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.

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?

Is It Really Mid October and If It Is, WHY is it still 90 Degrees Outside?

Autumn is my favorite time of the year.  Harvest time means cooler temperatures, fresh apples (pie, cobblers, CIDER, etc), pumpkin EVERYTHING (that can be a bad thing...really), long hikes and camping.  Well, normally it does.  Right now we are flirting with 90 degree daytime (70 degree at night) temps and it sure does not feel like harvest season to me.  Hopefully that will change in a week or two.

I wrote to my sister the other day and in doing so I guess I caught her off guard with the content. My sis and I are not super close (we text and e-mail as well as yearly visits) but our relationship is light years ahead of the one I had with our brother. It still pains me that we never were able to reconcile but I did try... however, I digress.

Sis wrote me back today, obviously a bit shaken by the tone/subject of my e-mail.  In a nutshell I asked her to be the caretaker of my Google and Microsoft accounts and to make a "final"post on my Facebook account when the time comes.  There is a lot of data out there in the cloud and I had hoped she would agree to be the administrator of that data.  Long story short, she agreed and asked that I do a couple of things for her, which I will most certainly do. We are family.

I really hate to dump more on my sis...she has a lot on her plate:  Married, children (one autistic), full time job, manages my mom's medical issues, has her own health concerns to contend with, lost one brother to cancer a few years ago and now stands to lose another brother within the next 5 or so years due to one of the most EVIL conditions a person can be diagnosed with, ALS.

I continue to have good days and bad days.  Overall my energy level is much lower than it was a year and a half ago (I ran a half marathon in the spring of 2015 and did damn well for a sick dude...just a little over 2 hours for 13.1 miles) and while  my left hand has always been severely compromised, my right hand is now beginning to give me more trouble.  I am having difficulty  with a lot of day to day tasks but so far I have found a way to perform them.

I also finding myself getting "weepy" more often now.  Sad thoughts will cause my eyes to well up (like right now) with tears and I have to really pull myself together just to appear normal.  It just ain't cool for a 51 year old man to being streaming tears at work.

Work still weighs heavy on my mind as the pending merger gets closer and closer.  If I survive the layoffs I will be part of a new company, which will mean I have unwillingly changed companies 3 times in the past 14 years due to outsourcing, spin-offs, and mergers.  It gets harder to do my day to day work if it involves much typing due to the decreased mobility of my hands.  Company disability is becoming more and more appealing but the thought of living on ~70% of what I earn now is frightening.  Things are tight now...on disability they will be almost unacceptable so I keep plugging along hoping for some  miracle of finance to appear :)

I do a lot of voice (THANK YOU GOOGLE!) typing as well as "hunt and peck" typing which is not fast but it allows me to continue working.  The down side to that is my hands are so tired by the end of the day I cannot hold  much.  I am not complaining...just stating a fact.

Welcome to "the new normal" of my life.

Not Much Has Changed

I know, it has been a while since my last update.  I have had a lot of things going on so now that things are simmering (not at a rolling boil) I figured I can make an update.

First off, we (me, wife, newish dog) drove the Taco to the pan handle of Florida for a week of leisure. The location was more for my wife than it was for me.  I like the mountains (you can take the boy out of WV, but you cannot take the WV out of the boy) but the wife likes the salt life so once a year she goes and sometimes I go with her.  A few times over the years she has gone with friends.  Suits me fine.

The week was nice overall.  We were 3 miles from the closest anything (food, entertainment, shopping) and 20 miles from our favorite places to eat.  I was glad I took my bike because not only was I able to keep up with the company sponsored fitness challenge, but I could do some Ingress (what little there was on the island) at the same time.

The trip was a chance for me to try out two new items I purchased on Amazon.  The first and most important was a tonneau cover for the Taco.  I picked up a tri-fold cover for $200 shipped, which was $50 cheaper than I had seen it before.  This was a different brand but  the reviews were all good.  It worked well enough but there is small gap in the back near the glass that caused some water to get in under the cover but it was minimal.

The second item was a bike mount for my mobile phone.  Playing Ingress on my bike is fun but without a mount, it is dangerous.  I have already wiped out once because of this.  The new mount worked very well and holds my Moto G quite securely.  The only complaint I have is the side mount blocks the "down" volume key but that is a minor issue.

The dog did well on the trip, mostly.  She became figitity after a few hours of driving so we had to stop to let her stretch her legs.  A few times she tried to climb up in the front seat,  which was dangerous but my wife,who was not driving at the time, took care of her.  The dog finally began to enjoy the water after only 3 trips to the beach.  She is a hound and we were not sure how she would adapt.  With no place to let her out to do her business, I had to walk her every time she needed out.  It was not too bad but she got me up most every morning at 4 or 5 AM to go out.  I just took my meds, grabbed my phone, a poop bag, and a flashlight (it is dark at our end of the island) and headed out. The one good  thing about the 4 or 5 AM nature call was I could sneak up and hake the portal that was just inside a private area.  During the day, if you crossed the line a guard in a nearby guard shack came out an ran you off, politely of course.  At 4 or 5 AM, it is too dark for him to see anyone 50 feet from his well lit shack, so I did my hacking there at those hours.  I have held that portal for about 3 weeks.  I am hoping to make it 60 days.  Mostly likely I will not, but I can dream.

Almost all  the Ingress portals on the island were in the center and we were at the farthest west public  part of the island.  Any further west was  private.  The far east end of the island is a state park with a few portals but since you have to pay each time you enter the park, I just stayed  out.  Only a small number of portals are there anyway.

So I hopped on my bike each morning and rode to the center of the island, hacked, linked, upgraded, and fielded the portals then rode home, putting in about 10 miles or so each morning.  Those rides, plus the ones I did at home (planing Ingress in evening in the town where I live) allowed me to meet my fitness challenge for biking (240+ miles for the month).

The food we had on this trip (mostly lunch since it was a little less expensive) was OK but not as good as I have had in the past.  I never had the chance to eat any scallops (my fav) but I did have some baked oysters a couple of times.  As a matter of fact, I had seafood every day that week.

Ingress Update:  I am at Level 11, with 6.6 million points.  For the first time since I started playing this, I am short  both points AND badges to level up again.  I currently need two more Gold badges and it looks like unless I either field and link like a madman or I go in search of a lot of new portals, it will be months before I level up again.  This folks, is where it starts getting hard.  I have reached Silver in almost all badges (that I am not already Gold or Platinum in) but I am quite a ways off from getting those two more Gold.

Since I have been busy with work, a week long vacation, a weekend camping trip, and other things, I have not been overly active on the weekends like I normally am.  I noticed a few of the other agents in the Resistance have started working in my neck of the woods,  which I am sure is driving Hockey Family crazy.  A large part of the city is blue and it appears the Hockey Family is fighting hard for a few portals nearby.  I can see HockeyMan does a lot of work south of us, where he works but I don't see any real farms (of any high level)  there.

