The other day I I was thinking about this blog and realized it's been awhile since I had updated it. I didn't realize how long it been until I pulled it up and saw that had not been updated since late 2016. North Lot is happened in almost 2 years but I will do my best give a brief rundown of some of the more memorable points.

Christmas was a non-event for me. Holidays don't mean a whole lot to me much anymore but I'm not sad because of it. Since I'm away from most of my family I just don't get happy at holiday times. That's about the change but I'll give you more information about that later.

In February of 2017, my friend Allen Mabry and I took a road trip to Southwest Texas to do some geocaching and seeing some interesting sites. And some point maybe I'll be able to link some photos but I'm going to have to wait on that a bit. We drove out west towards Alpine, Terlingua, and ended up at Big Bend. While near Alpine we attended a star party at an observatory which is incredibly cool. I wasn't sure I'd like it but Allen told me they were interesting so I agreed to go. Geocaching was a bigger part of this trip and we put a lot of miles on his Subaru to get to each and every one of those. We only spent one day in Big Bend because we had so much to do. It seem to waste to pay $25 to get in the Park Drive around all day and then leave but what we saw and what we did was fun. While we were in Big Bend we crossed over into Mexico from the official border crossing station in the park. If you want an idea of what the experience is like, listen to the song "Gringo Honeymoon" by Robert Earl Keane. The only difference between what happened in that song and what happened with me was I did not go with my wife but with a good friend of mine. However the majority of that song was what happened during that day. We crossed the Rio Grande in a row boat, had an old man escort ice into town on the back of donkeys, we had cold beer in the shade, and had a good time. It was my first trip to Mexico and only lasted a couple of hours but I can't complain.

In March of 2017 I attended the Texas Challenge which is a geocaching event/ competition for the entire state of Texas. It was held in Tyler Texas in 2017 and the team I'm associated with one their fifth straight title. I did not participate do my failing Health but I had a good time than the last. I met several new people, had some great food, and made some good memories. That was my last geocaching outing.

In April 2017 I started working for a new company called dxc technology. If you're not familiar with the company they are the Enterprise services division of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise combined with CSC also known as Computer Sciences Corporation. The transition from one company to another was awkward and painful at times but we finally managed to get through it.

In the middle of May 2017 I went on disability due to my continuing battles with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. I was becoming so weak that just going from my truck in the parking deck to my desk fatigued me so much I had to rest 20 minutes before I can start work. I was on short term disability for 6 months and then in November of 2017 I went on long term disability. Stop driving in June or July of 2017 and due to lack of strength and my concern that I would not be able to control my truck safely anymore.

There was a lot of problems to deal with regarding my transition to disability but we finally got everything organized.

At the end of November 2017 I received noticed that I was being laid off. I really didn't think much about it because I've been on disability and knew I was not going back to work. I was going to continue to draw disability until they asked me to retire. That never happened and my last day of work for dxc technology what is December 1st. Or so I thought. In January I was wondering where my severance check was and I was told that due to the fact that I was on medical leave when they laid me off that my layoff was deferred until the one year anniversary of me taking disability. That meant I had to wait until May until I got my severance check. Or so I thought.

May roll around and there was no severance check. June rolled around and there was no severance check. I contacted my old boss and let him know what was happening and after a week and got back to me and told me, in a nutshell, that they forgot about me and then they said that I was not actually laid off like they told me initially. I didn't understand what was going on but a couple of weeks later I was told that my last day of work would be July 13th 2018. This was called at administrative termination and I would get the ability to maintain my benefits at company cost once I left. About 2 weeks after I was terminated I received my severance check. All is well and good. Or so I thought.

Right after I was terminated I received it in the mail telling me I can continue my benefits but the prices were insane. Health, dental, and vision insurance we're going to run $1,500 a month. A few days later I received another packet in the mail telling me I can continue my life insurance that I had through work at approximately 5 times the cost that I was paying through work. Since I didn't have any life insurance on me I went ahead and and got one quarter of the coverage I used to have paying a premium for it. Since I have ALS there is no way I could pass a medical exam so I opted for the non-medical questionnaire coverage. I knew it was going to cost more but what choice do I have? My wife and I diligently filled out the paperwork and mailed it in. A couple of weeks later we received the statement and we paid it. Well it's not the big chunk of change I had when I worked but it's better than nothing. At least when I die my wife will be able to pay off the house.

