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.

A Little R&R

On Dec 12th my friend Allen and I took a road trip into central Oklahoma to do a little geocaching.

The OK trip went well, but day-ummm it was cold.  Harsh winds and very cold below freezing temps much of the time.

We left my crib (Allen drove up from Dallas to pick me up) at 7:30 and we cherry picked geocaches along the way for Allen so he could complete some specific challenges he had committed to doing.  One of them had to do with the Delorme map grid for OK and the other was an alphabet challenge where you had to get a geocache that started with each letter of the alphabet.  It is a little harder than it sounds but he completed them both.

We ate lunch at Braum's (ther burgers are pretty good) in Muskogee, OK then headed to the USS Batfish and really enjoyed touring the sub before moving on to do more caches.

We meandered our way geocaching until we arrived in Owasso, OK (NE suburb of Tulsa) to stay at the Hampton Inn. Friday night.  

We had dinner at The Bricktown Brewery.  OMG the food was so good!  I had "Big Mike's Meatloaf" (specialty) that was to die for.  Super tasty.

I was very tired after dinner so after an Angry Orchard Green Apple Hard Cider, reading a few pages from my newest book, and some internet browsing, I hit the hay by 9:30 PM

The next morning we cleaned up early and had breakfast before hitting the road at 7:30 AM.  Allen had a LOT of things he wanted to accomplish before we arrived in OKC.

We drove up to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to do some "earthcaching" (geocaching that does not involve finding a container, but going to specific areas and answering questions about the specific geological features there and take specific photos).  It is a very specific subset of geocaching and there are not nearly as many as traditional caches.  Harder to do and more time consuming.

We cached until noon where we had lunch at a Subway in Pawnee and after lunch, we continued caching (in a meandering route) until we got to OKC, where we did more caching until it became dark.  

We then did a "night" cache that utilizes reflectors to lead you to the target.  It started out fun, then turned aggravating as we noticed many reflectors were missing causing us to wander almost aimlessly until finally Allen spotted the final reflector showing us the physical cache.  Getting back to the car was easy as we only walked about 1/4 a  mile in a straight line into the wooded area and all we really had to do was follow the highway noise back.

It was only 6 PM but I was pretty tired after being up all day.  We checked in at a Best Western Plus and after a very quick washing of hands and face, we went to The Garage for dinner.  I had the "Sticky Finger" which has ... hold on to your hats...Peanut Butter, Bacon Bits, Sweet Jalapeño Relish, and Cheddar Cheese.It was really very, very good.  I had it with bison instead of beef.

We walked back to the hotel (it was across the parking lot) and I had a beer that Allen had brought along (St. Arnold Christmas Ale) and fell asleep within an hour.  Allen was wearing me out with the geocaching activities!  He may be 56 but he moves like a 30 year old.

We got up and took our time the next morning since we did not have much on the agenda.  The first stop was the OKC National Memorial which was very sobering.  I did not go in the museum part (it was not open yet)  but we wandered the grounds for a while.  Very sad.

After that we drove to a nearby lake to let Allen play like a monkey and climb some trees.  He was looking for some specific geocaches, some harder ones requiring some tree climbing.  We struck out on a couple that were missing but that did not seem to bother him.The ones we did get were worth it.

Again we meandered our way back towards Allen, TX, stopping at Shawnee for lunch, again at Braum's.  I had a chicken sandwich this time instead of a burger like I did last time.  It was pretty good for fast food.

After lunch we drove through Ada, OK to get a geocache that one of Allen and my friends (Briarboy) had placed and that allowed me a photo op while there.  From that point on we drove straight home, only stopping for gas and to take a leak.  We did grab a new geocache at the Texas welcome center that neither of us had gotten yet.  It was a breaker box mounted on the back of a tree with a lock but the cache page had the combo listed so it was not any problem.  The breaker box was missing a conduit plug and mice had lived in it at one time but they were no longer home :).

I made it home at approx 4:45 PM and chatted with the wife before putting my gear away and getting a bite to eat.  I was in bed by 8 PM!

Something I Do Not Quite Understand

To date, Hillary Clinton has 63.6 million popular votes, which is approximately 1.7 million more votes than Donald Trump has for the 2016 Presidential election.  With so many people voting for Clinton, why is it that only 4.5 million people have made an effort and signed the change.org petition (As of Nov 22st) to have the Electoral College cast their votes for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump?  Is it because the other ~59 million people really don't care about the outcome?