Our little L7/L8 Cemetery was taken down again the other day.  What I find odd about that was it was not linked/fielded up so the toads would have to waste a lot of get for little return.  I usually avoid taking down farms that don't have links/fields because of this but maybe the people who took it out were bored.  They did not link it up and they did not defend it well so I am not sure of the reason  to take it out.  I had a few L6 XMP's to spare so I unleashed those to kill some resonators (working for my badge) but left it mainly untouched.  Hopefully the people who took it out will continue to battle for it...I could use the points.

One nice thing about my vacation was it allowed me to farm a lot.  I am not sure why but when I farmed lower level (3-5) portals, I got a lot of shields and a surprisingly large number of AXA's and ADA's...enough that I have been using them to flip portals instead of wasting my supply L8 XMP's. There have been a couple I have flipped more than once, simply because I can.  I will slow down when I get low, which might take a while since I have accumulated so many.

I have been farming as much as I can and hacking any portal that I come across, even if it is low level.  Farming nothing but high level portals only gets you high level gear and believe me you will want some L4 Reso's if you run out!  I am currently holding on to several L3 and L4 reso's to help fill our portals.

The biggest surprise for me was all the MUFG containers I have gotten in the past 3 weeks.  I had (at one time)  11.  I know it is just a random chance but it sure has been interesting.  Of course I just recycled most of them...how many can I actually use?

My  ALS has not been bothering me much but my hand is getting weaker and I noticed my left leg slightly give out on me when I tried to run across the street.  That was a little scary but I did not fall.  I just stumbled a little and recovered.

Well, the hand is tired so  I need to give it a break. 

Look! A post that is not dedicated to Ingress (well, much anyway)

Work.

At the time of writing this (Sept 11, 2015) I am 50 years old (as of last month) and officially have been in the workforce for a little over 32 years.  The first 10 or so I was a blue collar worker and it agreed with me for a time.  But eventually I snagged a white collar job working for a regional cellular provider in a shirt and tie (!) environment and have been white collar ever since (with the exception of some white collar side jobs taken to make additional money).

After 32 years of working 40+ hours per week, I have really started to think what retirement might look like.  I have colleagues who are retiring (some by choice, others not so much) and seeing people I care about moving on is somewhat sad.

Now to be honest, the odds of me being able to retire are not all that great.  Regular readers/stalkers are aware I have been diagnosed with ALS (I am not going to rehash a previous post...you can look it up and educate yourself if you are unfamiliar with ALS), and barring a few exceptions, my chances of living another 12 years (age of early retirement) are pretty slim.  Statistically,  I should not expect to see my 55th birthday,  which is far below retirement age. No, I am not dwelling on the thought of dying, nor am  I seeking to garner sympathy.  I am just stating a fact.

The fact is I will collect disability far before I can retire.  Disability will not be fun as it pays ~70% of what I earn now and my retirement funds are not stellar (although I am ahead of many I personally know).  My quality of life (and that of my wife, who is 3 years my elder) will change as the money flow slows down and the expenses increase.  Thankfully we are debt free with the exception of the house.

The current work situation has made me question the timing of my taking disability.  Work is stressful (I am pulling double duty right now with job roles) with ongoing projects that constantly clutch at me.  If not for Ingress to help me blow off some steam, I might go mad.

Contract issues, employee issues, contractor issues, PO issues...the list goes on.  Most of it was caused due to a desire to cut costs but the repercussions have been greater than expected.  Since the man who was  dealing with a large part of this has taken another role within the company, not on this account,  I was asked to fill it on an interim basis.  That was supposed  to be a 30 day window but it is looking more and more like 90 days.  I turned down the role because I am formally in a global process related role and dislike the regional politics the role I am filling in for seems to be stuck in. I have been asked by at least two managers to reconsider but I am just not sure I need the added stress. My neuro certainly does not think I need to add to my plate.  He feels I should be cutting back some. While I am still very physically active biking (yes Hockey Family, that was me the other night :-) ), walking and using an elliptical  machine at work, added work stress will not help me any as I manage to live with the early  (slowly progressing) onset of ALS.

On to other subjects.  I like TV.  I like discovering new shows.  I usually take recommendations from colleagues and friends but somehow I seemed to miss "Mr. Robot" on  USA.  DAY-UMMM, that is an awesome show (well  at least  episode one was.  I hope to see more soon)!  I was bored and came across the on demand listing for it and gave it a shot.  I was not disappointed.  Christian  Slater is not all that great but the lead character is.  Interesting story line!

Well, now that Hockey Family has found my blog, I guess I will no longer be discussing Ingress strategies here.  I can tell from the past few nights that the family has changed their tactics some by seeking out high point link anchors.  Good job on making the switch.  Smart move.  I will need to adjust mine strategy as well but Wayne, the guy I geocache and sometimes Ingress with will not change his style, so he is on his own,

Wipeout!

I had a wipe out today on my bike.  I was trying to dodge some glass (at a very low speed, at that) and lost control on some gravel.  I cut my eyelid and have some severe road rash on the back of one of my ears. Other than that (and a sore wrist on my ALS affected hand...I am wearing a brace right now) I am fine.  I need to get my new tires on my bike since the old ones are so old.

And yes, I was doing some Ingress but that is not what cause the spill.  I would serve me right if it did but I was going slow and not even looking at my phone...it was in my pocket...for once :)

Living with ALS - The Early Stages

It has been 7 months since my official diagnosis (and a year since the preliminary diagnosis) and I thought I would post an ALS update.

To date, the only issue I can detect is  the loss of a larger percentage of my fine motor skills in my left (non-dominant) hand.  Everything else appears normal, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.  I have been asked several times what that means, exactly.  Well, the best way to describe the loss of my fine motor skills would be to have you put on a heavy winter glove on your non-dominant hand and try to do simple things like button a shirt, zip a zipper, open and close a zipper baggie, tie your shoes, or fasten your jeans.  It can be done but you will have some difficulty.  Since I cannot manipulate small objects, I have to adjust, which is like learning to do it all over again.

I have ZERO pinch strength in my left hand causing me a lot of issues when I have to grip things with both hands (like a zipper baggie, or tear open a bag of chips).  I tend to use my teeth as a substitute for my left hand when I can (sorry Dr. Weyandt) which speeds things up but if what I am doing is for someone else, they probably should do the opening.  Also using my left hand for washing is cumbersome and awkward without the coordination I used to have

My hand grip is limited but is still useful with the aid of  multi-tools/pliers which are quickly becoming my friends.

Typing has been reduced to a lot of improper form but fortunately I don't have to type a large amount each day.

All that being said, I feel good overall.  My sleep schedule has been altered but that is only because our new dog wants to go use the bathroom at 3 or 4 in the morning and since I get up at 5, it really does not pay to try to go back to sleep.  I end up getting pretty sleepy by 9 PM and rarely do I stay up past 10.

