Subject: Yes, I'm really bck

From: "Sullivan, BR" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 21:24:43 -0700

Hi all,

Very long story as to what has happened between this message, and the 
last time I was here. The Cliff Notes Version; Life happened! The 
unabridged version begins in the next paragraph.  Sorry that it's so 
long, but it does make up for all the time I've been gone. If you don't 
know me or don't know about my previous involvement in the TI/Geneve 
community you might want to just skip the remainder of this message.

We got moved into the house in Bullhead City, AZ just as planned. The 
first fallout was all my e-mail accounts on Frontiernet.net. This came 
about by my son-in-law, Chris, getting responsibility for 
transferring/paying for our Internet service in Bullhead City, which 
remained with Frontier, but initially only their e-mail accounts got 
transferred, and by the time I discovered that my e-mail accounts no 
longer existed, I was only able to have Frontier recover my personal 
account, but not my TI FDOS account. Knowing I would have to create a 
new TI account, and not even be able to use the old account name I 
decided to wait until I had a few of my TI systems up and running again 
before rejoining any TI groups.

Due to the fact that the three car attached garage was full of mutual 
furniture and boxes for their family of 5 and mine, and that the local 
moving help we used, everything was all mixed up together.  Needless to 
say it took a real long time to set up my large bedroom to accommodate 
my bedroom furniture and entertainment systems (large flat screen TV, 
DVR and VHS Tape/DVD Recorder/Player including lots of VHS tapes and DVD 
Discs in one half, and 3 computer desks, one tall bookcase with doors, 
one free-standing multi-shelf unit (for printers, network equipment, 
disk & tape media-cases of all types, and some documentation spill over, 
not accommodated in the bookcase or on the computer desk hutches). I'm 
not going to describe the layout arrangement, only to say it is very 
compact and efficient.  I will take photos, and post them somewhere, 
eventually.

After this I began searching the Garage for all things TI as I don't 
intend to set up the Geneve anytime soon, because I am using the Geneve 
desk for my laptop with wireless standard type keyboard and optical 
mouse (I hate the flatness and touch pad weirdness). I did, however, 
bring in Geneve documentation thinking I had plenty of shelf space for 
it.  Next to the PC/Geneve station is my TI support PC workstation 
(Win98SE/Win2K) with plenty of disk-space for all supported operating 
systems.  The only reason for the Win2K OS is that the newer Mess 
releases don't work on Win98SE.  However, now that my laptop is standing 
in for the Geneve I could use it for Mess, and never boot Win2K. 
Otherwise, all my TI support software works well on the Win98SE 
platform.  I'm not going to list them at this time.

The computer desk that is back to back with the PC/Geneve desk is 
intended for the SNUG-TI system and a more standard TI-99/4A w/PEB. This 
desk also accommodates a SCSI EZ135 cartridge drive, an EZFlyer230 
cartridge drive, a SCSI CD-ROM drive, and a SCSI-CF drive not to mention 
lots of floppy disk cases (5.25", 3.5") & some Compact Disks, TI Module 
cases, and TI specific documentation.

Now for the sad news.  Initially, I couldn't find the IDE drive for the 
TI system nor the MFM drive for the SNUG-TI, nor the CF7A and NanoPEB, 
nor my 80K GramKracker nor SuperCart nor TurboForth module.  I do have 
backup drives for the IDE & MFM hard drives and backup data on SCSI 
cartridges for both, and Compact Flash backups if and when I can obtain 
another CF7A or NanoPEB.  The price to replace the 80K GK is not in my 
budget for a long time to come.

I was so disheartened by this that I was ready to throw in the towel on 
my TI hobby, and for a long time I did, but then while searching for 
something else I came across the IDE drive.  Unfortunately, before I 
could setup to test it out, I had a very bad night.  I woke up a couple 
of hours after going to bed sweating and feeling very hot, like the AC 
was off.  I got up as I had to pee and drink some water anyway. However, 
I ended up repeating this sequence every half hour until my grand-kids 
came to wake me up for Father's Day breakfast, but I was way to tired, 
and told them "later".  I managed to sleep until about 10:00 AM, and got 
up because I felt a little better.

