I have a lot of stories, ideas, passions and strong beliefs in what is right, wrong and what are ideals to strive for.
Just about the time I really want to put myself 110% into something, life passes new experiences to me. I then sadly see how wrong I have been about something. Things I truly believed were right, suddenly are revealed to be nothing more than foolishness or even just downright evil should they come to pass.
One thing that few people see is that everything has a cycle. Failure to see this twists people into failing to see that change is not only natural, but that some things are meant to pass from this world. When those things pass, the cycle continues and new things replace what is lost. Weather, climate, species, politics, diseases, music and so much more. It is all properly following a cycle.
Most people can never get a grip on these cycles. These are truly complex things. These things can only really be visualized by the few people able to see complex multi-dimensional flows that interact in truly complicated, but for those people, fairly clear ways. But there are actually very few people born with this gift of seeing such complexity. I would not call these people smart, but rather just capable of seeing a great whole from a set of apparently unrelated information. It is a talent and an art. It is sad that the gift is rare. But right now, humankind is on an upswing. I hope that this continues. We can accomplish so much if we do not fall again as happened after the Roman Empire, the Mayan and Incan empires, and so many others. We always grow again upwards. That is one other cycle that always plays out repeatedly. It is frequently tied to the regular periods of global cooling. I fear again since we are once again entering a period of cooling. I can only hope for the best during my lifetime, but things are indeed hard.
I'm concerned about my Dad's well being. Living like this is very hard.
Saturday February 01, 2020
17:04 PM PST
Sure, we pay for every night we sleep somewhere. We are in a Motel 6 we always use. Then once again back to a tent site in a campground again.
We don't trespass, but it's cold and wet outside. Usually cloudy. The ground is hard. Our extra pads are now worn out.
We need to figure out something better. I have been looking, but I haven't had any luck finding anything useful. I have some good ideas and I know how to make pads from foam and some material such as cloth, vinyl or leather.
Unfortunately, all of my tools and parts are in the storage room in Texas. I tried really hard to find the container while we were there, but no such luck.
Traveling is a little bit hard. We have two tents, two foldable chairs; stoves with pots and a frying pan; three sleeping bags with two roll up pads; three backpacks, plus our clothes and toiletries.
Lots of stuff. Multiple trips. We really couldn't get by with any less. We both have bad hips (mine needs full replacement) and several other serious health problems.
My Dad has sleep apnea.
He has to use a CPAP machine which just blows air under pressure into a mask over his face. It is just regular air with the pressure to keep his throat open all night.
We can't use it while camping. No electric in the really cheap tent sites.
Right now, he is able to use it in the motel.
Once we leave, it has to go back into my storage room until we return to the motel.
It needs a bottle of distilled water to run. The water is put into the machine, which heats it a little and sterilizes it with 15 minutes of UV light before using the device. The water gets slowly evaporated into the air flow to keep it moist before breathing.
I will say that after convincing my Dad to grow a circle beard, the mask no longer slips. Now it's much quieter. I sleep much better now.
I have slacked off on updating what is going on in my life lately.
Saturday February 01, 2020
16:46 PM PST
I'm mostly OK, but I still have a continuous ringing in my ears that began during our trip to Texas. It was was off and on until shortly after we returned here in Washington. Now it is constant and in both ears. It's annoying, but irritates me only when I am somewhere quiet. My Doctors can't figure out the cause. I don't find any fault with that since I take so many medications and have many health problems for years. After my stent was placed in my heart, medications had to be added and others dropped or changed. I'm also getting old. Hopefully old age is not the cause. I want it to go away at some point. I love being out alone in nature and listening to all the quiet sounds that all of the life makes. It's soothing and reassuring. Unless it gets violent. Everything has to eat something else, including plants. Hopefully I won't be plant food anytime soon.
I have a Patreon account!
Saturday February 01, 2020
03:35 PM PST
Anything helps.
Coffee and tasty food?
Life goes on... It's colder and it snowed, too.
Sunday January 19, 2020
11:55 PM PST
I haven't updated anything for too long. I'll move the stuff I talked about here shortly, but for right now, look on the Table of Contents.
I just wanted to get something up. So much has happened. I need to write a small program that let's me just type into a form and the content pops up here. I can do that from anything. My laptop is starting to fail, so it would be a good idea for me to hurry up with that. Speaking of which, I could really use a cheap used or new laptop. Look at the funding me page to email me, use the contact page, etc if you would like to donate your used laptop.
I promise to use it well both for myself and to help others. Just cause I like to help out. But if I didn't like doing that, then I wouldn't be helping myself to do what I want to do, would I? So, if I like helping others, then I am selfishly being good to myself by being good to others also. But that has caused me a few arguments. Some people can't handle the truth that they are doing good things because they selfishly want to, not because they are "supposed to".
I realized that I could use the ancient and venerable editor ed, to make updating this blog very easy from my phone!
Friday October 25, 2019
09:12 AM CDT
Yes, ed, which you have probably never heard of, was the editor used before monitors even existed. All output was sent to a printer. So there is no "visual" mode at all. Now, my phone has a very tiny screen. The keyboard takes up a lot of the screen space. That really leaves almost no room to see the file contents and use the keyboard. Ed let's me just type and only see a printout on request. That printout is like cat, you can see it only. I'm happy. I can make the fonts bigger and not have any problems!
Looks like we cannot afford to leave Austin.
October 24, 2019
Amtrak is really too expensive to get us back up to Seattle for making our Doctor appointments. Flying is also looking to be too pricey when buying so close to departure.
So we are just going to try and hang on here for now. The good news is that we can camp here and both the weather and fire ant problems are getting better.
Bunch of news, just getting around to it.
