New Zealand is kind of mid. After spending 26 days driving from New Zealand’s north island to the south island (1,600 miles), I can confidently say I don’t think I’d go back, nor would I particularly recommend it to most people. New Zealand is full of beautiful places with loads of activities, a curious culture that doesn’t like outsiders, an… Read more →
On March 1, 2023, my dad’s life with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease finally got a big break. He moved into the Southern Nevada State Veterans Home in Boulder City where he lives, free of charge, in a beautiful, well-built, maintained and staffed skilled nursing facility. His moods have stabilized, he likes the food, he plays games with other guests, the… Read more →
The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs denied my dad a life-improving benefit that would finally allow him to afford not only the memory care home he lives in today but also future nursing care facilities he will need as dementia continues to consume his brain. Senator Catherine Cortes Masto’s office in the Las Vegas VA office helped my family clear… Read more →
My dad is living in Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas to avoid homelessness—again. He can’t afford to live anywhere else and get the kind of care he needs. You’ve read this before. I’ve said it before. He’s been here before. We’re doing this again. I told you he’d try to escape In December 2021, we found a group home… Read more →
My dad was homeless for 15 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I don’t think a lot of people understand what that really means. They think of homeless people as “bums” who “just need to get a job.” Or, they think it’s some kind of “lifestyle choice” for people who just want to hang around and sleep in tents.… Read more →
A few days after Thanksgiving, my dad ran away from my niece’s home where he was staying after running away from his home in Kentucky. He wandered the streets for a few hours until my niece found him and tried to take him home. Unfortunately, his dementia has progressed to include “behavioral disturbances,” a very clinical way to name uncontrollable… Read more →
Disclaimer: This article talks about food and poop, because this is real life and food becomes poop. Also, I am not a doctor and am not qualified to give medical advice. This is a story about personal experience with cholecystectomy and its effects on diet. Edit: Updated Jan. 3, 2022 with new information and learning from this experience, new medicine and… Read more →
Creativity vacillates between dopamine-fueled highs and soul-sucking lows. That’s what makes it so fun and terrifying. It’s not for everybody. People write all these blog posts about how to be creative, I assume, for the folks who are already creative but are currently living on the soul-sucking half of the wave and need someone to tell them how to be creative all. day.… Read more →
A blast from the past, I interviewed Chuck Norris back in 2006. It was one of my favorite stories I wrote in college. It was lost when the hosting for the Nevada Sagebrush expired, so here it is again for old time sake. Denting the world, one kick at a time According to “facts” floating around on the Internet, Chuck… Read more →