Labcorp, Where for Art Though/Here Comes the Rain Again...

After and insanely wet (and record setting) spring here in North Texas (NTX), Tropical Storm "Bill" will be making landfall shortly and is expected to drench us with 2-5 inches of rain.  If it was going to happen I wish it would have happened last week.  I need to get my neighbor's grass cut before I hit the road on Saturday and from the looks of things it might be too wet to cut before I leave and that will be bad.  All that water and the heat we have already been seeing (mid 90's each day) will create a humid environment just perfect for the grass to take off.  Good news for the grass seed we just put down but bad news for my grass cutting.

As previously posted, I need to go to Labcorp each month to have blood tests performed to make sure the Riluzole I am taking does not destroy my liver.  Each month a couple of days after the blood is drawn, the results are posted online.  Last month the results never made it online but were sent to my doc so at least he knew what the results were.  After opening a case with Labcorp the results were posted and due to the way the e-mail was phrased I don't think they ever would have shown up had I not contacted them.  Oh, my liver function is still within the normal range, although it did go up a few points.  Nothing to fear.  I can still continue to take my meds.

I also now have my meds send directly from my Insurance company to me every three months.  It is $10 less than the cost of going to the local pharmacy (I use Walmart normally because they are close) and they are shipped free.  The drawback is someone needs to be here to sign for them.  Normally that is not an issue because my wife is home but sometimes that is not always the case.

My wife did some pet sitting last week.  The three legged monster known as "Spunky" spent a week at our place and for the most part was very well behaved. He is an attention fiend and since he did not get as much from us as he normally gets from his owners, he began to act up the last three days he was with us.  He began to whine at night when we put him in his cage (he was fine the first few nights) and then began getting into the potted plants my wife has in the open dining area.  Spunky is now home with his people and our house is back to normal.

Saturday I start my  road trip to visit family and friends on/near the east coast. It is an aggressive itinerary, with stops in 4 states over a 2 week period.  I am staying about a week in WV with mom, visiting family and childhood friends.  Then the following week I am driving to VA to spend a few nights with one of the first people I ever met when I moved to NC.  He and I have been friends as long as we have known each other, which is over 20 years.  I don't get to see him very often but since I have been diagnosed with ALS and he is a good friend I wanted to do everything in my power to stop by and see him at least one more time.

After a short stay in VA, I will cruise down to NC and try to meet up with another friends and former roommate if time permits.  Then I am off to GA to visit a former classmate and coworker whom I have not seen in at least 20 years.  He too, has graciously opened up his home to allow me a good night's sleep while on the road.  Not only is this a money saver, but it is safer and more comfortable. It will be so nice to see everyone again.

My TV watching has tapered off quite a bit with my DVR almost empty with sole exception of the year+ backlog of Cutthroat Kitchen episodes my wife has not watched yet.  I recently started recording "Texas Rising" and a new mini-series on AMC about the American Mob.  It started last night and runs for 8 episodes.

I am quickly losing my love for the Game Of Thrones TV series.  maybe I am just too much of a book purest but the show just does not do anything for me anymore.  I tore through the books at a frenetic pace, much like I enjoyed the first 2-3 seasons of the TV show but now my desire for the show has waned greatly.  It still is visually stunning but the story arcs are not what I want to see.

Scary Dude at the Movies

It was a rainy weekend (May 9-10) in the NTX (North Texas) region and with that I decided to be lazy. I did  little to no housework slept in a bit, breakfast with friends, a little geocaching (with some poison ivy as a result) caught up on some older episodes of Archer (bad stuff but funny) and on Sunday I decided to go to the movies to see The Avengers:  Age of Ultron.  I won't go into detail on the movie because to I am not sure I could give a fair review but I will say this:  James Spader makes the movie, at least to me.

I arrived at the theater early, sat down, and watched TA:AoU, enjoying Ultron's facial expressions and head movement, which were very much like James Spader himself, as he is on NBC's, "The Blacklist".  During the movie it was raining quite hard and when I exited the theater I noticed the park nearby was flooded due to the overflowing of Wilson creek.  I snapped a few photos and drove off to grab a bite to eat before the next movie started (which by the way I had no idea I would be seeing but once I saw it was playing I had to make the time to see it).

I grabbed a quick bite at McDonald's, eating a 1/3 sirloin burger (I think), some fries, and a cup of the worst tasting iced tea I have ever had in recent memory (typically McD's ice tea is pretty good, albeit a bit sweet).

I arrived back at the theater with about 30 minutes to spare before the next showing of "Ex_Machina" started.  I had spotted the trailer online and was intrigued after watching it a few times.  I bought my ticket ($3.40 matinee, again!  Two movies for $6.80) and proceeded to find a seat.  When I got in the theater, it was completely empty so I find my favorite spot (3/4 of the way back, one seat left of center) and sit down.  I am in my seat for all of 5 minutes when voice boomed out, "HEY!  When does the movie start?"  I turned around and see a a scary looking man who looks a lot like "Bubba" from the movie "Forrest Gump" standing in the aisle.  I politely told him it started at 2:05 and he then asked me what time it was now.  I replied it was about 1:30 and he disappeared.  Wow, that was odd.

10 minutes later Scary Dude comes back in the still empty theater and sits down in the seat, RIGHT NEXT TO ME.  He asks me if I have a car.  He asks me where I live.  He asks me if he gives me 5$ if I will give him a ride.  This man is scary looking big.  I am betting he can snap me like a twig.

Yes I have a car.  I lie about where I live.  Sorry, I do not think it is safe to ride with strangers, so no, I will be unable to give him a ride.  Nothing personal.  He could be a kid, male, female, black, white, young, old, whatever...I do not give rides.

He then goes on to tell me he is an out patient at a local hospital and he is on meds to keep from becoming paranoid.  He assures me he is not paranoid at this moment but he will need to get home shortly after the movie to take his meds on time.  He also says he lives very close to his church which is just up the street.  He also states he does not want to walk in the rain.  I can feel for him there...been there, done that.

More people come in to the theater including a family of four (with the children being preteens, it would appear), all sitting at various spots...no one group sitting all that close to another with the exception of the family of four, sitting in front of me and Scary Dude.   Side note, a movie rated "R" that states it has nudity, language and sexual content is really not appropriate for preteens in my opinion, but that is just me.

He goes on to tell me his pastor (he tells me the name of his pastor and the church he attends) dropped him off after church because he wanted to go see a movie.  Knowing what little I know about this movie, I am not sure this is the best choice for my scary looking friend, but I am not passing judgement.  All I know is that he makes me very ill at ease.

He continues to make small talk while the pre-movie attractions play.  He asks me if the movie is rated "R" and how long it will last.  He even goes as far as making a phone call while on speakerphone.  The call was to someone who was going to get a message to he sister to come pick him up...which I hope she did.

