Noders, forgive me, for I have sinned. It has been seven years since my last node...
I am no longer in Las Vegas, but four hours up US-95 in Tonopah, six thousand feet above sea level. How I got there is a long and tedious story involving illness, homelessness, help from the VA, and a lot of paperwork, and maybe I'll node about that later, but for now all that matters is that I and all my stuff have wound up in an apartment on the south end of town, walking distance from the Esmeralda County line, from which it's thirty miles to Goldfield and sixty more to Beatty, which are the only towns until you get to Indian Springs and Creech Air Force Base. I'm actually in better health now than I have been since I arrived in Nevada. My leg wounds have healed, my blood sugar is mostly where it's supposed to be, and my blood pressure is mostly good.
For someone who's retired, I am inordinately busy. I am treasurer & membership-wallah for the National Fantasy Fan Federation, I'm still doing taxes for H&R Block (but these days out of the Reno district), and I am now on the National Security Site Advisory Board, which is responsible for civilian oversight of the ongoing environmental cleanup of what used to be called the Nevada Test Site. Time and geology have allied to undo a lot of the damage done by the 800+ nuclear explosions set off there between 1952-1973, but there's stuff that still needs to be monitored and other things that need to be demolished, and the hazardous materials disposed of. It doesn't pay anything, but I get reimbursed for mileage, meals, and hotel costs since almost all the meetings are somewhere else. In a way, it brings the family history with nuclear weapons full circle.