- Nov 9, 2005
- 1,539
- 91
- 28
I remembered seeing a message come across my phone a while back, saying something about a move. I didn't have a running PC at the time, so I kept it in the back of my mind. Fast forward to now, with the kids being schooled at home, I have a PC and some very basic internet access. So, figured I would say hello, see who all was still around!
The past year or so has been, trying and difficult for me.
In November of '18, I broke my thumb at work, and it never healed. After a full 3 months of bouncing back and forth between several doctors and specialists, I was diagnosed with a fairly common type of cancer, benign for now. Little is known about it other than it doesn't respond to chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and excision has been reported as "activating" the benign cells, causing malignancy in most cases. From what I've read, researched, and discussed with various oncologists, the tumor will either stay as it is for the rest of my life, or get angry and spread. It doesn't seem to be known what causes the cancer to become active, or how to prevent it from doing so. All that I've been told, is if the cancer becomes malignant, it is universally fatal within about a year. Something about brains, livers, and hearts not functioning very well once they are made out of bone cells.
That news hit me pretty hard, so I took some time off work to just be with family and try to enjoy life for a while. I made this decision somewhere around February or March of '19. Decided to visit my parents over Spring Break, took the kids camping out on their property for a week, and during that little visit, I came to realize just how bad of shape my father was in. See, he had been working on building a retirement home for mom and himself for a couple of years, and when I could spare a day to travel to him, I would help out when and where I could. Something about that time during Spring Break, I realized that he wasn't really making the progress I thought he was, and that he needed some fulltime help. Fortunately, I had just decided to take leave from work for a few months, so, somewhat against logette's wishes, at the end of the school year, we moved out to my parents' property so that I could help my dad finish his house.
My father had a below the knee amputation, and a series of leads wired into his spinal column. He was really beat up badly from his time in the airborne infantry and later special forces of the US Army. Over the next month or two, I helped him frame up the remainder of the roughly 1000 square foot home my mother had designed, and wire, plumb, insulate, and sheetrock. Most days he was barely able to sit up and watch me, provide emotional support, but on his good days he would get up and help when I would allow him. In this time, I was able to get their master bedroom 99% complete, and a useable bathroom. Then, in July, while logette was on a trip for her birthday, my father passed away without warning.
Depending on who's still around, some of you might know that I have some medical training. I worked him for just over 7 minutes while I called for emergency services. I resuscitated him once, but whatever happened had already run its course, the damage was done. EMT's arrived on scene, and it was over, he was pronounced dead within 15 minutes of their arrival. For any of you who have had to bury a parent, you have a special place in my heart. My father is not the first person to die in my arms, but being a parent certainly stings. It's been a bit over a year, and I can tell you, it doesn't get better. Easier, perhaps, but I still wake up in the middle of the night to his voice screaming out to me to help him.
Things over the next several months just sort of chugged along. After nearly 5 years of asking logette to go back to work, she had gotten a job managing a sandwich shop. She was out of the home for over 90 hours per week, and the 1 day a week she had off, she was either too exhausted to get out of bed, or was constantly on the phone with employees too dumb to bake bread, and would have to run in "just for an hour" which usually turned into 6 or 8 anyway. I had gone back to work the week my father passed away, and we played this game of not seeing one another for months. I started to have suspicions when I noticed, even though she was gone over 90 hours every week without fail, she was only bringing in 50-60 hour paychecks, so we sat down and talked about how she was being taken advantage of, and wasn't being paid enough to be out of the house as much as she was, especially if nearly half of that time wasn't even compensated. She agreed, and said she would fix it. She didn't. Fast forward to Christmas day, and we're discussing her affair, and deciding to divorce. Merry Christmas logout!
As a newly single parent of 3 children, Covid and the shutdown hit me hard. Fortunately, I was able to continue working through it as I worked in an "essential" field, but I was relying on taking my kids to work with me every day. This was fine, in fact 3 other people on my team of 5 were bringing their children daily too. This continued until well into the summer, until someone from the other crew got fired. I had to transfer to the other crew to pick up the slack while they found a replacement, and they never did. The new crew was not okay with the kids coming to work, but mom to the rescue! She's not working anymore anyway, so she can hang with the kids while I work. Things went on this way until about the time for school to start.
My niece has special needs, and I guess throughout all this pandemic mess, my sister and her husband have been unable to keep hold of a full-time nurse for her. So, mom to the rescue! She basically lets me know she has to take up the slack with her granddaughter, and I would need to figure out my situation on my own. Well, I figured it out. Quit working, live off savings for a few months, school the kids at home, and just try to survive until things get back to normal.
So that's where I am today. Bought a basic PC for the kids to school virtually on, cancer-but-not-cancerous-yet, buried dad, divorced wife, and coming back for a visit with my SPF family. Things aren't great, but I'm good. I started doing yoga in the mornings, have learned a lot of self control, both financially and emotionally. Things are getting better, but yeesh, I got close to being overwhelmed there for a while.
With my inheritance money, I bought a little piece (11.8 acres) of land a few miles down the road from my mom, and have decided I will stay here to keep an eye on her. So, me and the kids, living the country life. They see their mother once or twice a week, she has a studio apartment, and they go visit her on her day(s) off. They hate it. They would much prefer to stay with me, but I tell them that's not fair, and "mommy still loves you" and all that. I think they hate that they have no space at her place. It's her place, not their home.
I installed on my Windows 10 PC last night, and the game fired right up off my 1.00 discs without any hassle. I was excited. Made it to Upper Kurast on a "fishymancer" before deciding to take a break. Currently no GoMule or RWM or anything, playing straight outta the box. We'll see how long that lasts, probably until get my first decent drop that is related to some other build...