Finally the lights go out and the trailers for upcoming movies.  Scary dude gets up a and leaves again and deep down I am hoping he will forget which movie he was in.  There are 14 rooms in this theater...one can hope!  Alas I was not so lucky.

Scary dude comes in moments before the movie starts and sits down one seat away from me, despite the vast availability of empty seats scattered around the room.  During the movie he leaves and returns at least 5 times, always returning to the same seat one down form me.  He makes comments here and there and I begin to realize Scary dude probably is not dangerous, but he might have a chemical imbalance and possibly mild mental retardation.

Upon return from his last venture out of the theater, he rather loudly announces, "That dude got drunk while I was gone!", referring to one of the main characters in the movie who was a heavy drinker.  I realize at this point Scary Dude has no idea what the movie is about.  If you walk away from it you will become lost.  He just seems to be here to pass the time.

The movie is finally over and since there is no one in the row behind me, I jump the seat and move as fast as I can to the exit and then leave the building despite the fact I have to urinate like a Russian race horse.  I do not want to take a chance of getting hung up talking to Scary Dude.

Lunch With Former Colleagues

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty good day over all.  I few former colleagues and I decided to get together for lunch at a more upscale Tex-Mex place about 30 min from my work.  I know for most people that seems illogical but my plan was to work from home the second half of the day since my wife would be out running errands (and we cannot be in the same house when I am working from home...she has trouble understanding the "working" part of "working from home").

I met Shannon and Gary at Casa Milagro at noon and we were seated immediately.  We ordered and in a short time our food was served.  The brisket taco platter I ordered was very good (the rice and beans were pedestrian but the brisket was awesome and the tacos were not soggy at all) and we spent the next 1.5 hours eating,  talking and catching up.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their meal.  The location was Shannon's idea, as her out of state parents eat there every time they come in to visit and love the food.  I had to admit that it was not as uppity as I had thought and the lunch menu prices were reasonable (my meal was $12 including tip).

Gary was not aware of my diagnosis so  he was quite speechless when I told him.  He event went as far as to say, "I am at a loss for words".  He even sent me an e-mail later that afternoon  telling me if I needed anything at all, just to let him know.  I knew he was a nice guy but that act of kindness  was very touching...we are not "close" but did hang out on coffee breaks together when he worked here.

Shannon already knew since we have been keeping in touch so she was not surprised although I think the condition of my left hand caught her off guard.  I do a good job of hiding the inefficiency of the limited appendage  so most people do not know until it is pointed out to them.

I like both Shannon and Gary.  Gary is a quiet guy from Shreveport,LA and is one of the few people I have ever met that uses a knife and fork when eating a sandwich. I guess he was raised a little differently than I was.  he does not come across as better than anyone else, but he does prefer the finer things in life.

Shannon has lived in Colorado,  Louisiana, and Texas and in a few months will be moving to Washington state to be closer to her family.  She is one of the most independent women I know (she don't need no man at all ...poor grammar intended).  She has a very  big personality and it can rub a lot of people the wrong way.  I was one of the few people sad to see her go,  prolly because she was not a sheeple and questioned stupid decisions  and was not quiet when others would back down.  I am going to miss her when she leaves.

Lunch with those two was a highlight of my week.  We have made a pact to go out to lunch more often  until Shannon moves then Gary and I will still prolly get together once in a while as long as I am still able.

The next event I  am really looking forward to is my trip to WV, although telling mom and my extended family about my ALS will not be pleasant, the time with friends will be,  I am planning on swinging through VA on the way back and hanging out with my buddy who lives there.  I am going to take him geocaching  and he is going to take me to the gun range (I have never fired a handgun before).  We hope to be able to meet up with our former roommates for lunch if that is in the cards. I expect it will be an eventful trip.

Just Not In The Mood / More Rain

I am going to be honest and say that I have not been overly motivated to do much of anything lately...well at least the last two weeks.  I am not really motivated at work and that is partly because my global manager has been on vacation and not available for input on a project he has me working on.  He says that I can pretty much do what I want but I am not feeling very inspired.

Even something that I love, geocaching, has not provided much joy to me as of late.  I admit the weather has been wet (a bit of an oddity in Texas) and I am not a fan of tromping around in the muck to look for Tupperware hidden in the woods.  Normally, my wife has trouble keeping home and away from geocaching but lately I can't seem to get motivated much to leave the house outside of going to work or the story and an occasional walk  or yard work.

I am sure this is due to my near constant reminders (cramping, twitching, hand claw) of my ALS. These symptoms appear to be getting worse.

I have my annual vacation/trip back home scheduled in late June.  I am going to take two weeks this year (a first for me) and visit an old friend in Virginia on my way back.  On the way up I hope to take a longer route to allow me to drive through some states I have not been in before and hopefully (if my interest returns) get a geocache in each one.

I am dreading the thought of telling mom of my diagnosis. While she is a strong woman I am not sure how she will handle the news.  My sister seems to have taken it well enough but I know that at some point the reality will sink in and she will break down some.

My wife is still strangely neutral regarding this.  I realize part of that is the strained marriage we have had over the past 21 years but I would have expected at least something from her.

I am still taking my meds and that reminds me that I need to pick them up from the pharmacy on my way home.  I was hoping to mow grass but the 20% chance of rain has turned in to a full morning of liquid sunshine, soaking the ground again.  That means my already high grass will get much higher before the rain lets up and it dries up enough to cut, which should be Sunday at the earliest, if the current forecast holds true.

Perfect Conditions for a Race

As things turned out, it was a great day for a race.  It was in the mid 50's when I woke up and it was in the low 60's by race time.

I woke up feeling pretty good (no aches).  I got out of bed and took my meds immediately, since I have to wait an hour before I can eat and I should eat 1 hour before the race.  I dress, limber up, stretching a bit while nervously pacing.  I brush my teeth/rinse my mouth, check e-mail and the weather forecast for the millionth time.  All is looking good.  I get a text from a good friend in Richmond wishing me luck.  It is nice to be thought of on race day.

After an hour I eat a Clif bar (I love those things) and drink a little water.  I did a good job of hydrating the week before so I should be fine during the race.  I make a final trip to the bathroom and get my running belt (really just a fanny pack/bum bag) before heading out to the truck.

I arrive at the race location in Fairview, TX (just a few minutes from my house about 40 minutes before race time and it looks like 75% of the runners are already there.  I start nursing my Vitamin Water (Citrus flavor with caffeine) slowly, prepping my body for the run.  I mill around a bit and get a text from my runny buddy, Tom. He has arrived and is near the start line.  We meet up, discuss strategy and decide to run with the 2:15 (2 hour, 15 minute) group.  Tom can go faster but he has decided to show solidarity by running my retirement race at my pace.  I just hoped I could keep up.

