Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Sleep


February 27th 2013

Dear B,


Sleep has not come easy these past few weeks. I’ve had a lot on my mind, more than usual.

For the past three weekends we have received a significant amount of snow. The big storm we received three weeks ago knocked power out to most of the area. I was fortunate to only have it flicker while others were without it for days. There were many trees down and schools were closed for a couple of days. The governor declared a state of emergency and even instituted a driving ban to all no essential emergency vehicles during the storm. I had the candles and flashlights out but never needed them. I made a pizza and watched movies. It was a non-event for me personally while the rest of the region declared it to be the largest storm to see the area in the past 30 years. Like I said, it was no big deal to me.

Not much phases me these days. I'm not sure if it is my depression getting worse or if I'm just desensitized to life itself these days. It seems I’ve checked out of reality and just in life’s limbo.

The 4th anniversary of JJ's passing has come and gone this past week. I can't believe how fast time is moving. The rest of the world has kept moving forward while I've become stuck in this time period of inactivity in my life. I keep wishing I could somehow bottle up or save this time for a more productive period in my life but I don’t see anything promising on the horizon.

I haven’t been to a church service this year yet as I haven’t had my Jeep fixed and don’t have a way to get anywhere. Needless to say I haven’t gotten around much this year. I actually received a few calls to fix computers in the last day or so. Not enough to put a dent into the mountain of debt that is accumulating monthly but it is still something and I am grateful for that.

My appointment for getting my taxes done is coming up soon and I haven’t paid nearly half of what I owe from the prior year. My request to renew my medical insurance was just recently denied due to the lack of proof of income. I need to submit a recent tax return as proof of income. The catch is when I file I need to make a large sum payment of what I owe to the state and that is money I don’t really have.
I really don't have any answers to any of my financial woes these days. I keep going over and over the things I need to be focusing on to make money and keep coming up with nothing. To me this has become an unsolvable issue.
And maybe that's why I can't sleep. I usually can figure things out on my own without much outside help. I've been doing it for years. Self-reliance to me has worked thus far. When I start depending on others to meet my needs it seems I set myself up for failure.
So I go it alone for the most part. Like I said it has worked for the most part.
Now I lie awake most nights between the hours of 2AM and 5AM only succumbing to sleep as the sun breaks the horizon.
On the rare occasion that I do sleep I wake up feeling physically exhausted knowing I have tossed and turned most of the night. Not a very pleasant way to start the day.
I look forward to the longer brighter days coming up this Spring. I won't have the heat on which will reduce the natural gas I use and my electricity consumption will be down as well. It will feel good to feel the heat of the sun and smell the fresh outdoor air once again.
For the time being I will stay indoors, hibernating like a bear for the remainder of the winter watching the snow fall.
I miss and love you.

-Dad XO

Friday, February 1, 2013

Death by Chocolate...


February 1st 2013

Dear B,

Two weeks have passed since I have last written to you. I just do not know where the time goes. I sleep a lot these days and usually by the time I get up to do my morning ritual of getting coffee and checking email it is pushing two in the afternoon.

What woke me up today was the slamming of the ambulance doors outside the house. The lady across the street must have gone into another self-induced diabetic coma again. It has become a monthly occurrence. Half the time the EMTs just give her a shot to regulate her sugar and she is fine within a few minutes. The other half, she goes for the ride to the hospital only to be released either the same or next day. What a way to live.

I keep thinking that one of these days she is going to go into a diabetic shock and her husband won't be there to call 911. Or maybe the EMTs will be too late to administer that special life saving shot or that her body isn't going to recover and she's going to die regardless of what the paramedics do. To pass clutching a bag of chocolate chip cookies isn't exactly a dignified way to go. Then again, what is?

Not much else has changed in the last two weeks though. The weather has been crazy though. The temperature got down to the single digits last week. Then it warmed up to nearly 50 degrees the other day only to drop back down to around freezing today. It has snowed a few days but nothing really accumulated. Oh, and it got windy. Really windy with gusts up to around 50MPH. I haven't noticed any downed limbs in the yard but I haven't really gotten out either.

