Cash in my chips or keep playing?

Everyone who reads my blog or knows me personally knows that I've been struggling as of late with regard to a number of things: DD. Employment. Health. Home issues. Lack of personal transportation. Money. Not having shaved for two weeks (and, boy, is that beard gray!). That I tend to list things in alphabetical order (hint: note the first letter of the first word in each sentence. Weird, but...me). A lot of stuff on my plate. Before I get too far, let me clear up the title of this post. I'm not planning to send y'all a permanent ¡adios! and doing something crazy. I'm just thinking out loud about dealing with such a full plate of chaos.

And I didn't include everything. I went back for seconds when you weren't looking...

When you're faced with so much, you often can't successfully deal with it all at once. You need to take it step by step. Tackle whatever you can however you can. Sometimes solving the small things clears the way for solving the big things. When resolving your issues, it's always easier when you're strong—whether mentally or physically (or both), depending on the challenge at hand. My physical health is slipping, though I'm eternally thankful that I'm strong mentally. I'd rather have the entire package—the mental AND physical health—but I'll take anything I can get.

So, no, I'm not cashing in my chips anytime soon. I'm going to keep playing even without much money. It only takes one good hand to win, and I feel that the winning hand is in the deck somewhere. With divine intervention, good luck and perseverance, I'll be dealt that winning hand and my name will be on it.

It's strange that I use these metaphors of gambling when I don't gamble. (Maybe I miss working my roulette table, having gone the entire year of 2020 without working any casino parties thanks to the pandumbic.)

Keep my (hairy) chin up and take it as it comes. I'll be OK. My faith in God, Diana taking care of me, and everything else I've mentioned here will help to keep me afloat.

How soon will it be till we get back to normal?

Given the amount of time we've been stuck in this worldwide pandumbic, there's no doubt that many of us—if not all of us—can't help but to wonder when things will return to normal. The short answer is "who knows?" On my planet, what is normal cannot be easily defined, as "normal" here is as complicated as can be. Six of one, half a dozen of another as the saying goes. For the sake of simplicity, though, we'll focus on things where the majority of our fans live. And that would be Earth.

My own year is not off to a good start. Still without wheels, it's hard to get done what I need to get done. I have some friends who have had COVID-19 hit home in one way or another. One friend and her husband picked up the virus somewhere, but got one of the new vaccines and are doing OK. Another friend and his wife got the virus; he's OK, but his wife was in the hospital briefly. In the last message from him, he says she's home and improved and he has yet to show any symptoms. I don't know whether they got vaccinated.

As I write this, we get a new president in two days. The last four years have been nothing short of a fiasco politically. We'll see how it goes. At age 78, Joe Biden will be the oldest person in U.S. history to take the office of President. There have been rumors that Biden chose Kamala Harris as his vice president intentially so that should he need to leave office during his term—for whatever reason that will be—she will step up and become the first female U.S. President. Could happen, but we'll see.

Some have speculated that COVID-19 will be with us throughout 2021 and into 2022. There are reports of a new mutation of the virus that people are picking up. Between all of the politics, DD (from my last post), viral mutations and who-knows-what-else, there's no telling when normal will come around the bend. Maybe chaos is the new normal. If that's the case, it'll take some getting used to.

Giving some thought to 2021

Yes, another blog post from the guy who brings you to tears every time he hits that PUBLISH button. COVID. Eric's non-running car. Diana taking Dad grocery shopping. Taco Bell open for pick-up orders today but not tomorrow but open the day after, meaning that a one-mile walk (round trip) to get food is a gamble that not even Las Vegas has seen. Whether I get food there is iffy, though the exercise is certainly good for me. Me sleeping twelve to fifteen hours a night. A lot of random stuff cluttering our garage and front walkway and the back seat of my car (there's a story about all that clutter—I need to give some thought as to how to present this as it's a sticky situation that needs a cautious approach in order to avoid the threat of a lawsuit—seriously! But know that it's a "Long" story in a variety of ways). At our house, 2021 has gotten off to a rather...interesting...start. Maybe 2022 will be normal. You never know. But I'll see what I can come up with regarding any writing about this cavalcade of catastrophes.

First the tale of the lengthy slumber. I get into bed at 1-3am, curl up into a ball under the covers, get warm and pretty much become comatose. (How comatose you ask? I sleep through thunder, earthquakes, traffic and trains passing by only 200 feet away!) Then I wake up in a dimly lit room. Why so dim? Because it's 3:30-4:30 in the afternoon in the middle of January and the sun is riding down the offramp of the day. It's done its job warming the Earth and providing our electricity, and nighttime is coming. Why is my body doing this to me? A good question that only a doctor and lab tests can answer.

But I'm just getting started. 5pm, time to get the mail out front and eat breakfast. Read the paper under the lights, check e-mail, do some fruitless online job searching (since that's where the jobs are, but fruitless because no one responds to me despite having an "awesome" resume, so say some recruiters). Eat lunch and spend some time on Facebook and other sites, do laundry if needed, eat dinner while laundry is going, pay bills if any are due, deal with *GULP* the dreaded DD (this is part of the aforementioned Long story regarding all of the clutter), feed the chinchilla and get to bed. Rinse and repeat daily.

I'll write more about my car and Taco Bell some other time. And maybe even DD.

