Well, now, I had an interesting experience yesterday.  Hippie Pants' boyfriend comes in the house yesterday and asks who lives next door.   A lovely woman named Jan, btw.   Definitely NOT the man he saw peering into her windows.  A man wearing a shirt, sweater, socks , hiking boots, and tighty whiteys.  Notice the lack of pants?  We sure did.  He then wandered up onto my porch, I opened the door and asked him if his mom needed anything.  He waved and went back home.  (We discreetly made sure of this.  I would have simply taken him home but he is a like a deer -fast and easily spooked.) In case you, dear reader, do not live in the Southern Tier of New York, it was in the mid thirties  with snow flurries.

             See, here's the thing.  He is the son of a neighbor. And, I believe, autistic.  He exhibits the behavior I associate with an autism spectrum disorder- mostly nonverbal, no eye contact, is a bit of wanderer.  I suspect his brother has similar issues.  The wanderer in question is the more outgoing one of the two.  The mother, an older woman, is living with her sons and no help that we can see. But his not wearing pants is worrisome.   It has never happened before that I am aware of. If it's a one time aberration, hell we all have had that crazy day.  Any day that does not reduce me to wandering the neighborhood in my undies counts as a win as far I'm concerned.  I've read that mothers of autistic children have PTSD rates similar to combat veterans. I do not want to be the one who adds to her stress level if he just wandered while she  was occupied elsewhere for a minute. Or worse, embarasses her over something she cannot really help.  What's she gonna do, tie them to their seats??  Never go to the bathroom?  But maybe she needs help.   But who do you call?  They are grown men so what is the equivalent of Child Protective Services for adults?  At what point am I meddling into someone else's business? At what point am I neglecting my duty as a human being by turning a blind eye?

             So here I sit, second guessing myself from here to next Tuesday....   We did make sure he went home. (I am not a complete a-hole thankyouverymuch.)  But did I do enough?   What if next time he wanders across the street and gets hurt? (He never actually leaves our block.) Or gets lost?  Or gets picked by a cop who doesn't recognize that the guy has autism and is vulnerable? Exactly how do we help without crossing the line into judgmental meddler?  I'm a complete nerd ( honestly, a complete Poindexter with all the social skills of a nerd) so what if I am judging this all wrong?  What would you do when confronted by an otherwise harmless soul in his undies?