Restarting Where I left Off

Tuesday, 5 July 2016

I know it has been over a year since I last updated in this blog. I am truly sorry, but a combination of computer issues, and changes in status and address have put regular blogging on the back burner.

In a nutshell, I moved in to a house in Canton with my friend Sheryl in December of 2014, and finally started receiving my SS Disability benefits 3 months later (and 6 months after finally being approved, and denied twice before then). Though the county cut off my $194/month federal Food Stamp benefit because I was approved for SSD!

Sheryl was buying a house in Akron (a tiny 2 bedroom), so I moved out in November of 2015 to a long term stay motel in Bath Township, Ohio. But 1 month later I moved back to the Canton house because Sheryl had run into snags with her financing and needed help with the bills.

So I again moved in late January 2016, back into the very same room at the motel! (An efficiency room that used to be called a motor court. Small kitchen and a couch and bathroom, with parking at your door.)

As to the computer issues, my 6 year old Dell laptop was having fits, and I replaced it with a refurbished HP Desktop with Windows 7 last spring, but do not have MS Word available on it, so I cannot open or edit any of my previous documents without upsetting the format and causing problems.

I also have a used Gateway laptop with a Linux OS, that was a gift from a friend, but it has a different version of Libre Office, the word processing software I have loaded on the HP unit, so they turned out not to be compatible with each other!!!

This has limited my writing, as though I can create documents in either Libre Office or WordPad, I cannot share them with most people, and have issues with Libre v. IV and V being harder to use than Word 2007, and WordPad not having any spellcheck at all.

I have scrambled up a few stories beyond readability trying to open them back and forth between the desktop and the Gateway laptop.

Also, the laptop has a tiny 14"screen, and the Linux system will not allow me to increase the size of the type on screen, forcing me to strain my eyes when I am using it online.

So most of my work is done on the Desktop CPU with a large Dell 14" (20" diagonal) monitor and the type face size set up for 150%.

I have been teaching myself MS Paint to alter pictures and draw things, but I am still very challenged with that software.

I do have a steady pension every month now that pays my rent here, and allows me a modest grocery list, and cell phone charges.

I do get to buy a good cigar every now and then (there is a smoke shop 1/2 mile down the hill from me, and a wine shop 3/4 mile north of me that sells good cigars), and occasionally my friend Matt takes me to the bars in the area where we get some dinner and a beer, followed by some premium smokes at Havana House.

Well, my latest event here, is the final delivery this past Saturday, of the Worksman Executive Industrial pedal Tricycle that I ordered on 7 May.

Many issues cropped up delaying the delivery, and problems at the NYC factory and the bike dealer who assembled this US made trike, made for a long and interesting story I will cover in another blog entry.

But thanks to my friend Joe, whom I worked with for 15 years, I was able to order this vehicle and pay for it, as well as have him deliver it to my motel room for me in his pickup truck!

Thanks, Joe!

Joe is also letting me store all of the items I have been paying $100/mo to store in Canton, in his basement in eastern Cuyahoga County at no charge. (And he and his nephew have graciously been helping me move them, too!)

So, I look forward to a summer of riding the nearby parks and trails on my new trike, and have a few dollars to spare at the end of the month every month to put aside.

My location is very rural, but very quiet and restful. I am about 5 miles from shopping, and have takeout nearby, and the cigar store and a gas station mini mart at the bottom of the hill. There are lots of hills in the area!!!

But being on the ridge overlooking the Cuyahoga Valley, means that once I can build my legs back up pedaling, I can enjoy the Towpath Trail, and many other scenic routes in the area!

'Till next time, folks! Take care!