The last 15 minutes go by very quickly and before I know it we are moving.  I am 60-80 feet back from the starting line and once I cross it I start my fitness app "Runkeeper".  Tom and I are on our way.   The initial swell is difficult to navigate as some of the slower runners are in the front, hindering the faster runners from getting into stride and position but after .25 miles or so Tom and I are in solid with the 2:15 group.

As we run we notice the 2:10 is very close to us and that means someone is off.  I check our pace and it appears the 2:10 group is a little slow so we push towards them.  This course shares some of the route as "The Showdown Half" that is in October which I ran last year, but where The Showdown starts off mostly flat for the first 4-5 miles, the Fairview Half starts off with a slow down hill and then over rolling hills, a long mild uphill grade, then more rolling hills towards the finish.

At mile 2 Tom takes a Race Selfie (called a "runfie") with me in it as well.  It is still early and we are both smiling.  We continue on and our pace stays pretty steady at just under 9:30/mile ... not blazing fast but I am not an athlete.  If I can keep this up I will be sitting on a PR (personal record) but we still have a long way to go.  I eat one of my Muscle Milk Energy chews  and do so each mile until mile 8.

Somewhere around mile six (and before the halfway time check) I begin to feel my left ankle throb, which is normal with the muscle mass I have lost in it. Right now the only loss I can tell is in my left side. I am determined not to let the ache and later pain keep me from completing this race as strong as I can.

Near mile 8 I can tell that I need slow down to a fast walk.  Tom jokes that I walk almost as fast as he runs at this point so he cannot really walk to keep up with me so he slows his running pace down some.  I walk 75-100 meters or so and start running again.  I do this again at mile nine and at mile 10, where Tom takes another "runfie"  of us.  During mile 11 and 12 I walk 2-3 times per mile.  At one point during mile 11, my heart rate skyrockets and I know I have to walk.A couple of younger ladies catch up to me at mile 12 and motivate me to keep going.  I start running again.

The Mile 13 marker is in sight but it is long mild uphill climb still, as it has been for the past mile or so, and I want this race to be over.  My ankle is killing me and my energy level seems low (I really did not train for this race like I should have) but the finish is just about 600 feet away.  I soldier on. The shouts of encouragement from Tom's friends and even those I do not know give me the final push to cross the line, being aware that  I need to cross the sensor strip to get my time counted.

As I cross the line I see Tom ahead of me and I have kept him in sight the entire time so he is about 45 seconds ahead of me.  I get my finishers medal and unlike last year, I manage to gather up all the snacks I can (choco milk, water,  mini bundt cake, banana, etc)  before exiting the corral.  Tom and his friends meet up with me and we pose for pics.  We chat and I go sit down.  I must look rough because Tom asks me if I am okay, and I assure him that I am (I really am. I felt much better at the end of this one than the last one because I was able to walk a bit each mile during the last 1/3 of the race).

When we go back and check the scorers table, I see that I ran a 2:07:13, which is only 30 seconds slower than my first half marathon that I ran in Oct before I had any issues with ALS symptoms in my ankle, so I am pretty stoked about this.  I still finished in the top 1/3 of all the runners...nothing to be ashamed of.

A sit and rest a bit more (while playing with a Golden who is adorable and still very much a puppy despite her adult size) then head back to the truck, talking to runners as I get ready for running errands and chores.

All in all I ended up vacuuming the house and mowing grass that day as well.  Needless to say I slept very well that night.

This is most likely my last half marathon.  I feel blessed to have been able to finish it at all.  I know that my ALS is still in the early stages but it did have an effect on me.  I know that had I been 100% I could have broken the 2 hour mark for this race (or maybe the next one), but I guess that was not in the cards.

No worries...I have still done something not many people have ever done and that was compete in and finish (reasonably well I might add) in two half marathons...both when I was 49 and at least one of them while experiencing ALS symptoms in my ankle.

Go me!

The Race Must Go On

I have been actively following the threat of severe weather that was predicted on the day that I have planned to run my last half-marathon and I am happy to report that while rain is in the forecast, it appears it will not materialize until late afternoon or the evening.  The race will go on.

I picked up my race packet yesterday and like the previous Fairview Half Marathon, it was pretty skimpy.   There were a few coupons, an Emergen-C packet, and some fruit flavored gummy candy  but other than one of those drawstring bags you can wear as a backpack, there was nothing else other than the obligatory Race Day Shirt, which I have to admit is nicer than some cheap unisex cotton tee shirt that you see at some events.  I realize part of this money goes to charity, another part goes to the finisher's medals (which are gawd awfully big this year) and I am sure the rest to admin costs but your would think that sponsors would like to give out something of interest.

I just chucked the coupons since they were for places I cannot afford to shop at anyway.

I got home an my wife seemed rather perturbed that I had entered another race, or more accurately, had spent money on registration.  Yeah, money is something we fight about.  I know she gets concerned and I can appreciate that, but I don't waste money and it is not too often I want to spend it on something for just me.

Initially I thought she was upset because hard physical exertion only exasperates the symptons of ALS but I soon realized she was mad because of the money I spent.   Honestly, this bothers me quite a bit but discussing it with her is pointless.  I will be wrong no matter what.  I realize that men and women view spending differently.  She feels I waste money on my hobbies (which to be honest I have cut WAY back on) and I think she goes overboard on "natural" and "organic" products fur us and the dogs (when they were alive).  Maybe we are both wrong.  I just wish we could meet someplace in the middle.

That reminds me of a joke:

If a man is talking in the middle of the woods and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?

Today was a workout day but since I have a race tomorrow I took it easy and only did elliptical at a moderate pace for 60 minutes.  Normally I go at it a little harder,  hitting at least 8 miles during that same 60 minutes but I scaled it back today clocking in just over 7.75 miles.  No aches, no  pains.  I will need to get a restful nights sleep tonight, get up tomorrow and take my Rilozole  at 5:30, eat something light at 6:30, make sure I have used the bathroom and have nothing left to surprise me later, leave the house by 7:00 and start the race at 7:30.  I live pretty close so this should not be a problem but knowing me I will be up a little early because I will not be able to sleep.  Nerves on race day are common.

I remember my first half marathon I was so tired at the end I do not remember them handing me my finishers medal and walked right past the post race refreshments, which were fairly nice (water,  chocolate milk, OJ, baby bundt cakes, bananas, etc).  My buddy Tom had to point them out to me.  I will try to remember them this time.  I will be hungry because I will have burned off close to 1500 calories during this race.

One of the funniest things about these races is that they are part fashion show as well as athletic event.  Some people get  into dressing up (one guy dressed up in a viking hat last time and some of the women were in multicolored neon clothing that just did not match but it was fun to look at) and it can be quite the attraction.  Some people spend a lot of money on running gear but I just run in whatever is comfortable to me...typically a technical athletic shirt and shorts.  I have an old pair of running shows I save for races because they are so comfortable.  I know I cannot work out in them every day (the padding is worn out) but they are just fine for races.

