Letters to Mom

 It's been awhile.  Sorry about that, Mom.  This last year of the pandemic has been hard, even on an introvert like me. We have good news, though.   The photograph of Pap and Mam, the one dated 1880-something,  we packed it up and I mailed it (over $60) and mailed it to Skip since that's more of his side of the family.  I mailed it on 03/03 It just hit Fresno last week.  WTH?  I was told that there aren't enough workers in the warehouses for USPS.  Wow!   We are definitely relieved that it's going to reach Skip today.  I can only pray that it's in good condition. We miss you, Mom. I was going through the house and going deep into cabinets and drawers.  I even tackled my closet.  That got put on hold for a bit when Nick moved back in.  He was between duty stations and on leave so I couldn't tackle his room/craft room.  I'm also wanting to deal with our ever growing number of books and dvds - that will be a challenging nightmare! Along with some repairs we nee

 Happy birthday to the United States Marine Corps - Semper Fi! Hey Mom,  I know, it's been awhile.  We're doing okay on this end.  The usual dealing with the aching muscles and bones from arthritis and the EHD (whatever its called) and the strained muscles.  We're trying to keep up with the house, we've got a few big projects we need to get done (as usual).  The list of "TO DO" never gets shorter - LOL.  Something that is helping is that we bought a floor scrubber by Hoover.  Boy does it help!  It gets the floors cleaner than the Swifter and they stay cleaner longer.  It takes longer but I don't have to scrub as hard with my feet and I'm not two steps behind on keeping up with the floors.  God, we miss you, Mom. It gets harder this time of year.  The leaves have turned and there's been a couple of days with the temps in the low 60s.  Of course we're in the mid to high 70s this week.  It's Georgia.  We've got your Ali plaque up for sale,

Missing you, Mom.  There are times when it hurts a lot.  Most of the time it's a dull ache. Birthdays and Mother's Day are hard.  You'd be proud of Nick, Ma.  He did really well on his scores and training and has a good job in the service.  He'll have some mad skills when he gets out.  We miss him but beam with pride knowing we had a small hand in that.  Just offering him a place to stay (with conditions and rules) turned things in another direction for him.  Awesome. The cats are well.  Grady is getting that "old-man" thinness because of the FHIV.  His health may go downhill from here.  I keep feeding him a higher grade cat food, liver and chicken.  That helps. Jackie's fibro and arthritis makes things difficult for her and the global pandemic has curbed any ideas on getting a little healthier by going to the gym with me.  I've lost 35 lbs over the last 6-8 months and have a bit more energy (after dealing with some kind of virus that zapped me

Had to play this one today.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meJP410N9Gg I received my assessment from the VA - it's very possible I am on the autism spectrum but would need more specialized assessment outside of the VA which costs quite a bit.  I'm good with where it stands.  I know I have a lot of quirks, traits or whatever you want to call them outside of the PTSD and social anxiety. Overall assessment: depression (of course), PTSD that isn't in acute stage, alcoholism that's in remission (for decades now) and social anxiety disorder which is probably where my psych and I will work on - the flare up of the depression and the social anxiety.  Fun times. Positive stuff: things are blooming and the grass is quickly growing. We've had a lot of rain lately and they say another 5 days at least.  The weather is also turning warm.  As much as I hate the heat I'm glad for spring.  People are stepping up to help each other in the virus crisis. I've lost 30+

I had an assessment a few weeks ago and got the results. The assessor believes it is very possible that I'm on the autism spectrum but I'd need more indepth, detailed assessment (which costs quite a bit). Definitely I deal with C-PTSD (since age 5)(not at debilitating levels) depression - ongoing and social anxiety disorder (SAD) which has become debilitating in many areas (it got worse over the years). I received some recommendations on dealing with the SAD, now to explor e them and learn more on the disorder. Some of the traits/quirks/whatever can't be explained by the PTSD or social anxiety that do fall in the usual markers for autism. Overall bottom line: I'm wired different General stuff: perception/reasoning/math stuff - average to high average math/working memory: average range cognitive abilities - high average verbal/reading/info - high average to superior (in the top 4%) overall: highly intelligent, kind, very resilient and sociall

Holidays are always hard, Mom.  We're going to have Thanksgiving here.  We're not sure if the kids are coming over or not, they may not be able to afford it.  We're hoping they can, we'd love to see them. We miss you, Mom.  I'm going to talk more about the autism thing tomorrow or very soon. Love you

Hey, Mom; It's been awhile.  I'm sorry for that.  I talk to you everyday but not in here so much and I'll change that.  I've been almost absent on social media - posting just what I need to in my groups on FB and ignoring all the ones that don't need attention like the Fall/Halloween ones which is extremely unusual for me. I think we may have found some reasons as to why I've always been different, your changeling that you never could understand.  Either I am on the autism spectrum with a bit of OCD and social anxiety or I'm just weird and have OCD and social anxiety.  My therapist doesn't know my sporadic work history and overall weirdness so she's not convinced I'm on the spectrum.  We're going to get some tests done (eventually, it's the VA so that may take awhile) and see what shakes out of the bag.  I hit almost every single trait for autism.  It's weird but nice to realize there are a lot of people out there who think like I