Then something very interesting happened. Yesterday when we check the mail it was a bill from dxc technology for benefits. I was very confused so I called the number talk to a very polite lady who explained to me that my coverage was being continued if I wanted to pay the premiums that were sent. When I looked at what the premiums were, I couldn't believe how inexpensive they were. Mind you I'm not getting right Medical coverage with this but I have Medicare as my primary so at least I have something. However my old life insurance policy, the total amount that I had available when I work, was part of this package. The total package cost only $20 more a month then just the life insurance policy I bought by itself. And that policy is only one fourth of what the company would allow me to have. Plus I would get medical, dental, and vision coverage as well. The only bad thing is they won't cover my wife so I need to get an external policy to cover her. However she's not a big fan of doctors so I think what I'll probably gets just something to cover catastrophic.

And that leads me up to the final point. I said earlier that I really wasn't a fan of holidays because most of my family is not in this area but that was going to change. Well at the end of next month, borrowing any problems, I will be moving back to West Virginia to live with my mom. It's not the ideal situation considering she 78 years old but she is in pretty good health. I have a sister, her husband, and her two kids that live just down the street. Both of those kids are adults now and are pretty responsible even though one of them has autism. Also my son lives in Pittsburgh which is only a couple of hours away from where I'll be living.

Now to get the awkward part out of the way. My wife will not be joining me on this trip. Right now it's just me and her living in this house in the Dallas area. We have no other family here. We don't belong to any one Church so we don't have a support system in place to help out with my care. If you're unfamiliar with the type of care person like me needs, it is what they call custodial care. There is no cure for ALS and the disease is degenerative. As things get worse I will need more and more help on a daily basis. As it is right now I can't walk without the aid of a Rollator and my core muscles are so weak that I'm hunched over as I'm trying to walk. I spend the bigger part of my day and a recliner but I should be in a power chair to allow me Mobility. Right now I am able to get up on my own and make it into the bedroom or make it into the bathroom without any assistance. However that will change and someone will be needed to pick me up and move me to those locations. Custodial care takes care of that but it is expensive. Custodial care cost $300 a day, $10,000 a month, $120,000 a year. I realize most of you are not math Majors but if you're living on disability those costs are not reasonable. Generally people with ALS depend on family and friends to help out. We have friends but most of them work full time and really can't help out like we would need them to. While the option to move me West Virginia is not ideal, it's better than my wife attempting to take care of me by herself. For those people you don't understand how much stress a caregiver goes through, it is a huge burden for one person to carry. Since my wife is my caregiver that mean she can't get sick or get hurt. If she does or no one to take care of me. I have lost all dexterity in my hands and have to use voice commands to use my computer. With the aid of a strap able to feed myself but it's not pretty. The really sad thing is that mentally on the sharp now as I've ever been but my physical condition is deteriorating at a pretty rapid pace. Well my mother will not be able to do this on her own at least there are other people who can assist. I got a couple of cousins that I am trying to reconnect with that hopefully we'll be able to lend some Aid.

I'm not going to lie to you. The thought of putting Mike are in the hands of a 78 year old woman is a little frightening considering she could hurt herself at any time and I would be in the same boat as I would be if my current caregiver, my wife, suffered the same fate. The only plus is the fact there are other people that can assist.

That being said my wife is going to stay here and live in Texas well I live in West Virginia. It wasn't my first choice and I'll be honest I was not happy about it initially but I understand it's probably the best thing at the moment. My wife and I have had our issues and she's done a good job at taking care of me so far despite the fact that we've had these issues. Matter fact I'm pretty surprised she didn't leave me a few years ago when we ran into a really rough patch. I guess that says a lot about her.

 So, to those people who know me and are reading this, do not judge. It might get to the point where my wife decides to sell the house and come join us in West Virginia. It's not her Jam and I don't expect her to make the trip back up for good but you never know what's going to happen. She's going to be busy trying to take care of this house on her own and I'm sure I'll be answering questions all the time.

I don't know how many of you that read this are Christians or have any type of spiritual life but I would appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts you can send my way. People who know me know I am not the type to ask for sympathy, but I don't mind a little compassion. This is going to be a tough transition as I have not lived in West Virginia in about 30 years. It's going to take some adjusting to living with my mother in a very small cottage with one bathroom. She's never been one to really like the Finer Things in life and to be honest I like nice things every now and then. I'm going to miss a lot of types of food that I've been able to get while living in Texas but on the bright side, at least I'll get some of my mom's homemade pepperoni rolls. That's almost worth the trip back in and of itself.

I'm not sure when I'm going to update this again. People that know me can find me on Facebook. I'm going to make a public announcement on Facebook next month to let all my West Virginia friends know that I'm coming back.