Unfortunately, my daughter Tara, and her husband took one look at me and 
knew something was very wrong.  She came over felt my forehead, and said 
I needed to see a doctor immediately, but I insisted on taking a shower 
first, so she gave me some Ibuprofen, and told me to hurry.  Because it 
was Father's Day Sunday she took me to the Urgent Care Center that's 
only about six blocks from our home.

I didn't have to wait long, as I had been there before so I didn't have 
to fill out any paperwork either.  A nurse took me in to a room to get 
my weight, temperature, blood pressure, and asked me what was wrong, so 
I told her what had happened.  She then asked me about my high BP 
history.  I told her about an incident in 2006 when I weighed over 290 
pounds, and another incident in 2008 when I was again over 280 pounds, 
but now that I was under 230 my BP was reasonably stable around 140, but 
she said it was now 211/97, and later in an exam room while waiting for 
the doctor she took my BP manually.  It was now 215/99.  They wanted to 
take a lot of other tests to find out the cause, but my daughter and I 
knew it was time for me to go to the VA ER in Las Vegas ASAP.

We had to go pick up the kids at home first as Chris works on Sundays as 
he is the Senior Chaplain at the Kingman, AZ prison.  As it turns out we 
had to go to the Nellis AFB hospital ER as the new VA hospital ER was 
not open at the time.  Both are at the far North end of North Las Vegas, 
but only about six miles apart.  This was my first time at a VA 
facility, so it took a little while to get registered, but once that was 
done I was whisked away to a room where an AF nurse interviewed me, and 
then assigned me to an exam room bed where I was hooked up to an EKG 
machine, auto BP, PR and temp machine, while one nurse hooked me up to 
an IV, a very hungry "Vampire" took lots of my blood, and would come 
back for more in an hour, and then every 3 hours or so.  I was taken to 
X-Ray and for a CAT-scan.  Then several doctors came to examine me, each 
with a stethoscope, one by one.  It seems I have a heart "Murmur" that I 
didn't have before.  They even let me listen, "Whoosh, pause whoosh", 
etc.  Quite different from their heart beats.  Later they tell me it's 
caused by calcium build up on my aorta valve--there is no cure.  Once it 
gets bad enough the valve is replaced by an artificial valve.

They send Tara and the kids home as they are going to admit me.  At 
first they tell me I will be transported to the new VA hospital, but 
they decide to keep me for their "Vampires" gratification.  I don't know 
what the criteria is to admit me in the AF hospital rather than the VA 
hospital.  I'm not going to relate all the boring details of my six day 
stay, but I am hooked up to a portable heart monitor (like  mini EKG) 
for 24/6 surveillance--no matter where I may roam.

On Monday evening my temperature spikes to over 104, and I become 
delirious, but I have no memory of the events they tell me about, and I 
know I have to believe because my daughter Tara was a witness to those 
events.  "Didn't sound like me" is all I can say.  Anyway they got my 
temperature down close to normal, and I became my hilarious self again, 
but it would take them another 5 days to get my BP down enough to send 
me home.  I would be taking 5 different medicines every day, one would 
be 3 times a day and one would be twice a day.  Collectively they would 
keep my BP in check, but cause me to be very light-headed, and sometimes 
dizzy.  I would also get many muscle cramps, usually at night.  Often 
waking me up while jumping out of bed to "walk them off". I also got 
them in my arms while showering, and sometimes in my neck.

