Still alive/around

EDIT: I have learned that I have to attach this blog to Google in order to post it to Facebook. Google controls (and tracks) too many things to be trusted, so I will find some way to migrate this blog to another platform. Stand by for updates.

I'm still around, but it's past time for an update.

I have gone through the entire Social Security Disability/SSI process and am awaiting formal results. I went all the way through the "final" appeal hearing, and I received a letter from the hearing officer. My lawyer and I believe this letter means I have been determined to be disabled, but we could not make heads or tails of the rest of it. I'm still awaiting clarification.

My medical situation continues confusing. The sleep diagnoses are sleep apnea (relatively mild) and hypersomnia, which just means I sleep too much in the daytime but do not have narcolepsy. I'll get a second opinion on the narcolepsy when I can use big-city medical resources. My other conditions are basically stable. I discovered during our first cold snap this year that the arthritis in my left foot flares badly when the temperature drops.

In the meantime, I have been seeing a pulmonologist (lung doctor), who always sounds confident. It has become obvious that she is guessing what is wrong because she keeps ordering tests that fit different diseases. My guess says the Breathing Association was correct in the beginning. They said asthma with indoor allergies.

I continue using Linux, but I changed to LinuxMint 17.2. I gave up Windows because it's difficult and annoying to install the dual boot (keep both) without training and background in this technology. Having done that, I began running into other problems that I cannot solve without much more knowhow, and LinuxMint's oversold "community" has shown little ability to understand my level of ability or inability. All the Linux who tried to help me work in the computer field, and their skills are too far above mine for them to understand my questions. I don't understand the jargon, and they don't understand questions not using it. I will go back to Windows when I get another laptop. That will be as soon as possible. The two laptops I own are too old to run Windows and pretty old even for "lightweight" Linux varieties.

I bought a tablet in July of 2014. Admittedly, I bought the cheapest one I could find new. I believe the Android version was 4.4 or thereabouts. Even with an accessory keyboard (extra cost and weight), I could only develop indifferent skill with it. The Android apps often either cut programs down too much for me to understand, put functions where I cannot find them, or use some approach I am now aware of. I never figured out security very well, either. Now the tablet has been taken over by ransom-ware and I have no idea what to do with it. Whatever happens to the tablet, my bottom line is knowing how to work in Windows, how to get help, and easily finding freeware for it.

My future plans are unknown. I expect to get some amount of money for the "back" amount of my Social Security and/or SSI, but the amount and payment procedure are determined by whether I get one, the other, or some of each. Medical coverage (Medicare or Medicaid) is even more uncertain.

I miss the resources I had in Columbus (transit, MetroParks, big libraries, choices about medical resources) and I still have close friends there, so I'll probably go back there, but my asthma and other factors will determine whether I stay, move, or do something else.

For those who will ask, I'm still very active in 12-Step recovery.