It is also quite a social event.  I noticed a lot of the people picking up their packets yesterday were driving very nice cars (Audi,  BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc) and it is all about who you are seen with for some people.  Not me.  While I know I will not place in the top three of my age/gender catagory, I go  because I want to prove to myself that I can do it.  This time I am a little more skeptical  since my symptoms have worsened since I  registered at the beginning of the year. I am sure I can finish it but I am pretty sure that it will be slower than last time.  I average a 9:44/mile pace last time and would have done a bit better had I slowed it down earlier and saved myself for the end.  I ended up walking some during miles 11 and 12...not a lot but some.  This year I think I will hang with the 10:00/mile crowd and if I do better, so be it.  If not, then no harm to me.  Last year I started with the 9:50  crowd and moved up to the 9:40 before I started losing steam.   I hope not to repeat that.

I am not a natural athlete.  I have to work to do as well as I do, which is not stellar by any means but I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish.  Besides, how many other people with ALS will be running this? ;)

Drug Report and Running in the Rain

I have been taking Riluzole twice a day for just about two weeks now and I am happy to report  I am still not experiencing any side effects other than the mild "itchy mouth" I get shortly after taking it.  Honestly the worst thing I have had to deal with is making sure I do not eat anything 2 hours before and 1 hour after taking the medication.

I have been communicating quite a bit with a friend of mine who lives in Virginia with his wife, dog, and a couple of cats.  He has been a good person for me to unload my issues on.  We trade e-mails several times a week and talk on the phone once in a while as time permits.  We don't talk as much as we probably should simply because when I am  talking on the phone with someone I prefer that call to be private and a lack of privacy is something I am in great supply of, at least for the time being.

Physically I feel mostly the same although I would venture a guess that my left hand has lost more coordination and typing is getting harder with it.  So far that is the only real issue I have noticed.

I have been get more frustrated with my lack of coordination each day.  Today my hand is unusually problematic, giving me fits with the buttons on my shorts as well as my typing.  I really have not been blue or depressed, "mad at God", or anything like that.  It is mostly just frustration.  I have a very active mind and to have my body not keep up with it presents me with a special kind of hell to live with.

I am scheduled to participate in the Fairview Half Marathon on Saturday,  which will be a real test for me since I have not ran more than  5-6 miles in one stretch in several weeks.  For quite some time my left ankle was giving me issues (I think I tweaked it) then after it started feeling better my heal started bothering like I had a stone bruise.  All that bit of injury has certainly affected my cardio and/or endurance to some degree so I am pretty certain my time will be much slower than my last (and my only) half to date at 2:06:42 ... I am expecting a closet to 2:20 time but will certainly welcome something faster.  The weather forecast is not looking too good at the moment with a 40% chance of rain on race day and a high of 76.  Around race time it ought to be about 60% which will make for a cool, sloppy run.  Ought to be fun. 

The Beginning of a Busy Week / Recap

Well, it looks like this will be another busy week for me.  Last week I spent quite a bit of time in meetings and this one looks no different.  Meetings and e-mail are a tremendously draining of my time.  The extra mail I get from being a "deputy" is staggering.

The past weekend was pleasant.  I had breakfast with the guys like I normally do on Saturdays and instead of Geocaching right afterwards like I normally do, I went back home to take care of a few "honey do's".  I got them all done but one and probably could have take care of that one as well but I just was not in the mood to do it.

On Saturday I managed to clean and fix a leaky gutter, trim and edge the lawn, reset a sunken paver in the yard, pull out and move back the washer (so my wife could clean behind it), set up my wife's new Moto G mobile phone, and vacuum the house.  I know it probably does not sound like much but probably took me about 6 hours or so to do.

Sunday I went geocaching with a group of local cachers near Duncanville, specifically at Joe Pool Lake along the dam.  About 15 of us showed up to walk the 4 miles of dam and service road to collect the 30 caches that were there.  I guess we could have gotten more but we decided to cut it short.

To make up for the bad (health-wise) fast food lunch I had, I made a crab meat, spinach, and mushroom scramble for dinner.   I gave it a kick with some pepper jack cheese and itt really hit the spot.

I was unable to work out this morning due to a 6:30 AM meeting with colleagues in Europe.  Last week I had several early morning meetings as well that kept me from working out.  I really need to take a walk this evening to try to get some exercise in.

After my two meetings were over (I also had on at 9:00 am) I boxed up my old work mobile phones to be recycled.  The entire process was pretty easy.   The hardest part was finding a box small enough to ship them back in.  The phones have been sitting my drawer for a long time and I do not know why I had not sent them back yet.

Not My Standard Weekend

It has been a while since I have given the world, "an update" so I figured before I get any busier I had better do so...here she goes.

Work has been...well...work until last week when it was rather...boring. I was working 8-5 last week but thanx to my office mate being on call I could go home early almost every day. That was nice.

We received our first paycheck with the 5% pay cut last week and it was just about the amount I had expected it to be. President BHO's tax cut helped some but not enough. If I did not have to be on call I would get a second job.

Grass cutting season has arrived so I have started maintaining both ours and our neighbor's yard. I think this is the 7th year for me to do it and I have just now gone up on my rates which is kinda funny since other lawn care providers have cut their rate a tad. I always swim against the current.

The Golden has had a minor surgery to fix a spot on her muzzle she keeps messing with. Of course now she will not stop messing with the sutures but at least the will eventually heal.

I have not gone geocaching (well, any serious geocaching) in three weeks. I have picked up a few here and there but nothing like I used to. Work, the weather, and other events have kept me from going. Not that it is a bad thing, just that I am jonesing to get out and tromp around the woods again soon.

Last weekend the men at church met at "The Farm" (a big plot of land that is owned by one of the church member's fathers) for a weekend camping trip. While I did not pack to go camping, I did bring everything I needed. I also brought my geocaching stuff but due to a scheduling conflict, I ended up giving one of the church elders a ride home. We stopped off at one cache in a cemetery, just to give him an idea of what the past time was like, but it was the only one we grabbed. He was on a tight time table and I needed to get him home. I would have went out caching on Sunday but it was super windy and I just was not in the mood to fight it. Heck, it is even windy today...and cold! It has been that way (with the exception of Saturday) for a week or so.

While I will not go into detail, my wife has to have surgery on Wednesday. She had some tests ran on her Friday and the doc was a tad concerned with the results, hence the short notice for surgery. That in and of itself is not all that reassuring but when you take into consideration that we have already paid $900 towards a beach house for vacation that starts this coming Friday (a vacation that we can no longer take, I might add) it makes things even worse. I am not trivializing my wife's surgery by any means but we both were looking forward to next week. We have a call and an e-mail in to the owner of the beach house asking for some consideration but I have a very bad feeling the money is forfeit. God willing, he will allow us to go in the off season (this fall would be okay with me) with the money we have already paid him. If not, I am pretty sure we will not ever use his properties ever again.