Anyway, TL;DR: Got sick, dad died, got divorced, here I am, how are you?
The past year or so has been, trying and difficult for me.
In November of '18, I broke my thumb at work, and it never healed. After a full 3 months of bouncing back and forth between several doctors and specialists, I was diagnosed with a fairly common type of cancer, benign for now. Little is known about it other than it doesn't respond to chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and excision has been reported as "activating" the benign cells, causing malignancy in most cases. From what I've read, researched, and discussed with various oncologists, the tumor will either stay as it is for the rest of my life, or get angry and spread. It doesn't seem to be known what causes the cancer to become active, or how to prevent it from doing so. All that I've been told, is if the cancer becomes malignant, it is universally fatal within about a year. Something about brains, livers, and hearts not functioning very well once they are made out of bone cells.
That news hit me pretty hard, so I took some time off work to just be with family and try to enjoy life for a while. I made this decision somewhere around February or March of '19. Decided to visit my parents over Spring Break, took the kids camping out on their property for a week, and during that little visit, I came to realize just how bad of shape my father was in. See, he had been working on building a retirement home for mom and himself for a couple of years, and when I could spare a day to travel to him, I would help out when and where I could. Something about that time during Spring Break, I realized that he wasn't really making the progress I thought he was, and that he needed some fulltime help. Fortunately, I had just decided to take leave from work for a few months, so, somewhat against logette's wishes, at the end of the school year, we moved out to my parents' property so that I could help my dad finish his house.
My father had a below the knee amputation, and a series of leads wired into his spinal column. He was really beat up badly from his time in the airborne infantry and later special forces of the US Army. Over the next month or two, I helped him frame up the remainder of the roughly 1000 square foot home my mother had designed, and wire, plumb, insulate, and sheetrock. Most days he was barely able to sit up and watch me, provide emotional support, but on his good days he would get up and help when I would allow him. In this time, I was able to get their master bedroom 99% complete, and a useable bathroom. Then, in July, while logette was on a trip for her birthday, my father passed away without warning.
Depending on who's still around, some of you might know that I have some medical training. I worked him for just over 7 minutes while I called for emergency services. I resuscitated him once, but whatever happened had already run its course, the damage was done. EMT's arrived on scene, and it was over, he was pronounced dead within 15 minutes of their arrival. For any of you who have had to bury a parent, you have a special place in my heart. My father is not the first person to die in my arms, but being a parent certainly stings. It's been a bit over a year, and I can tell you, it doesn't get better. Easier, perhaps, but I still wake up in the middle of the night to his voice screaming out to me to help him.
Things over the next several months just sort of chugged along. After nearly 5 years of asking logette to go back to work, she had gotten a job managing a sandwich shop. She was out of the home for over 90 hours per week, and the 1 day a week she had off, she was either too exhausted to get out of bed, or was constantly on the phone with employees too dumb to bake bread, and would have to run in "just for an hour" which usually turned into 6 or 8 anyway. I had gone back to work the week my father passed away, and we played this game of not seeing one another for months. I started to have suspicions when I noticed, even though she was gone over 90 hours every week without fail, she was only bringing in 50-60 hour paychecks, so we sat down and talked about how she was being taken advantage of, and wasn't being paid enough to be out of the house as much as she was, especially if nearly half of that time wasn't even compensated. She agreed, and said she would fix it. She didn't. Fast forward to Christmas day, and we're discussing her affair, and deciding to divorce. Merry Christmas logout!
As a newly single parent of 3 children, Covid and the shutdown hit me hard. Fortunately, I was able to continue working through it as I worked in an "essential" field, but I was relying on taking my kids to work with me every day. This was fine, in fact 3 other people on my team of 5 were bringing their children daily too. This continued until well into the summer, until someone from the other crew got fired. I had to transfer to the other crew to pick up the slack while they found a replacement, and they never did. The new crew was not okay with the kids coming to work, but mom to the rescue! She's not working anymore anyway, so she can hang with the kids while I work. Things went on this way until about the time for school to start.
My niece has special needs, and I guess throughout all this pandemic mess, my sister and her husband have been unable to keep hold of a full-time nurse for her. So, mom to the rescue! She basically lets me know she has to take up the slack with her granddaughter, and I would need to figure out my situation on my own. Well, I figured it out. Quit working, live off savings for a few months, school the kids at home, and just try to survive until things get back to normal.
So that's where I am today. Bought a basic PC for the kids to school virtually on, cancer-but-not-cancerous-yet, buried dad, divorced wife, and coming back for a visit with my SPF family. Things aren't great, but I'm good. I started doing yoga in the mornings, have learned a lot of self control, both financially and emotionally. Things are getting better, but yeesh, I got close to being overwhelmed there for a while.
With my inheritance money, I bought a little piece (11.8 acres) of land a few miles down the road from my mom, and have decided I will stay here to keep an eye on her. So, me and the kids, living the country life. They see their mother once or twice a week, she has a studio apartment, and they go visit her on her day(s) off. They hate it. They would much prefer to stay with me, but I tell them that's not fair, and "mommy still loves you" and all that. I think they hate that they have no space at her place. It's her place, not their home.
I installed on my Windows 10 PC last night, and the game fired right up off my 1.00 discs without any hassle. I was excited. Made it to Upper Kurast on a "fishymancer" before deciding to take a break. Currently no GoMule or RWM or anything, playing straight outta the box. We'll see how long that lasts, probably until get my first decent drop that is related to some other build...
Anyway, TL;DR: Got sick, dad died, got divorced, here I am, how are you?
Last edited: