It's been a while since I last visited Blogland here at the ol' GA, so I might as well update you on how things are going in my little corner of the world.

First off, my service-connected disabilities were reevaluated by the VA. I'm no longer rated at 50% for Bipolar Disorder. I've been rerated at 70% for Schizoaffective Disorder Bipolar Type. The only reason I wasn't rated at 100% (the next level) was because I wasn't frequently hospitalized, had many suicide attempts, or homeless. Also, my knees were rerated. When I got out of the Air Force back in '75, I was rated at 20% service-connected disabled for both knees due to Chrondromalacia Patella Bilateral (that's both knees). In 2011, I was again rated at 20% disabled for Chrondromalacia. Now, my knee disability has been redefined as Degenerative Arthritis and rated as 10% for my left knee, plus another 10% for my left knee, plus 10% for my right knee, plus another 10% for my right knee. Now, if you weren't paying attention that's 10% + 10% + 10% + 10% = 10%. Yep, in the wisdom of the VA bureaucracy 4 X 10 = 10. What I want to know is why didn't they just continue with the 20%?

Oh, that novel I wrote? Well, let's just say that I'm not going to bother getting it published in any shape or form. First of all, I found out there are a ton of books out there in its genre. I don't know where they are, but an agent flat out told me, at present, there's no market for that kind of stuff. So it looks like you guys get to peruse it a chapter at a time. As far as other writing projects, I have a story almost ready to submit for the Spring Anthology. Since it took me five attempts at getting a story for the Spring Anthology, that means that there should be at least four stories I can post in the coming months. The first one is about a 12-year-old boy whose mother won't tell him anything about his father. Then one day a relative lets slip the name, Jim Bob, and he sees the front page of an old newspaper with the headline, JAMES SWANSON GUILTY! He goes on a search for his father and, in the end, may wish he let sleeping dogs lie.

In the near term, I'll be getting my first COVID vaccination dose on Tuesday and the second in three weeks. I look forward to getting back into a gym because I've tacked on quite a few pounds since moving to Plano.