A Mirror

Sometimes I wonder if my failing physical body is a reflection on some emotional, spiritual or intelectual failing in an other aspect of my life. Also, I don't support Trump and I think his politics, morals and business sense are ruining America.

Nostalgia

I currently live in Texas, and have since 2018, so the past 7 years. I plan to visit where I grew up in Washington state next week and this has prompted me to think about the amount of time I have lived in each state during my life. I'll exclude my time in Spain and Iraq as they are measured in months and not years. Though I do consider myself having lived those places as I was in work or school, received mail and had and ID card issued. Oregon 14 years Washington 13 years Montana 2 years Ariozona 2 years California 12 Arkansas 3 years Texas 7 years

3 to 7 years.

80% of individuals with MCI convert to AD within 3 to 7 years. Having both APOE4 allelles increases your risk 12 fold. Diagnosed with MCI this year. Amyloid PET scan in August. 3 to 7 years to Alzheimer's disease? That is frightening.

18 month update

Since it has been a year and a half since the last post let me update you on a few things. They will just be as they spring to mind and not in chronological order nor order of importance. Essentially this will just be a fleshed out, stream of conscious list. I was able to travel some, Italy a couple times, Israel, Turkey and a bunch of new places in the US. A suprising one was Maine in the middle of last winter. Definitely their off season, unless you ski, but it was enjoyable and eye opening in so many ways. One of the Italy trips and to Israel was with my parents. This was their first time out of the country and it definitely opened their eyes to so many new and different things. I loved sharing that with them. My health has been all over. I've had numerous issues with almost every aspect of my health. Skin infections, a jaw that wouldn't move, Covid, latent TB, acne, Crohns, and on and on. In the past year I've had an incredible amount of health issues that had follow on effects and that reduced my capabilities. I am probably 50% of what I was before, physically and health wise. It is shocking. The biggest issue was the infection of the 8th and 7th cranial nerves (something very rare, surprise) that has made me completely deaf in my right ear, near constant vertigo, and with no stabilization of my vision. Meaning if my head moves what I see also moves. I had a job for a few years teaching shooting. Good money, hard work but fun. I liked my boss but my co workers did not like me. So good and bad. I qualified for multiple, international shooting competitions to represent the USA as an individual athlete but health issues kept me from going to any of the matches and in fact I no longer compete at all. I just can't be at the level I was before so I have zero enjoyment for it. Life is changing... Not really a mid-life crisis deal, but I also got one of my dream motorcycles, a 2021 Ducati Panigale V2. So a firey red Italian sport bike. I've ridden it at the race track a bunch and it is awesome. Though again, my balance and vision issues have greatly curtailed my motorcycle enjoyment. Like the other stuff, I had to withdraw from a 16 day ride through Mexico in February 2023 because of concerns about my body over that length of trip. Dumb. Family is all alive. We had a family reunion in Florida that was a good thing. Despite well you know, Florida. hahaha. I was able to go to Cape Canaveral and that was really enjoyable. The space program is awe inspiring history. Hmmm, what else? Oh, Oliver and Duchess died. But they were replaced by two other cats. Richard and Lili, who are sibling Siberian cats. Very floofy. Not very clean though... they track litter all over and are bad about missing the litter box in random places in the house. Annoying as the other two never did that. Still living in Texas. Essentially fun-employed. Primary teacher at church. No new hobbies or stuff or plans. Just dealing with the massive blow of the brain injury thing. Vestibular rehab and vision therapy. Lame.

Like many things...

This blog used to be awesome and now it is sad. Sad it is ignored, sad in its content and sad the platform as a whole is declining. So much I would rather write here than on fb or other places. Or even say face to face (mask to mask) with someone. Yesterday I spoke in Arabic to someone and reminded another of the years I spend being a health physicist and involved in radiation safety. It reminded me of a time I was smart, professional and a high earner. But all these memories came back as I was doing administrative work for $17 bucks per hour, being bossed around by people I used to boss around. At first I felt angry, then sad, then resigned and finally humbled. I am where I am due to my choices. But for a few hours yesterday I was sad because of my choices.

q lesson

Like a majority of places San Antonio limits food to delivery or take out only from restaurants. 

With my health issue giving me a greater risk of a bad result from catching covid19 I try not to interact with anyone other than a once a week grocery trip. 

But yesterday I really wanted food i didn't cook for lunch and I drove around for 2 hours and got nothing. Why? Because I learned what I really wanted was to just not be at home. It was place I wanted, not food. Place.

covid work

Well with all this Covid19 shelter in place crap I've been making models pretty quickly!