Carol,

CS>Hehehe welcome!

  Thanks. I've seen your posts in FIDONet for years.

CS>I've been offline for a bit here.  Family medical issues.

  Same here. My Mom is in a nursing home, and I can only go visit her
once a week. Part of the reasons are the long drive (never mind they
drive like maniacs on the interstate highways -- the speed limit in
rural areas may be 75, but they're doing at least 90, if not 100 or
more), and the use of gasoline...but it has been a very stormy spring
around here. If there's flooding, etc. I stay home. Even if she had been
in Little Rock, she told my brother and I *NOT* to venture out. Here,
most everyone thinks they can stop on a snowy, wet, or icy pavement,
just as fast as they can on dry pavement.

  The place in Lonoke, Arkansas, where she is, is at least 45 miles east
of Little Rock (about an hour drive each way from what was her home (now
mine)). It was the only place that would take her, because she had too
much in stocks, life insurance, etc., that had to be cashed in, to go
into a Miller Trust, to pay the $5500 a month nursing home bill, and the
$700 a month pharmacy bill. Hopefully, if they get her on Medicaid on
July 1, I won't have to pay that...as my Mom doesn't even have $55 in
the bank.

  You have to have UNDER $2000 in assets to get on Medicaid, and they
look for records from the last 5 years (bank statements, credit cards,
even gifts or checks to ones own children). Two years ago, her health
was declining at 90, but she has really gone downhill in the last year.

  My brother wanted NOTHING TO DO with the financial end of it, but he
wanted his money. So, I had to become her Power Of Attorney, and take
care of all of that crap on my own. Then, I had to move back to what is
now my place last fall, and lost 95% of the furniture, as I had no room
for it over here.

  We finally got some funding last month, where he could fix the roof on
his mobile home, and repair his vehicle...and I could pay several bills,
including appliance service policies, and car repairs. I also am doing a
"compensation" final trip via Amtrak passenger train to Albuquerque, New
Mexico in September, for a ham radio event. I will also travel to
Clinton, Arkansas in early October, for a state square dance event (ham
radio and square dancing are my 2 other hobbies besides the BBS)...but
those will be my FINAL TRIPS outside of central Arkansas. My health and
finances are getting to the point where it's too difficult anymore.

Daryl

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