Without a CF7A or NanoPEB or 80K GK I decided to use the F18A powered TI 
console in the standard TI-99/4A with PEB that contains a 1MB AMS, 4 
bank HSGPL, 3MB HRD-16, IDE with FK DSR08 connected to (the found) 1GB 
IDE drive (4 partitions), WHT SCSI card connected to SCSI CF drive, 
SyQuest EZ135MB, SyQuest EZFlyer 230MB drives, and a SCSI CD-ROM drive. 
  Yes, I received two F-18A kits while I was still in Golden Shores, and 
I managed to get one installed in the TI console I was using with the 
CF7A/NanoPEB Sidecars despite the over 100 degree temperatures in that 
cracker-box house I was living in (that was the best the AC could do). 
However, I did manage to rip the ribbon cable from it's connector on 3 
TI keyboards before getting the thing back together successfully.  Real 
nice video on a flat screen monitor/TV.

Having found the IDE drive I'm anxious to get back to the "FUN" projects 
I was working on, but all the air goes out when I can't catalog any 
drive directory with IDEDIR(), but the IDEDSR clock has maintained the 
correct date, and the time is only a few hours off after almost a year 
of being in a box out in a very hot garage.  It just can't talk to the 
drive any more or maybe the IDE drive is cooked.  Unfortunately it may 
be both. I'm still working on it.

I would like to have one TI system working well before rejoining the 
on-line groups, and find out what has happened in my absence. However, 
before I can even get a handle on hobby things I have to rearrange some 
of the cabling in this snug layout.  I have to crawl under a few 
computer desk, and between shelves in some cases to do it.  I have to do 
a lot of getting up and down on my knees and up on my feet, then 
suddenly I start getting dizzy.  The five medicines I'm taking daily 
make me light headed and susceptible to muscle cramps.  I start falling 
forward as everything is getting very dark gray.  I can't head for the 
bed as I've moved lots of TI stuff from their shelves to the bed, but a 
nice computer chair is very close. It has wheels, but it is on carpeting 
and never moves very fast, until now.  I have turned and about to sit 
down, but the chair scoots rapidly away, and I go over backwards and hit 
my head on the wood door or metal door-frame or Spanish brick wall.  I 
don't know which.

Next I find myself laying on the floor with a splitting head-ache. I 
start feeling the back of my head to find the specific area of severe 
pain.  When I bring my hand back from the pain sensitive area I see the 
blood.  I manage to get up and go search for Tara, and find her in the 
boy's bedroom painting.  I tell her what's happened, but this time she 
takes me to the local hospital ER.  We tell them I'm a VET, but they go 
ahead and do an EKG and CAT-scan, asked me if I have other insurance, so 
I give them my MEDICARE card.  Now they put two staples in the most 
sensitive and already very painful part of my head (I'd rather let the 
vampires put holes in my arms all night long).  They tell me that I 
don't have a concussion or brain damage or internal bleeding, and what I 
already know about my heart condition, but they do inform me of a new 
kidney condition.  Which is of great concern requiring that I be 
admitted for constant monitoring and more tests, but I refuse as it is 
time to go back to North Las Vegas AF ER. They make me sign a release 
contrary to medical advice or something like that,and that I owe them 
$4,700.  I pay them $150 before we can depart, still owing $4550.

Once again we have to pick up the kids before heading to Vegas.  At the 
AF ER they repeat the EKG, CAT-scan, and throw in an IV followed by the 
extraction of more blood (I didn't actually wish for this). Yes, I am to 
be admitted, but this time they do transport me to the VA hospital late 
that night.  This just happens to have occurred one day before I have 
two appointments and two days before a third appointment all at the VA 
hospital for which we were prepared to spend one night at a nearby 
Hotel/Casino, and Tara was able to call and change that reservation to 
one large room for two nights.

My almost 3 day stay messes up all three appointments, the first two 
were for ultra-sound tests on my heart and kidneys, the third was for 
pulmonary tests.  The suspected culprit medicines were stopped, and the 
kidney problem was arrested and my light-headed symptom was greatly 
reduced, but my BP started rising again.  I was down to just two 
medicines for high BP, and they were to be slowly adjusted to keep my BP 
in check.