October 16, 2019
Place to stay found
We took back the defective tent plus the other camping gear we bought at REI.
Luckily, it got instantly credited back to the debit card, so we were able to overdraw the account again.
Phew! We are good until Friday morning. Not sure what happens after that, but the weather is supposed to be good.
Medication obtained
Basically we just ignored security at the hospital and I got my medicine. Of course I complained on Google Maps, Twitter, Facebook about the security harassment. They responded back on Twitter and Google Maps. So at least some action might happen. Ugh. Naturally, running patients away from your own pharmacy is a big profit maker. Or is it? Ha Ha!
Planning to return to Washington
As planned, getting a little "vacation" from the cold and damp state was really nice, but have to return after my dad gets his pension check. Would be nice to stay here. So much quality with the food and things to do here, but our wonderful medical system continues to control my life down to the very level of where I am allowed to live. Really sucks, but it has become the American Way! I'm so proud that I am allowed to be forced by the government to obey or die. Freedom abounds! Just not here anymore.
I don't want Socialism. I don't want Oligarchism. I don't want Communism. I just want a good career that let's me buy all of my basic needs myself. I'm not lazy. I love to work HARD. Always have. I don't want to take your money away from your own hard work. That's not fair or ethical. You personally earned it and deserve it. Most likely you deserve far more than your taxes steal from you. I know my dad worked his ass off and with two pensions can't afford to live in the USA. He paid taxes to get Social Security (a Ponzi Scheme) and he now has to pay income taxes on getting it back.
Hospital security wants to run me out into the street and prevent me from obtaining my medications from the pharmacy. This could kill me from a blood clot in my heart stent!
October 12, 2019
I'm at the hospital, Dell Seton Medical Center. I had to go to the ER last night because I ran out of several of my medications, including Plavix. I have a stent just implanted and I can die without my meds. Security wants to run me out of the hospital before pharmacy opens!
Last night in Austin with a place to sleep.
October 10, 2019
Well, like every month for a long time, my dad's checking account is overdrawn about $400.
Managed to get up to this date in either a motel or a campground. We are pretty clueless what to do now.
When we got here, we stayed in a motel until we set up reservations at McKinney Falls State Park, which has a campground area, too. We were so beat up tired that we missed the first two nights there and stayed in the motel those nights. Money lost, both that's life. Our stay there would have been OK, despite the record breaking heatwave. Of course, we got overrun by not 50-100, but more like a thousand fire ants. It was a nightmare. It took us an extra four hours after check-out time to get the ant problem partially under control. We had to stuff both backpacks into a waterproof bag. Only way to ethically call a Lyft car to give us a ride. I had fire ants in my truck once. I will never put anyone else through that!
We are flying blind here. Enjoyed seeing that Austin's new Homeless Coordinator (or whatever the position is named) has quit after a month on the job. Not a surprise. Homelessness is a nice word for "Those People". In other words, everyone wants to pretend that they will never find themselves fall out of housing, even with two pensions, and never be able to pull themselves back up into housing. Because that is exactly what will happen to most. So the world pretends that "Those People" are just drug addicts, criminals and mentally ill people. No better way to deal with homeless, retired, ex-state workers who are veterans than a good bulldozer to make the news look like good works are being done. Bulldozers need diesel, so we have to raise your taxes because of the homeless people. $$$$$.
Luckily, Governor Abbott has apparently offered to let us stay with him in the Governor's Mansion.
He has insisted that Austin put back laws preventing people from sitting or laying down in public.
He promises to fully put all of the State's agencies to work if they don't.
I hope so. Governor Abbott and his office, is in fact, a State Agency. So, by default, he has offered to personally help!
Should we call first, Governor? Maybe we will.
Did I mention that we called all the appropriate agencies?
Got to leave a message.
Never got a call back!
I'm just glad that the weather is going to plummet far colder than the clothes we have with us. We have better in our storage room. Which requires a round trip Lyft ride to get to. Lyft works off money in a bank account only. Fun!
I had to go back to the ER.
October 08, 2019
I had my last dose of Vimpat on Saturday morning. It has been terrifying with the horrible feeling caused by suddenly stopping without a slow dropping down.
I can't really explain the terror that this brought me, especially after all of the prior seizures that have rocked me to the core. PTSD is the right term. It's a thing that's mentioned so often that people ignore what it really means.>br />
I have horrible nightmares about being unable to move in bed or cry out for help. I get claustrophobia sometimes. That certainly comes from being unable to move or speak for a long period after waking up after a seizure.
I finally reached a state of pure panic that I was about to have a seizure that we called an ambulance.
The ER gave me a single dose of Vimpat and a prescription for two full months.
The pharmacy in the hospital unfortunately had to order more, which left me another day and a half without medicine. But, after cancelling the prescription that already existed elsewhere, they were able to get the insurance to pay. As my dad texted me, "Hallelujah!".
No money to ship or buy seizure medication.
October 06, 2019
I'm far away from the pharmacies where I can get one of my seizure medications paid for by my insurance.
I went to the ER here a little over a week ago and got a prescription for one week. The insurance paid for it, but now there isn't any money to purchase any or pay a friend enough to ship it to here from the Seattle area. So I'm screwed. This insurance company has left me without Vimpat about five times. They don't care about a patient having a seizure, which could kill me, because medications are a huge burden to pay for. I can go to the ER 40 times, no problem. Get a prescription for a medicine and they refuse to pay. They already tried to just drop Vimpat once on me. That would leave me where I am now. I might die. That is not a joke.
Hopefully this isn't my last entry here.
Getting started.
2019
Sometime in the past
I am setting things up to work properly both on wide screen desktops and also small screen tablets and phones.
I am learning that right now.
Always have to keep learning and changing!