Back to my wife...the short notice of the surgery and what it involves has her a bit concerned (me as well) but she is handling it better today than she was Sunday. She has a mild degree of discomfort which hopefully abate after the surgery heals. The good news is that our son should be coming to see us (he is flying in from PA) this week. He has asked to borrow my truck (since he is too young to rent a car) while he is here so in preparation I replaced the two read (and balding) tires on it. I still need to get shocks but that is going to have to wait until I see how much the surgery is going to be.

Other than all that, things are pretty normal. We are adjusting to having only one dog and The Golden appears to be finally adjusting as well, although she now follows my wife around the house all day long, never letting her out of sight.

Blue? Gray.

The last time I made a blog entry I was feeling a bit blue. I don't feel quite as isolated as I did earlier on but I still have a lot on my mind. Work and all that it encompasses is the primary but also is the fact I am not much into the commercial / festive side of Christmas. We don't decorate and attend very few holiday gatherings. I guess the biggest part of that is my fault. As the head of the house hold I am supposed to be the leader but I just have not been able to get in "the holiday mood" the past few years. I guess it would help if we were not empty nesters or if we traveled to see family during the holiday, but some things just cannot be changed.

I have no problems with the spiritual side of the season. My faith is strong and I do a lot of reflecting during the seasons of Christ's birth and death. I guess I just see the rampant commercialism of Christmas and feel betrayed. Everything is geared for the secular side and it robs me of some of the joy this season offers. I guess if I could separate the two and scale the holiday back some I would fare better but I seem to have trouble doing that.

My weight has been slowly dropping each week. I have been dieting for almost a month and have lost eight pounds. I recently cut my caloric intake from 2200 to less than 1600 per day in an effort to loss some fat. My goal is to be at 175 pounds by end of February.

I have not really increased my exercise level much since the weather has not been cooperative and that has kept me from doing any hiking in the local WMA (wildlife management areas) or even taking extended local walks. That has really put a crimp in my geocaching time. I have about three more weekends of geocaching left to do this year and I still hope to reach 1000 by years end.

A new wrinkle has surfaced at work. It seems that my employer has decided to start providing and paying for cell phone and usage. For the past 4 years, we have provided our own phones and service and the company reimbursed us. Now the switch is interesting because back when we were hired, we were issued cell phones to use, paid for by the company. The issued the phones and they paid the service...we never saw a bill. Then one year after hire, that policy stopped and we were told to fend for ourselves but the company would reimburse us for any work iusage. Since I was getting on call pay (5%) I never bothered with getting reimbursement for my mobile phone usage. However, they stopped paying on call back in April and I have started submitting an expense report for part of it. But that is going to change, yet again. Sigh.

Now to add to THAT, I am on a call now and the guy whom I am speaking to is telling me that on call is going away all together. That would make my personal life a lot more livable but that throws a whole new set of issues that I need to chew on before I blog about them. Double sigh.

Time Flies

It has been almost a week since my last post and I am not sure where the time has gone. Heck I am not even sure I know what all has happened during that time.

The most memorable event in the past week was my little Geocaching adventure on Saturday near Monksville, Texas. It was my first long hike (nine miles) Geocaching and has to be one of my favorite trips ever. It ranks right up with my caching trip to WV a few weeks ago. You can read more on that over at my geocaching blog.

Work as been tolerable. There are always little things that irk me (like changing processes and not telling anyone) but over all things have been pretty good. My colleague is on call this week and we are both covering for a colleague in Brazil who is on vacation. I am not sure how other countries can afford to let employees take two to four weeks off at one time (we could never get by with that here in the States) but I am glad he can get some time off. He is a very busy man.

Our weather here has been warmer lately than I would have expected. We had a cool snap that kept me in long sleeves at night for a few days but that is gone now...we are back to normal later summer temps which is causing two problems for me: Allergies and the tempurature of our office.

Rag weed is heavy right now and since I am allergic to the stuff, I have been stuffed up so bad I can hardly stand it. 24 Claratin only lasts about 12 hours or so at best (one day it lasted about 6) and I hate to mix and match meds just to get some relief. Thankfully this should end soon and I will be back to "normal"

With the late summer temps comes the HVAC's system at work becoming "confused" on what to do. Right now it is blowing ice cold air into an already cool office. Not only is out office ice cold but the restroom closest to my office is bitterly cold. This happens every fall and it really is annoying. It is so bad my office mate wears a jacket in the office. It is about all I can do to tolerate it.

My wife got an e-mail from our pastor the other day. He is a young pastor, with the majority of his experience coming from pastoring youth. He also is very likable and somewhat boyish, but I digress. The reason for the e-mail was to have my wife and I pray for him as he delivers a sermon on Sunday on tithing. The subject of giving is always a touchy subject. Many who feel they do their share are offended and feel singled out. Those who do not give a tithe or give one regularly think the church is greedy. I used to feel like the latter until I decided to give tithing a try.

It was not easy but after a few years I was able to gladly write out my tithe (10% of my income) check to the church. And while things have been tight, we are still eating, have a roof over our head, and employed. Besides, if your budget is so tight that 10% will make or break you, then you need to reexamine your priorities.

A lot of people look for a way to lower their tithes like some people try to lower their taxes. They bicker over tithing on the net or the gross, on re-embursed funds, tax returns, bonues, etc. I think it is silly to do that. The rule is in my house, that unless you have already tithed on it, you will tithe on it! And sometimes we will tithe on something like a tax return as an offering to God. Yes, since we tithe on the gross, we have already tithed on that money, but what the heck, it all belongs to God anyway.

Work, Heat, Biking, Caching

We had a busy day at work on Friday My boss was intent on giving us the least amount of info and expecting us to provide the maximum amount of results...you know just a normal day! We managed to end with our heads above water. That meant that my colleague, who was on call, did not have to manage any issues left over from the day. He simply was to be in "reaction mode" until he went off call on Monday morning.

Earlier in the week I was given the movie "Equilibrium" to watch. While I liked the concept, the movie as a whole was terrible. I returned it promptly on Thursday evening. By Saturday, the man who let me borrow that gave me another one, "Gattaca". This one was much better although I am not much of an Ethan Hawke fan. Oddly enough, Equilibrium was rated "R" but there was no nudity (well none to speak of...there were side shots but no naughty bits were shown) and no language. It was rated "R" for violence. Gattaca was rated "PG-13" for language...the "F word" was uttered twice in typical European fashion.

Saturday I had to get up early since my wife was getting up early so I decided to go geocaching early...at 7:00 AM. I stayed out for about five hours and had a great time. I was even able to run a couple of errands while I was out. I grabbed a few harder ones but most of them were simple PnG's scattered in North Allen and South McKinney...areas I have cached very little or not at all in the past.

