OK.  I've been in a "funk" for the last couple of weeks.  It happens.  I think I'm just feeling my age.  I'll be 66 on Saturday.  As my wife pointed out, 66 on the 6th means I'm the work of Satan.  666.  I thought she had figured that out durning the honeymoon.

  It seems like it wasn't that long ago that I could move all the parts of my body without making an involuntary noise.  Things either, squeak, pop or I let out an audible sound.  Frump. 

  OK  I've retired.  Now I'm worried about money.  I'm running out of the stuff.  I get a small bit from the VA and more from Social Security and have a small 401K I haven't tapped yet.  I also have a house to sell, but this isn't the time to try and do that.  I'd have to cut the price of the place in half to sell it, so it just sits there - vacant.

  I also have a mortgage on the new place for about 110 gs. and a second mortgage on top of that to bring it up to something I can use.  Everything in the "new place" was circa 1966 and hideous.  Among the little items that needed immediate attention was the kitchen.  The stove and ovens (two in one) were built ins and strangely built in at that.  The ass end of the ovens stuck out in the garage.  While the oven worked, the only way to shut it off was to flip the circuit breaker. 

  The roof was on the downhill side of "bad" and the windows were "shot".  You needed props to keep them open when you could even do that.  The roof, windows, gutters and a couple of doors have been replaced and the kitchen is moving along.  I'm in hopes my mood will improve when I'm not washing dishes in the lime green bathroom sink.

  Kathy (my wife) is the only one working and I'm bored stiff sitting at home all day.  She pays for the lights, gas and so on.  I just have the mortgage payments and food to buy.  That doesn't leave a whole lot to blow on luxuries like matching woodwork and wall to wall flooring.  The carpet that came with the place is only about 4 years old, but it looks much older.  It is showing backing in some places, wrinkling in others and bogs down my chair everywhere it exists.  It even exists in the bathrooms which are not "handicapped friendly".  The toilets are too low, the sinks too enclosed and the bathtub and shower too high.  At the present time, remodeling those ar on the back burner.

  I know I'm depressed because all I'm doing is eating and sleeping.  I putter around the house all day doing minor projects - Fun things like patching drywall and painting.  I can still do ladders and we have one with handrails, but the ceiling is still only half done.  I just can't get up the "umph" to finish it. 

  Oh well, I'm not getting anything done while I'm writting this, so I suppose I should do "something".  Just what I'm not sure.

  I've been an amputee long enough to know what I can and can't do anymore. 

  I've been using prosthetics for over 30 years now and getting by with a cane or a forearm crutch.  I've decided to stop and just sit most of the time.  Other things are giving out now.  My remaing knee now locks up from time to time and my shoulders are in constant pain.  My wife and I have moved to a single story ranch house and are in the process of making it easy for me to get around in a chair. 

  At the moment I've getting around in an ancient manual wheelchair, but I'm trying to get an electric job.  Since the VA pays for this, this is taking more time than I'd like.  It doesn't hwlp when the closest VA facility is rated as one of the worst in the country.

  I'm usually in a pretty good mood and do have a way of looking at life from a cockeyed perspective.  I figure I'm not going out of here alive, but I fully intend to take a few along with me and we'll enjoy the ride to the end.