What did you assume was normal?

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I was surprised at many normal features of NT life, and it took me years to realize that what felt normal and natural to me was actually pretty exotic. One habit I now recall was that if I was stopped at a red light on my bicycle and heard a siren on the cross street, I'd pull into the pedestrian way to block both lanes of traffic until the emergency vehicle had passed. I assumed that I'd have heard it soonest. I never even made eye contact with the drivers, just looked for the flashing lights.

I've never heard of anyone else doing that, although one guy did just start directing traffic, quite successfully, when a traffic light went out. Even the official guy got there a lot faster with his help, and then slowed things down with his car parked right in the middle. What adventures have you had?

Are you saying you'd block both a car lane and a bicycle lane. Or a street and a sidewalk. How were you, on a bicycle, able to block multiple lanes of traffic? If you were in the pedestrian lane, did you pull into the car lane sideways? Or, if you were in the roadway with cars, did you pull into a walking lane/sidewalk?

It's hard to understand why you felt the need to block an outside lane. Can't imagine a car turning and blocking multiple lanes of traffic instead of stopping or pulling over in its respective land when an ambulance blared its siren. Are you sure this is an AS/NT thing or possibly some weird hang-up you, as an individual, had?

Imagine a built-up old city with two lanes of traffic each way and no bike lane. I'm stopped at the light, even with the 1st two cars. I hear the siren, and start to cross as if I'd decided to use the sidewalk system, but stop on the line dividing the two near lanes, leaving the other two lanes open in case of a turning siren-bearer. The emergency vehicle driver can see me blocking the traffic, and knows he can blow a red light safely. As he passes, I back down to my regular spot, and proceed as usual.
Now, what about your adventures, besides hassling me?

I can relate to this. I notice things that other people tend or NT people tend to dismiss. Early signs, issues in the system, etc. It can be frustrating to be the only one to see it, or pick up on it. It is very helpful for me professionally and I am trying to figure out other directions to go in order to apply this ability, or sense that would offer me more money. I just think of myself as more like an ant, and more interested in synchrony within human systems and so I notice that, like what you mentioned with the sirens, I do this in traffic too. I can predict when a collision will occur, and this has happened in front of me more than once. I feel like NT brains can dismiss a whole lot of useful information, its like their lense is much smaller or something, not that it is less, but just different.

I always cry when I see drivers pull over for an ambulance. It reminds me that there's good in the world, and that people are putting the injured person's needs ahead of their own, or getting their priorities straight.

I know some of those people pull over just because they don't want to be charged. Maybe they're annoyed by the inconvenience. But in my mind it's a cooperative gesture of compassion and empathy. It restores my faith in humanity when cars move to the side.

I thought this was a normal feeling or that others would understand and say "I get that!", but everyone I've told just thinks it's weird or I'm reading too much into it.

I always thought it was natural to take an interest in looking at the sea...when you're at the beach.

And assumed that every tottler child who ever went to the beach had gazed out to sea and noticed...that the breakers stop at about fifty yards out, or a 100 yeards out. And beyond the breakers are the regular ocean waves. The waves with long linear crests (that you can put a surfboard on) end, and the waves that come to a point, like mountains start. And the latter is how the rest of the 3000 miles wide ocean looks until you get to the beach on the other side from where you are in Ocean City Maryland -where the breakers start again at about 100 yards before you hit that opposite beach (in Europe or in North Africa).

But when a certain movie came out and prompted conversation about it...I was astounded that most folks either dont believe me, or believe me and act like I am giving them some arcane oceanographic knowlege that only Jacque Costeaue would know about! I thought every child knew this!

The move is "the Perfect Storm" (a good movie actually). But at its climax was a special effects scene that everyone was astounded was "so realistic". Thats when the giant rogue wave sinks the boat. It IS realistic in certain ways, but overall it is NOT realistic because this wave is supposed to be in the middle of the ocean, but it has a long linear crest like a wave breaking against a beach. It had to have been a giant version of a normal mid ocean wave that would rise to a point like a mountain- it could not possibly have looked like the wave in the movie which looked like a breaker.

^^ The normal ocean does have some quirks, and rogue waves, such as depicted in The Perfect Storm, have turned out to be more than mad sailor's excuses. What happens is that normal waves can travel at slightly different speeds. When they catch and pass others, they add to its height. More rarely, three or more arrive at the same wave simultaneously, and the very rare five-highs do break like beach waves. This was experienced by solo sailor Rory Nugent in his proa Godiva, on May 17, 1980.

Now, c'mon people - have you never done something eccentric that made sense to you?

Oddly enough, I fit in high school with the normal ed groups but in the special ed one I was ostracized. I'm also in college now and I get along with my classmates and my professors well enough. I also host a Discord server, with people all over. So what "is" normal? (Other than sanity and of course following the law.)

I suppose I had a lot of feedback from my parents and sister about anything I did that they didn't think was "the done thing." Ditto with my first serious girlfriend who criticised me disdainfully for insisting on sitting down when we went to a public bar with another couple and were standing up (there was only one seat free so I sat in it). But I wouldn't relent. In those days I used to feel very uncomfortable standing for any length of time, and I felt that outweighed any demand not to be "antisocial."

So generally speaking I knew when people might think what I did was odd. But in my youth there was a big counter-culture thing going on, and for any "normal" standard of behaviour there was somebody flying in its face. Knowing that gave me the bottle to do likewise when it suited me and when I thought I could get away with it. I was a bit surprised that so many employers were still too picky to hire men who had even slightly long hair, for salaried "career jobs," so to get my way I had a haircut just before a successful interview and then grew it to my shoulders. The boss didn't like it but he didn't try to use force.

To this day it's a strong standard of mine that it's a nasty act to fight against unconventional behaviour that doesn't do any harm.

I have examples but they tend to be buried in memories of long ago.

One thing synthenesia. However its spelled.

Different foods provoke different thoughts and visual images to me. Like refreshing fruit provokes images of shiny things like gold, jewels, pirate treasure, gold coins. I once talked about the to a friend in junior. He responded with "GROSS!". So I never told anyone about connection between food and visual imagery ever again.

Welp. I just was dxd at age 55. Was ORIGINALLY dx’d in 5th grade with ASD and giftedness, but my family moved a lot and my diagnosis “left my mind,” as soon as my 504 got lost. My parents were obs on the Spectrum as well and we weren’t close. I’m not great at self reflection, but my husband says I talk to/approach anyone with my attempts to talk (at them?!) and don’t notice if/when they appear crazy or dangerous. That’s not—- exactly true—- I do notice clothing and truly aberrant stuff, but sometimes I’m just so INTERESTED in weird that I want to learn more about them. Anyhoo. Since I’m a female, that is fairly irregular conduct, I’d say.