The Technicolor Rollercoaster Ride

By Daddy 07/05/2017

Las Vegas, NV — For a dedicated computer nerd, six months of code slinging is as the famous commercial proclaims "Priceless!" It was over a decade ago when I last stretched my programming muscles and it felt so good.

However, it has been a Rollercoaster ride. It was just a few months ago that I was within $500 of reaching my goal to be able to move to a slightly bigger apartment. While I'm packed in like a can of sardines, it's comfortable. I just needed a touch more space to squeeze in a work table.

Then everything started to break down. The car battery, followed by the car alternator. Then my cellphone and the secondary development computer bit the dust. I handled them all in stride. After all they were old and replacing them made sense.

But the real money drain was when I went to the optometrist because my reading glasses were just not cutting it and that was slowing my development progress. It's when she said: "You have cataracts in both eyes." that we both were actually relieved because we were worried that it was diabetes related.

She referred me to what turned out to be a the best eye surgeon in Las Vegas who charges less than usual because he has his own in-house surgery. The cost was high enough to cause mild panic but my apartment moving budget would cover it all but you guessed it $500. I figured that I spaced the two operations a month apart, I'd be able to cover it, and the doctor preferred at least three weeks between operations. "Done deal!" I paid for the left eye which was far worse, 20/800 worse.

A week before the surgery, the client that had been supporting me while I was doing the new development took a trip to Japan. While he was overseas, the router for his computers in his office went down. His sites were down for a week. That turned out to be "The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back" He has shut his sites down, and no longer needs my services.

I had already paid for the left eye. So I went ahead with the surgery. The result currently is 20/25 and the doctor believes that it'll improve a bit more.

Net result is that I still need to do the right eye, my cash flow is far below minimums and my reserves are mostly drained. One of my bigger supporters has send me a donation that keeps me going through July and August.

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated: Donation Page

Tomorrow I'll talk about what I'm doing to beef up the cash flow but for now I'm going to enjoy the fireworks. I have one of the better seats in Las Vegas.

Big Old Hug and a Kiss,
Daddy