Last week I took all the Christmas decorations down and packed them away for another year. The house looks so empty now. It was a sad few days packing up the trees and putting away your still wrapped presents that are now two plus years old. I think I got a total of three Christmas cards this year. Now I know why people are so depressed this time of year.

Some doctors and scientists blame it on the shorter days and lack of sunlight. I think it's the fact that a new year has come into existence and nothing has changed but the fact that I am hanging a new calendar up. I'm still broke. I still have a ton of bills with no work coming in and nothing on the horizon either. Nothing has changed. You are still gone and no longer a part of my life.

For the last two weeks I've been advertising on Craigslist that I have a room to rent. I have not received any replies thus far. I'm not crazy about taking in another boarder but I need a way to make the mortgage payments somehow.

I'm advertising used computes for sale and computer services on Craigslist as well. I haven't had any luck there either.

The year is 1/12 over already. There are just over 46 days until the first day of Spring. Not that I have anything to look forward to in the Spring.

The ambulance is gone. It left empty again. It looks like the neighbor lives another day. I guess some people get to have their cake and eat it too.

I miss and love you.

-Dad XO

Friday, January 18, 2013

2013 and the Future...

January 18th 2013

Dear B,

It has been a few weeks since I have written to you. I basically shut my brain down for the remainder of the holidays the best I could. Thinking of how I won't be spending the holidays with you is just... well just... hard.

Let me see if I can deal with getting caught up without losing it altogether.

I attended Christmas Eve service at church as I had the past two years and took pictures of the service. To think it was only three years ago we had attended this service together. Sure it cost me $20.00 to convince you but you went just the same. As we stood side by side holding our candles during the candle-light portion of the service, I thought to myself, things were going ok between the two of us. They weren't going great but I thought they were at least going ok. I'll always remember how you looked that day. You were dressed in your red wool petticoat and black boots. You looked beautiful as always. The fact that you were standing by my side in church with the rest of my "church" family made it extra memorable.

I caught a glimmer of snow flurries in the street light out back as I was going to bed after writing you last. It was well after midnight making it officially Christmas snow. Do you know it has snowed every Christmas since we have been apart? I know it's only two years but I don't think it has snowed on Christmas day prior to this in about 14 or 15 years.

I woke late Christmas morning to the same empty house I fell asleep to. There were no stockings to fill after midnight and I missed placing the tiny box of chocolates on your nightstand this year.

I did climb the stairs to the second floor and stood just outside your bedroom door with my eyes closed trying to recapture a happy memory from Christmases' past but just didn't have the strength to do it.

The coffee was on the bitter side and I was grateful when Lisa called to say she was on her way to coming to pick me up.

Lisa is doing all of the driving these days as the Jeep has a bad front axel on the drivers side. It won't matter soon because once it starts snowing I wont be able to go anywhere as the heat and defroster still don't work.

Lisa and I opened our gifts pretty quickly. I got her a basket of assorted girly things, a set of hand painted mugs by Ms. J, a bracelet she had her eye on, and a couple of poster sized framed prints of some pictures I took at a Dave Mathews concert we went to last summer. She got me a blue Pyrex dish, coffee, some underwear, and a Kindle.

Now don't get me wrong. The underwear I needed, the coffee I can drink, but the Kindle? I tried to be a good sport about it by registering it and all. However the more I tried to do things with it the more I found out how limited it really was. It ended up getting sent back and Lisa got the Amazon credit.

On a happier note, this was the push I needed to take apart my old tablet, make the repairs and return it into service.

We headed to Lisa's house where I watched Lisa and her daughters open their gifts to each other. I took a few pictures and then we all went to Lisa's mom's house for dinner. Nothing formal. Almost everyone in Lisa's family vegan but there was enough meat for me to feel full after eating.

The rest of the holiday was uneventful.

I didn't hear from anyone in the family, nor did I expect to. I thought about calling my mother and father but considering I didn't even receive a Christmas card from them I didn't call.

New Year's Eve this past year was a bust. I stayed home and did nothing. And although I was streaming the countdown on my laptop I didn't really watch. Lisa couldn't afford to come down and went to bed early. I'm not quite sure when I'll see her again as money is tight for both of us.

I really don't know what 2013 and the future has in store for me.

I don't see this getting any easier as time goes by.

I miss you and will always love you.

-Dad XO