Dealing with Anthony's obsessions is a daily, constant feature of our lives.

He dumps out water in a little flower vase that my wife has sitting on a ledge over the kitchen sink. If we don't notice it quickly enough each time, the life of the flowers is shortened considerably. In the most recent example of this, the flowers in question were a pretty wildflower we hadn't noticed growing in our garden before, and don't know when we will see again. I did leave another like it outside hoping it will go to seed to try to gather for cultivation.

Anthony locks any doors that are unlocked, so that if I go out of the house for a couple of minutes, I am surprised if I can come back in without yelling through the door for someone to open it up. He is usually loitering within hearing distance of the door, and at least understands enough to unlock it. We have learned to take keys with us if everyone is outside, however, because of his propensity to slip back inside and lock the door. We once spent twenty minutes determining how to get into the house when he had locked the doors and gone into another room.

I have mentioned before that he closes open windows or plays with the blinds. In the evenings during the summer, I try to open the windows and turn the blinds so as to bring cooler air from outside into the house. Anthony of course turns the blinds the opposite way.

Finally--well, this list never seems to be final with Anthony--he turns off outside lights that have been turned on. Naturally, he does this when I am outside trying to water plants before going to bed. I will go back to the door, shout to get it unlocked if need be, and then ask someone to turn on the lights for me so I don't have to remove my work boots. But last night, as soon as the lights were turned back on and I went out, they were off again.

Once in a while, I allow myself to snap. I say "allow", because the decision to do so is somewhat calculated. I have found that losing my temper with Anthony does little good and can even be counterproductive. Occasionally, though, I want to see if I can get his attention. So this time, I slapped him in the back of the head, dragged him over to the front door light switches, showed him the difference between "on" and "off", and said in quite certain terms that I wanted them left on.

I am guessing that I will be dealing with this again soon, however.