Tone Parsons

When I left work those many months ago, I wasn’t too worried, because I have long term disability insurance. Because I did a “buy-up” when I purchased the insurance, I was guaranteed 70% of my current salary until I reach age 65.

Unfortunately, part of the deal is that I apply for Social Security Disability (and appeal twice if my claim is denied). If I’m accepted, my insurance company deducts the amount that Social Security pays me from the amount they have to pay me. After the 3rd denial, my insurance company will tell me that I fought the good fight, and I no longer have to deal with it (they just pay me).

If you’ve never applied for Disability benefits from the government, let me explain the process in the simplest terms I can: It’s drawn out, time consuming, and painful.

You fill out form after form, then they request the same forms be filled out again (and again) until your will to live is as broken as you are.

I think I’ve finally filled out everything they need for my initial application, as I called and talked my my case worker again today. She stated that while I’m a good candidate for disability, I’m probably going to be denied (you have to be a total vegetable to get accepted at my age of 41).

So…. once the denial letter comes, I get the joy of running through the appeal process….. twice! Lucky me!

As for me… I’ve had people ask how I’ve been doing, so I thought I’d put out an update.

Things haven’t changed much. I still hurt all the time, I’m still on heavy narcotics, and I still sleep a lot. My attitude about it, however, is improving. I’ve come to accept that this is my life now, and it’s time to get myself out of the bucket of self-pity that I’ve been wallowing in.

I’m going to start getting out of the house more and experiencing life outside of these 4 walls. I plan to go to the Spokane Shock store sometime this week to get myself all geared up for the opening home game of the season (this coming saturday). We watched the first game of the season (they played Green Bay in Wisconsin) via the web and it was great! Spokane beat them 64 – 48 (which kicked serious ass!!).

I’m also going to get on the web more often, posting both here and on my forum. Hell, I may even bring wwbd out of mothballs and back to it’s former glory (the last few posts over there kind of sucked).

For the past 8 years, I’ve been buying computer parts online nearly exclusively from one company, Newegg.com.

Tonight, I took a look at my past orders (yes… they show them all to you) and noticed something interesting; the order I made last Thursday night was my 50’th order from them. So, out of curiosity, I added up what I have spent with them over the years.

$15,099.81 (plus shipping)

Holy Crap!! That’s a lot of money! Of course… it’s also a lot of computer parts (yes… I’m geek to the bone!).

Of course, they have good prices and reasonable shipping (for the most part). Whenever I’ve had problems, their customer service has been extremely good to me, and RMA’s are a breeze!

Seriously… If you’re looking to buy parts online, Newegg is hard to beat! I love ’em!

I haven’t written for a bit, and feel that I should put something new up (for the two or three people who actually read this).  So here we go.

I actually escaped my house last week!  I hopped on a bus last thursday and made the hour and a half trip to visit my co-workers for lunch.  I had a fantastic time!  We went to Cruisers (our favorite lunchtime haunt) and had some burgers.  The bartender there introduced me to the wonder that is Vincent Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka (oh my God, is that good!!!).  Afterward, I got a chance to wander the halls of work and say hi to everyone.

It was nice!

Today’s plan of action: Build a computer for my son!

Yes, in my previous post, I said “Hell No!” to dealing with computers (and I’ve actually been very busy doing exactly that since then), but this is for my eldest son… and family is a different thing.  His birthday was on Monday (19 years old), and he paid for the bulk of the parts.  Here’s what he’s getting:

• NZKT LEXA Case (sexy!!)
• EVGA Geforce 9600GT video card with 512MB of memory
• AMD Phenom 9600 Quad Core Processor (Agena 2.3GHz core)
• 750GB Seagate Barracuda 7400 hard drive, 2 GB of memory, etc.

All the parts should come today, so I’ll be a busy boy tonight putting it all together.  This thing will be so fast, you’ll go back in time when you turn it on! 🙂

Just a quick note that I will never again build a PC for anyone except for myself or my immediate family.

Also… I am not your 24/7/365 tech support.

Buy a Dell, or figure it out yourself.  I’m done.

Thank you.