? So anyway, like I was saying, this affects everybody. This affects the quality of care that people get, this affects who is providing that care and this affects the families of people. This affects. Now, for people in Pennsylvania. This is good news. Yay.
Speaker 1:The Shapiro administration celebrates historic budget investments that increase access to intellectual disability and autism services and support the ID slash A workforce.
Speaker 1:Yay, what we know is this year's budget invests in Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities or autism and or autism and the direct support professionals who care for them, by securing $354.8 million in federal and state funding to provide more resources for home and community-based service providers. Uh, the funding includes 280 million million to help raise wages for dsps and 74.8 million to begin the process of clearing the emergency waiting list. I don't know how long the waiting list is for people to get support, but well, I mean, the good news is is that people who are sitting here saying, well, we've been waiting and waiting and waiting to get a DSP, now they can get a DSP, hopefully, knock wood. The problem is are people willing to work as caregivers? What is, teddy, if you think about it, I was reading a book by a writer named Daniel Pink, who wrote a book called Drive. Oh, and it was a book about how to motivate people and what they found is that people want autonomy.
Speaker 1:They want jobs that give them autonomy, meaning they're in charge of their job yeah, or they can make decisions about their job yeah. They want meaning. They want the job to be meaningful, meaningful, and they want to be self-directed yes. So how do you suppose a DSP job, a direct support professional's job, is like that?
Speaker 2:I think it should be more direct. They should know what we're doing. They should have respect for the autistics and they should have drive and be determined and determined to know what the autistic wants and to understand autism beliefs. And to understand autism beliefs and to understand behaviors, have respect for autistics and understand autism behavior so they need good training good training they need good training and they need good education. And to understand the autistic's needs at once and to have respect for the autistic.
Speaker 1:So wait a minute, ted. What kind of activities should DSPs do with their autistic clients?
Speaker 2:Like money management, art management and what's art management? Like creativity yeah faith and and and grooming, food and drink and culture and understanding fashion so community integration, integration what's community integration to understand the Integration.
Speaker 1:What's community integration?
Speaker 2:To understand the community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's when you go out and do things in the community.
Speaker 2:Go out and do things in the community Mm-hmm and bathing, grooming. Make sure to get to bed on time, minding their parents and making sure their faces are clean and their bodies are clean. Their hair is clean. Their hair is groomed and trimmed Well.
Speaker 1:Teddy, that's personal care. I mean a lot of autistic people can like. For example, you can do your own grooming right, yeah. You sort of forget to or you're not motivated to, and you need a prompt.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you don't have to have somebody wash your hair for you, no, or brush your teeth for you now or brush your teeth for you no you can do those things yourself, you just need a reminder prompt yep reminders yeah, and it's. You can set reminders on your phone or you can write a checklist and check things off yeah so you have more ability with personal care than somewhat some people with autism spectrum disorder right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and not make sure the autistic gets into trouble.
Speaker 1:Oh, you mean help them stay out of trouble.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, like what kind of trouble do you mean?
Speaker 2:There was one kid who was in a mall. He was stimming and all that. Some guards came up to him and they threw him out.
Speaker 1:Because he was stimming.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, what he was stimming.
Speaker 1:What kind of stimming.
Speaker 2:He was sitting on his hands like that, going hmmm a lot. There was another, the Children's Museum. There was a 30 year old autistic who was taking pictures for his toys. They thought he was taking pictures of kids, and all that.
Speaker 1:And they kicked him out. Yeah, okay that was another autistic so let's, let's slow down for a sec. I don't know if money alone is going to solve the caregiver crisis. I think what they need is people people need to be willing to take care of other people yeah, bear training well, there's sort of something at at the core of human behavior, like empathy and kindness and compassion.
Speaker 1:Compassion, yeah. There's something where, like, for example, I think the the dsps who have made the most difference in your life were the ones who enjoyed doing fun activities with you yep like you still talk about james.
Speaker 1:You and james were pretty close in age at the time and you guys both like to go to comic book stores and go for bike rides and you guys like to do fun things together, right yeah, yeah, we like to go to on nature preserves and all that so I think, one of the things to think about when you're a dsp what are fun things that you can do with your client, like I used.
Speaker 1:I've worked as a dsp with people who were not you and I'm not going to say who the people were, because that would go against my job but we did fun things together, like, for example, one day my client was having a very rough day and she was in a very bad mood, so we sat at a table and we drew pictures and colored them in until she did feel better. And another time, one of the people that I worked with she wanted to go swimming at the beach and we took her to the shore and when we were swimming, she and I were swimming together and she got knocked in the face by a wave and knocked over. And the look on her face after she got knocked over was like I am never doing this again. The ocean is dead to me. I hate everything. She was so mad and I looked at her and I said you did it, you did it, you survived.
Speaker 1:Good job. And she was so thrilled that she went running headlong into the waves again. And again it was. You know, these are challenges of living that you get to help somebody see anew when you're a dsp and you get to take those challenges of daily living and make them into adventures, right, yeah, I mean, I don't know, like ted, what would be something that you would like to do with the DSP.
Speaker 2:I'd like to see the Battleship New Jersey, mm-hmm, and maybe see some more of the beach again, mm-hmm, and maybe actually see some more of Delaware and all that, maybe Maryland.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And I would maybe visit Washington DC and see a few museums Mm-hmm, maybe there's another art museum I'd like to see too. I would show up to the Delaware Art Museum, the various statues and the Delaware Natural History Museum again.
Speaker 1:What about making art? Would you like to make art with your DSP?
Speaker 2:Make art. I would definitely try some things with art and all that definitely do art. I would definitely try some things with art and all that Definitely do art. I'd try some more things with art and all that.
Speaker 1:So how do you feel about podcasting so far?
Speaker 2:That's pretty good so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay. So in any case, Autism News is basically the home and community-based service worker crisis is not solved. We're keeping an eye on it and we're going to find out what's next.
Speaker 2:We'll keep you up to date as we find out more. Check out autismsocietyofamericaorg or allcomorg or autismspeakorg or ellenorg or elonorg or vanguardorg.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So what we plan to do in the future. Maybe we plan to visit the Captain's Aquarium next time, or visit the Philadelphia Art Museum for the Artism Unit, or visit the Museum of the American Revolution.
Speaker 1:Hey, ted, guess what? What I looked up? The Philadelphia Museum of Art their American galleries, are closed through the spring because they're remodeling. Oh, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, their American galleries, are closed through the spring because, they're remodeling, oh and, but that doesn't mean that we can't go.
Speaker 2:All right, we'll definitely check out. Museum of the American Revolution.
Speaker 1:We're going to go see some new art somewhere All right.
Speaker 2:So that's our show. I'm Ted Harris, your host and all that. If you wanna learn more about us, you can find my videos on YouTube. Search for Eric Puppets, or you can search for Eric Puppets Animation Club. Learn more about us at 6630predictionscom. Or you can write to us at info at 6630predictionscom. You'll also write us a review on applepodcastcom or Podfeature. Also check us out on Buzzword. So that's all we'll say. Bye for now. State your words Life in the Ten Lane. See you next time, bye.
Speaker 1:Bye.
Speaker 2:Life in the Ten Lane is written and hosted by me, ted Harris. My co-host is Lindsay Harris-Friel, edited by Ted Harris, music composed before by Vincent Friel. For more information, visit our website at 6630productionscom. We'll be you next time. No-transcript.