Things have to change, and no one but I can effect that change. With help and guidance from God—and a blessing or twelve from Him—I can resolve this. All I will say is that this nonsense had better not keep going throughout the rest of this year or else it will beat even the worst that 2020 dished out. Given some of the issues I'm dealing with (not everything is mentioned here, but believe me, I could write volumes), I can easily see why some people decide to call it a life and cash in their chips early, so to speak. Don't worry about me, though—I'm not going anywhere because I have too many things on my kick-the-bucket list, among which is visiting at least a few of the 43 states I haven't been to, visiting Japan, and riding a wooden roller coaster that isn't in California. You can't do those things when you're pushing up daisies. 2021 will be the year that things get back to normal for me—and everyone else...I hope. For me, normal life is generally happy and I'd like for that to return. And I'll bet everyone else will, too.

Without wheels in SoCal

Last month I wrote this post about my car crapping out on me after 255,000 miles and nearly 19 years of faithful service. At press time—nearly a month later—I still haven't been able to get the car to a repair shop. For one, I have no money. For two, I've been kind of down for the count, healthwise, that is. Just today, in fact, I slept for more than fifteen hours, getting up around 4:30pm. (I think my body's trying to tell me that it needs a replacement or something. Not sure...)

We've all heard that everything happens for a reason. That could very well be the case here, though right now I couldn't tell you what that would be. The thing is, in Southern California, realistically, you need your own car to get around. Sure, there are ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber, but to be honest, nothing beats getting into your own car whenever you want and going wherever you want. Interestingly, my previous car went about the same distance in about the same amount of time, so maybe whenever I get my next car, assuming it's this year, I can expect it to last till I'm 81. By then, I'll be too old to drive. Mom still drives at 84, but she doesn't have the health issues that I do. In all honesty, though, I don't think I'll be around then. At least I hope not.

Fortunately, my daughter has been good about taking me to get groceries and to other places I need to go, despite having a busy work schedule. (I plan on keeping her.) But aside from running the errands of life, sometimes you just need to get away, even if it's only for a few hours. Things can get stressful—looking for work, managing my health and home, hiding from certain annoying people, etc. (I can write quite a post about the "annoying people," but maybe some other time...)

Getting this problem resolved will take some doing, some praying, and some time and money. I'm sure I'll find something about this that I can whine about and put into blog form for you.

It's never too early to plan for your future

From the time we were little snotnosed bratsters, our parents and teachers always told us that we need to think about our futures and start planning for them. That makes no sense at all when we're living at home with Mom and Dad taking care of us—doing our laundry, cooking our meals, keeping our home clean and everything working, etc. We live at home until someone sweeps us off our feet, then we marry that lucky person and go live with them and take care of each other for the rest of our lives.

Wait! Not so fast...

Somewhere in that plan should be getting an education and/or going to work, raising any children that might result from this partnership (marriage is a partnership, right?), and affording/maintaining a home. At the same time, we need to plan for those years when we decide to call it quits at work; that is, retire.

Back in the old days, we'd usually retire at the ripe old age of 65 and collect our Social Security money till we died. In many cases, that was within ten years of retiring. These days, many people tend to be healthier, which means that they'll live longer. The longer we live, the more money we'll need to keep ourselves going. If you have the means to put away part of every paycheck, one of the best things to do is to open a 401k account. (Everyone reading this already knows about these accounts, so I won't go into details.) Investing in the stock market could also be lucrative, provided you make wise choices.

Blather, rinse, repeat.

Most people are well aware of the financial end of retirement and all of the decisions needed to be made and responsibilities fulfilled. But many people forget about another aspect of our so-called golden years: our health. By my observation, many people my age spent much of their youth and early adulthood doing what is known as "partying hardy." Not to brag, but that just wasn't my scene, man. Unfortunately, Type 2 diabetes caught up with me and has wreaked all kinds of havoc. Never mind the booze and marijuana and all of the other things. Like all of mine, my battle with diabetes is a "Long" story with no need to repeat the details. Many of those things have already been written about and are here on my planet, so take a look elsewhere in this blog to find them.

In my own case, I don't have much. Circumstances beyond my control (which I won't get into here) helped to deplete my funds. But that doesn't mean I'm sunk. Opportunities abound if you look for them or create them. It's a matter of finding something that works for you and to have the drive to do it. I ain't dead yet. A bright future is still possible. And it is if you're able and willing to do what it takes to get there.

Keeping a promise

Many times over the years I've promised a short blog post. So here you go.

Looks like we made it...but...

Have no fear—I'm not going to be singing Barry Manilow tunes any time soon. Unless you want some windows broken, that is. The title of this post comes just one day after the end of 2020, which was voted Worst Year in the History of the Earth by pretty much...everyone.

But 2021 got underway just 24 hours ago, and started off with a bang. No Tournament of Roses parade, no football games, no anything normal to celebrate the new year. As for me, I didn't even get dressed or go outside (except to get the paper). Without a working car and Diana at work, I could not visit the grocery store. Sure, they deliver, but I actually like going grocery shopping (and doing laundry, which I'm doing now). With all of that going on and a new blog post, I hope the house doesn't blow up.

I recall that when 2017 started, I'd been out of work for a long time, and a job came my way. Jobs don't just drop in your lap—you have to look for them. I have a lot to say about the job seeking process in the U.S., and little of it is positive. That'll be a blog post in itself.

Could something come my way in 2021 or will it just be another odd year? Time will tell, and so will my health. I mention my health a lot because there's a lot to tell. But like the job thing, it'll require its own post.

Now that 2021 has gotten going, let's do everything in our power to make it as good as 2020 was bad.