Since nobody really knows why don't we, just for fun, make some guesses:

* 4.5 million voters really are pissed enough to sign the change.org petition.
* 20 million voters just flipped a coin and do not care either way who wins.  They are screwed no matter what anyway.
* 3.25 million voters do not have access to the internet (assuming all adults without internet access voted for Clinton).
* 20 million college student voters are still in their "safe place" which probably does not have internet access (assuming all college students enrolled voted for Clinton).
* 5 million votes are fraudulent (deceased voters, illegal immigrants, multiple votes by the same person, etc).

Where are the other ~10 million voters?  Could it be that the number of people who are really upset at the presidential outcome is much less than the MSM is leading us to believe?  It has been well documented that Hillary Clinton has received more votes in this election than any other presidential candidate other than Barack Obama.  Where are all her supporters now?

My HONEST opinion is that the majority of the people who voted for Hillary Clinton, for a variety of reasons, just don't care enough to continue on with the fight.  Let's face it.  All the constant fighting is exhausting.

As a third party voter, I personally do not like either candidate.  I don't feel like Clinton is trustworthy and that Trump is a spoiled rich kid.  Had this been reversed I would still continue to write about the outcome.

It Is Getting Harder Every Day

Each morning I wake up at 5 AM, take my ALS meds (with no way of knowing if they are helping or not) and head into the master bathroom to get my shower and brush my teeth.  Like most men, my hygiene time is generally less than most women (I don't have to put on makeup, fix my hair or apply oils/lotions to keep my skin soft) but lately I see that time increasing a bit more each day.  Getting ready to leave the house is progressively getting harder each day.

I like long, hot showers but now the amount of time spent in the shower is not because I enjoy it, it is because now it just simply takes me longer to perform the action of getting clean than it did a year ago.  The scary thing is that it is only going to get worse.

For the past year and a half or so I have not had much use of my left hand for fine motor skill activities.  I have compensated by using my right hand more but now I am noticing that is is beginning to fail me at times, mostly in the morning, when it is cold, or when I am hungry.  I cannot even button my jeans in the morning anymore. Usually by 9 or 10 AM (once I have had some coffee and some food) I can but I run the risk of not being able to unbutton them while I am work.  If I wore my jeans "baggy", I could probably mitigate the problem a bit.  I normally wear a 32x32 and moving to a 34x32 does not sound all that appealing but I will do what I have to do.  I guess I need to research to see what kinds of pants are available for people in my situation.

Humbling.

Found this web site.  Looks promising.

Examples of Liberal "Tolerance"

To be fair, both sides are guilty, really.  The bashing and gloating really make social media difficult to look at the past couple of days.

Don't get me wrong...I get it.  Trump really angered a lot of women and immigrants/minorities.  He ran his campaign in such a way that even I was surprised he won. He is not a politician (which in some ways may be a good thing) and speaks whatever is on his mind (not such a good thing), has a ton of money and probably plans on buying his way if it can be done. He is a living cartoon character.  But is he actually worth all the HATE people are spewing? One would think that energy could be used more productively.

This is one example from one of my long time friend' s Facebook wall.  My friend has several other "friends" who are pretty upset at Trump winning the election.  I probably should not have even commented (Don't feed the trolls) but I was just trying to point out that Hillary won the popular vote and her supporters should at least take some solace in that.  One of my friends "friends" had some outdated info they posted regarding the election results.  I politely corrected that person.  That person then went on a tirade on how the independent voters cost Hillary the election, taking away her votes. Again, I tried to politely correct that person. That person went on to call anyone who voted for Trump a redneck.  I did not vote for Trump but somehow I get the feeling this person still wants someone to blame.  I get the feeling the people who are so upset do not understand the system.  Maybe taking a Civics class would help.

Notice that third party voters are not spitting this kind of vitriol and I can guarantee that Trump supports would not be this hate-filled if they lost.  Heck, as mad as the Conservatives were when Obama won, I don't remember this kind of backlash.

If Clinton supporters want to be angry, they should be angry at the DNC, not Trump or his supporters. The DNC decided that Bernie was not a viable candidate and pushed for Hillary, who is as polarizing as Donald Trump.  Had Bernie been the DNC's choice, I think the outcome would have been different.

