2022 In Review

Well, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, dogs and cats, horses and cattle, rats and mice, crows and ravens, Chinook salmon and great white sharks, sanity and insanity, 2022 has come to an end, so it’s time to look back and see what the year has given me. Pope Benedict XVI and Barbara Walters lived to the very end, but missed a chance to see the sunrise of 2023. Such is life.

2022 for me was moving from Texas back to Washington to reclaim that bedroom in my son’s old manufactured home. Technically, a mobile home because it was manufactured a year before the designation changed. My bedroom was full of stuff my son put there and I brought stuff with me. I have a whole box of DVDs and no means of playing them because my son stopped watching TV, so he put it in the closet. I’m thinking of getting a bookshelf for the corner where the desk currently resides. I could probably get a small TV to sit on top of the bookshelf with my DVD player. I know my son wants the desk so he can restart his hobby of building model airplanes.

My reason for moving back was the possibility of getting new knees. I joined a gym when I arrived here, but stopped going after two weeks because I overexerted and blew out my right knee. By the time the right knee was sufficiently better, the left knee decided to start slipping. My biggest problem is losing weight. It’s the Seroquel that caused the weight gain, but pretty much all anti-psychotics cause weight gain. A good way for me to lose weight for knee surgery would be to stop taking the Seroquel, start using nicotine, start exercising more. Maybe doing that I’ll lose enough weight to get knee surgery before I flip out from not taking the psych med. Of course, that’s crazy thinking. My new psychiatrist likes me because I’m able to recognize when my thinking goes askew.

Wednesday evening (12/28), I went down to Speedway Chevrolet in Monroe and traded my 2014 Chev Impala LTZ in on a 2015 Toyota Tundra SR5 4X4 Double Cab. It’s one of the Tundra years recommended by YouTube automotive presenter Scotty Kilmer. It was well taken care of by its previous owners, so I think I made a good deal. My plan is to take road trips in the summer when my son takes his vacation. Depending on the weather, I might even try a short road trip during his Christmas vacation.

OK, time for the nitty-gritty. It’s time to discuss how Schizoaffective Disorder Bipolar Type has affected me. First, I moved back to Gold Bar when that was probably not the correct decision in my life right now. The way the orthopedics PA explained it, being sent to a nursing home for a period of recovery after surgery wasn’t something I wanted, but if I would’ve gone to the apartment manager or possibly a local DAV rep, they probably would’ve helped me during my period of recovery. I was afraid of the what might occur if I couldn’t get my daily mail and ordering groceries. If I would’ve thought it out, I probably could get my mail and, of course, online ordering of groceries was doable. I had done it during the time I dislocated my little toe and was stuck at home. It all goes back to my biggest problem with being schizo. I just don’t think like regular people and that gets me in trouble sometimes. Not big trouble like going to jail, though I do remember in my youth contriving acts of violence that could’ve put me in prison for a long, long time. I suppose I’m lucky not being full-blown schizo.