After I got back, entered in my finds, and cleaned up, I went over to a BiC's house to work on his wife's PC. It was the typical virus infection house call that I normally handle for them. Once I took care of that the PC was pretty much back to normal. The PC really could use a nuke and pave since their boys (who have since moved out) download and install a lot of garbage. I almost did it once before but I was able to salvage the machine without doing so. I am a little antsy about doing a nuke and pave because they have a lot of data on the machine that they do not back up and it is scattered everywhere on the HD. Finding it will be a challenge and I am sure I would be getting a ton of calls if anything went missing.

The virus/spyware scan took about 2 hours but it was thorough. I collected my modest fee (less than half of what The Geek Squad charged for a house call) and was given "Gattaca" to watch, providing I return it to the Blockbuster by the due date.

I went home and did some house work while my wife ran an errand or two and grabbed me some Taco Bell for dinner. I had just finished when she got back, so I put the things away and ate. After eating I watched Gattaca and went for a long walk with the dogs. I was not very tired so I went to read for a while until the last load of clothes that were in the dryer finished. Oh I also helped fold clothes and washed dishes before I went to bed.

Sunday was very typical early on (Sunday School and church). We started a new study on the book of Mark in our SS class and it looks like it will be pretty good. We were told that we would have a guest teacher once a month. I think ours is getting burned out.

After SS, we had our normal service sans the Praise and Worship band. Most of them were out of town so we had a guest band come in and lead. They were pretty good...young but good. They were all in college except for the lead singer and she is only a Junior in high school. Good set of pipes on her...she had great range.

After church my wife and I grabbed some Chinese food and then went home. She took a nap while I worked on my bike (I had two flats to change), then I went out on a 17 mile ride. I grabbed a cache while I was out but I had not originally intended to do that. I just happened to be checking the GPSr (I use it as a bike computer when I ride...very helpful!) and noticed a new one was only three miles away so I went for it. I am over 500 finds now and if this weekend is any indication I am really into a grove right now.

I got back (wishing I had taken some water with me) and downed a quart of water pretty quickly, but not so quick that it made me puke...that is a horrible feeling to be very thirsty, drink a lot of water and vomit. I have had it happen only once and that was enough.

I made a pizza for dinner and then after we ate I made a Braum's run to get some mile and ice cream. When I came back I started watching "Red Dragon", which is the prequel to "Silence of the Lambs". I did not realize I had seen it before until I got near the end. It was another Hulu.com special.

After the movie I grabbed a shower then hit the hay. Monday was going to arrive soon enough and I was going to need my sleep.

No Meat on Them Bones

My posting has been pretty erratic the past couple of months and for those of you who are regulars, I am sorry about leaving you hanging. While nothing major has been going on, I have been keeping pretty steady at home and work.

Work has been moderate to slow most of the time although figure it will pick up this week or next. Most of the issues I have been dealing with have been the same old things that keep cropping up, although I get surprised every now and again with a new issue I have not heard of before.

We were scheduled to receive our 3% cut in pay the first of March but that was delayed for a couple of weeks and then my boss (who has been against this cut from square one) thought he would do us a favor by "forgetting" to file the paperwork for it. Well his good intentions left me (and all the other on call people in my business unit) FIVE PERCENT short on my last paycheck. Needless to say that having my paycheck short that much really hurt and we are cutting it really close this month...and we still have a vacation to go on next week. We have not charged anything on our credit cards in over a year (the last thing was The Golden's knee surgery) and have been on a completely debt free vacation for the past four years. Go us! This year, while the beach house is all paid for, the price of gas and food will push the limits of our budget. I am glad I was able to earn a little money cutting grass on the side. That should cover the amount I lost on my last paycheck. Oh , I have been told that the missing funds will be on a future check. I hope so!

I have been geocaching here and there, picking up an odd cache or two at lunch and on the way home from work. Saturday when I went out I finally found one that just amazed me with the camo. I have seen hides like this before but this one was far superior to any of the others. I ended up getting 14 on Saturday, striking out on three (two of which I am sure are gone), one of those being a night cache. I got to the final area on that one but the area was too large to cover by flashlight. I will try to get it during the day.

I also was finally able to get a very hard puzzle cache that I started several months ago. The puzzle requires a lot of good basic math skills as well as a GPSr unit that will allow you to project a waypoint, neither of which I have. So I had to take my time to do the math and plot the course on a map with a protractor. While I had the general area, I did not have the exact coords that I would have had if my borrowed GPSr could project waypoints. So I wrote the cache owner and gave him my calculations and told him the general area that I thought was correct to see if he would "narrow the field" a bit for me since I am not up to date with the proper tools. He was impressed at my manual plotting and told me that I was very very close to where it was (I did have it with 30 feet...take that Garmin!) so he sent me the coords since I worked so hard on this one. That is the good news. The bad news is that when I went after the cache, IT WAS GONE! So I went back at night with a flashlight to check the area (one of the areas it could have been...and was is a favorite tactic of geocache hiders) and my suspicions were confirmed...the cache had been vandalized. I got home and wrote the cache owner but he did not respond for a couple of weeks (he had been overwhelmed with work) but yesterday he was able to get back to me and inform me that it was back on line. It seems that someone knows the cache is there and keeps vandalizing it when it goes back online. Well, I wasted no time and headed over this morning on my way to work and nabbed it. One more off my list!

I have mentioned that vacation is coming up. My wife and I will be going to Cape San Blas, Florida in a few weeks to enjoy a week of surf and sand. While money will be tight (thanx to work...) we will be able to enjoy the area and decompress. While the beach is not my personal favorite (gimme the mountains any day of the week) it is a nice place to visit. Besides, my wife LOVES the beach and I want to make her happy. Now since this is more of my wife's idea of a good vacation, I figured that the activities would be geared more towards her and I was ready to accept that. Imagine my surprise when she informed me that she wanted to stop overnight in Jackson, MS and we could go caching while we were there AS WELL AS when we make it to the beach. I was thrilled at the notion that I would be able to geocache in a couple of other states.

I went online to see what I would be able to find at both locations and was surprised to see that there are a number of regular sized caches within 15-20 miles of each area. Life is good!

I got an e-mail from my (pay attention...this may get complicated) ex-wifes daughter, who at one time was living with me and my ex (when we were married), making her (at that time) my step daughter. She is no relation to me now, but we keep in touch via e-mail every now and again. This daughter, whom I shall call Cindy, is now a Christian and it appears she is having a very hard time with her mother's drinking. Now Cindy does not live with her mother...Cindy is married and expecting her third child. Cindy went on to tell me how she thinks her mother, who is 40, needs to grow up and stop acting like a 16 year old. I was pretty shocked by that...normally Cindy defends her mother tooth and nail, but I guess that has changed.

Cindy also gave a report on her brother (my son) and his bad habits, but he is 20 and his own man, so to speak so he will have to deal with any fallout.