One of the best reads on this comes from a guy I used to work with "Spork".

Oh, one last note.  This administration will be Republican controlled as the Republicans are in control of Congress, which should make getting legislation passed a bit easier.  Now hopefully Trump will surround himself with smart, knowledgeable people to guide him in decision making.

BTW, some Facebook "friends" (of a liberal bent) have disappeared.  So much for tolerance, love and acceptance.

Post Election Comments

The United States has elected a new president, Republican Donald Trump.  Let that sink in.  His opponent was a lifelong politician and wife to former Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Those were the primary choices the US had to lead our great nation.  Of course we had other options, Independent candidates Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, but they really only served to take votes away from Trump and Clinton. There was no chance they would get elected but nonetheless they received votes from people who could just not tolerate the idea of voting for the Democratic or Republican candidate being offered.   I am not going to hide the fact that I chose Gary Johnson.  In my opinion he was, despite his faults, better than then Democratic or Republican choices being offered.

My father (when he was living) *hated* the fact I voted Independent.  He was a life-long Democrat and said, "a vote for an Independent was a vote thrown away".  I respected his opinion but I did not share it.

Social media has not been a pleasant place today.  SOME who voted for Trump are gloating like poor winners and SOME who voted for Clinton are vitriolic, saying how much they hate those who supported Trump, how America is doomed, etc.  I even read one post where the author condemned ("I hate them all") the third party voters because they cost her the election!  People, please do your homework.

Hillary won the popular vote, albeit not by much (at the time of this post...things could change).  The Electoral votes are what got Trump elected.  To my knowledge no Electoral vote was cast for a third party candidate, hence those voters cannot be blamed!

Many of my friends are conservative voted for Trump and while they never said anything to me about it, I am sure they were disappointed and fearful that third party voters would "steal" votes from Trump.  Maybe, just maybe, they did but again IT DOES NOT MATTER.  The electoral votes are all that matters, so Trump supporters, it is a moot point.

I also have a lot of friends who are liberals and many of them voted for Hillary.  Most of them were not happy when I voted third party.  They were certain it would take away votes  from their candidate.  RELAX, Hillary won the popular vote (at the time of this post and not by much).  The independent voters did not hurt you, in fact they may have actually helped.  If I had only Clinton and Trump to chose from, I probably would not have voted at all.

I can appreciate the passion you have for the candidate you endorsed.  However, all the hate (from both sides) only makes you look like a spoiled baby.  Conservatives lost in 2008 and 2012...they got over it.  For my liberal friends, this to shall pass.  For my conservative friends, be a good sport.  Work towards building bridges.

Rough Night

Rough night last night for me.  Even though I had a glass of tonic water before I went to bed, I fought cramps all night long.  I slept but it was fitful.  I was up 2-3 times in an 8 hour period and was woken up with cramps twice that number.  I don't feel very rested.

I am beginning to feel this condition more and more.  Heck, I did not even want to walk much last night, even though the rain had stopped.  Anyone who knows me knows I love to walk and I just did not have the desire to yesterday.

You Never Really Know Someone

Sometime in June of 2009, I received word that James "Jimbo" Childers, the older brother of my friends Lou Ellen and Jan Childers, had committed suicide. I had (and still do have) friends in local law enforcement who, while not divulging any specifics, told me that the story was beginning to look very dark and sinister and that I would probably be very shocked by what would eventually be released to the media.

While the fascination of whatever dark secrets would later be revealed intrigued me, I really did not give Jimbo's death much thought. While I knew him, I was not close to him and had only hung around with him a few times.On those few times that I was around him, he and I were drinking with his younger brother and sister, both of whom I spent a fair amount of time around.

A few weeks after the news of his death, I learned that just days before he died, Childers mailed an audio cassette tape to the Clarksburg Police Department confessing to multiple murders and arsons. The story was in the local news for a few months and eventually the FBI became involved but since Jimbo had killed himself the police were never able to substantiate his claims of committing five murders.  The have been able to link him to three of them but were never able to find the other two bodies Childers claimed to have buried on his family farm in Braxton County, WV.  Cadaver dogs were unable to locate any human remains on the 96 acre farm.  Without any new leads, the case has gone cold.  

The transcript of his confession was released about a year later in the hopes of discovering new evidence.

You never really know someone, do you?