Well, I guess I'm on here for the duration, since the current unpleasantness between the U.S. and Russia has made it impossible to renew my LJ account, and I wouldn't be surprised if our Lords and Masters in Silicon Valley shut off access to it in the near future, either at the behest of those clowns at the Department of State, or because they haven't met their quota of virtue signaling for the day.
So let's see, what's been happening since I've been there and you've been here? (Assuming, of course, that anyone besides![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
neonvincent is still following me here.)
From 2015-18 I was living peacefully at Somerset Gardens in Las Vegas, doing the H&R Block thing during the season, and after a very disappointing off-season in 2015, driving for Uber from 2016-2018.
2018 was not a good year. I had a disastrous couple of semesters at UNLV, Mr. Kishner died and his heirs sold Somerset Gardens to the Convention Center, and that meant I had to find somewhere else to live. That somewhere else wound up being an apartment on the north side of Las Vegas near Bonanza & Maryland, but in the meantime I stayed in a lot of hotels after getting a really bad case of sepsis in the month I moved out of Somerset Gardens, and that meant a four-day stay at Sunrise Hospital and another two weeks in a nursing home in southwest Vegas before I was deemed well enough to be released. That put the kibosh on my Uber driving (though it took a few nights to get that through my head) and I put in for disability again.
As bad as 2018 was, 2019 was worse. The six-month "expedited review process" Social Security had promised turned into 16 months, which resulted in me being evicted from my apartment and crashing with my "cousin" Angie's parents for a few days until I got a room (shared) in the transitional housing facility run by USVets. That was no picnic either, but it gave me someplace to stay while working for H&R Block and waiting for my Social Security and VA disability paperwork to work their ways through the respective systems. In the meantime, I managed to keep most of my essential bills paid thanks to the generosity of friends and many, many strangers who donated to the cause through The Other McCain and Instapundit, both of whom came through for me by publicizing my plight.
I know 2020 was bad for a lot of people, but despite a three-week dance with Corona-chan in January, and the abortive tax season, I actually did all right. The various unemployment and stimulus programs allowed me to get some bills cleared away,* and USVets moved me into a room at the Candlewood Suites so I wouldn't get or spread the coof. That enabled me to work on the paperwork that got me into the apartment in Tonopah where I live now, which I did at the end of August. The Rural Housing Authority waived my deposit, and USVets paid for the move out of the storage locker & up to the apartment, plus a couple months' rent.
2021 - well, I can't complain too loudly, although the tax season sucked on account of me having to drive to Las Vegas and back every week of tax season without being reimbursed for travel costs. It was a good thing Uncle Sam was still throwing $300 extra a week into my unemployment check, because most weeks I wasn't getting enough hours to exceed the $139/week I was getting from UI, and that extra $300 mostly went to hotel bills and gasoline. I refused to go back to the Las Vegas district, and got a much better offer from the Reno district, where I'm mostly working from home doing online assist work and knocking off the occasional drop-off return. New DM did ask me to come up and help out for three weeks in February, but she put me up at the Sands Regency, so that was all right.
*Not to mention buying the HP laptop to replace the Satellite of Love when that died on me at the Candlewood.
So let's see, what's been happening since I've been there and you've been here? (Assuming, of course, that anyone besides
neonvincent is still following me here.)From 2015-18 I was living peacefully at Somerset Gardens in Las Vegas, doing the H&R Block thing during the season, and after a very disappointing off-season in 2015, driving for Uber from 2016-2018.
2018 was not a good year. I had a disastrous couple of semesters at UNLV, Mr. Kishner died and his heirs sold Somerset Gardens to the Convention Center, and that meant I had to find somewhere else to live. That somewhere else wound up being an apartment on the north side of Las Vegas near Bonanza & Maryland, but in the meantime I stayed in a lot of hotels after getting a really bad case of sepsis in the month I moved out of Somerset Gardens, and that meant a four-day stay at Sunrise Hospital and another two weeks in a nursing home in southwest Vegas before I was deemed well enough to be released. That put the kibosh on my Uber driving (though it took a few nights to get that through my head) and I put in for disability again.
As bad as 2018 was, 2019 was worse. The six-month "expedited review process" Social Security had promised turned into 16 months, which resulted in me being evicted from my apartment and crashing with my "cousin" Angie's parents for a few days until I got a room (shared) in the transitional housing facility run by USVets. That was no picnic either, but it gave me someplace to stay while working for H&R Block and waiting for my Social Security and VA disability paperwork to work their ways through the respective systems. In the meantime, I managed to keep most of my essential bills paid thanks to the generosity of friends and many, many strangers who donated to the cause through The Other McCain and Instapundit, both of whom came through for me by publicizing my plight.
I know 2020 was bad for a lot of people, but despite a three-week dance with Corona-chan in January, and the abortive tax season, I actually did all right. The various unemployment and stimulus programs allowed me to get some bills cleared away,* and USVets moved me into a room at the Candlewood Suites so I wouldn't get or spread the coof. That enabled me to work on the paperwork that got me into the apartment in Tonopah where I live now, which I did at the end of August. The Rural Housing Authority waived my deposit, and USVets paid for the move out of the storage locker & up to the apartment, plus a couple months' rent.
2021 - well, I can't complain too loudly, although the tax season sucked on account of me having to drive to Las Vegas and back every week of tax season without being reimbursed for travel costs. It was a good thing Uncle Sam was still throwing $300 extra a week into my unemployment check, because most weeks I wasn't getting enough hours to exceed the $139/week I was getting from UI, and that extra $300 mostly went to hotel bills and gasoline. I refused to go back to the Las Vegas district, and got a much better offer from the Reno district, where I'm mostly working from home doing online assist work and knocking off the occasional drop-off return. New DM did ask me to come up and help out for three weeks in February, but she put me up at the Sands Regency, so that was all right.
*Not to mention buying the HP laptop to replace the Satellite of Love when that died on me at the Candlewood.