A cardiologist came by to discuss my case, and I told him about the 
missed appointments.  He said they were about ready to discharge me, but 
he would try to get the ultra-sounds done before then.  He went away to 
do that, and when he returned he said someone would come soon to take me 
down to Radiology.  Indeed, both ultra-sounds were done, but I did not 
get to Pulmonary before being released. However, I did get to shower 
before going home.  Tara would continue to adjust my meds at home, as 
the instructions for doing so are simple.

Although my light-headed condition was reduced significantly it's not 
completely gone, but the muscle cramps are more severe now than before. 
  The last two nights have almost been without sleep due to jumping out 
of bed to "walk off" a muscle cramp, mostly in my left leg calf or foot. 
  I was beginning to get a bit depressed by this, but my BP is coming 
down, and I also get muscle cramps in my arms and neck when I'm in the 
shower.  Life is not much fun these days, but I am feeling better, so 
able to work on my room rearrangement without dizzy spells.

Yesterday we went to the SE VA Clinic in Henderson for an appointment 
with my primary care giver, Dr. Ellis.  But the trip was for not, as 
they claim the appointment is on the 19th not the 15th. Originally it 
was for the 8th, but that was the same day as the Pulmonary appointment, 
so it was changed to the 15th over the phone, and a verification post 
card sent to us.  Unfortunately, Tara threw it away as  it was no longer 
in the binder, and we looked every where yesterday when we got back from 
Henderson.  That is, after we went back to the ER here to get the 
staples out of my head, as the VA rules don't allow anyone there to do it.

I'm now feeling well enough to continue my hobby furniture arrangement. 
  One part of it will have to wait until my grandson Kyle comes home on 
leave to help me with his Marine developed muscles.

For a while I had my more standard TI-99/4A w/PEB working well without 
IDE and SCSI using just two Myarc powered floppy drives (5.25" 360K & 
3.5" 720K), and the 3MB HRD-16 tools and development (TIB+ & X4th99). 
TIB+ was much more reliable on the SNUG HSGPL than the 80K GK 
GramKracker until user named CALLs quit working, and any CALL 
LINK(DSKn.filename) where DSKn. is a RAMDISK drive.

Frequently, CALLHSGPL works just fine. but if I want to update BOOT MENU 
or TIB+ using MSAVE/MSAVE6 I copy the entire GPL bank to the first GRAM 
bank, and use <fctn-Q> to exit, and that will switch the GRAM bank in, 
so that the BOOT MENU save and MSAVE/MSAVE6/BSAVE will actually "save my 
data to GRAM/RAM6000.  Of course I have to save those to disk for future 
reload.

Other problems are; this PEB is eating RAVE99 Adapter Cards at Super 
speed.  It blows the -5 volt regulator and burns out the 1 watt load 
resistor.  I sure hope I can get these parts at the local Radio Shack.

Earlier I started to relate my IDE problems, and at first I thought the 
IDE card itself was OK as all the CALLs that don't require disk access 
seemed to work well, butI moved the IDE to CF card adapter to the 
primary drive position as I have lots of different CF cards, mostly 1GB 
and higher, upto 4GB, but DU2K didn't recognize any of them, but since 
then I have found my stash of 1GB IDE drives, and I will hopefully test 
them tomorrow with this IDE card.  Failing that, I still have the 2.4GB 
drive I used with Thierry's IDEAL system, so I can try that also.

I will go into the more exotic problems after I have a handle on these. 
  In the mean time Im hoping our TI community of semi Genouses can shed 
some light on these hair-pulling troubles as I'm sadly out of practice.. 
I guess we can say I've become soft as I prefer to deal with software 
bugs than hardware troubles.  I suppose the cataracts in my eyes have 
something to do with that.

Thanks for any help that anyone can provide.

Bill R Sullivan (fdos)

---

From: "Tony Knerr" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 23:32:01 -0000

Glad you're back, Bill. 

I've had BP issues for about 10 years now, medication is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

I'm also the proud owner of a 3 year old pacemaker since we've last spoken, glad to have that, too. And thankful to my Brother-in-law for keeping me alive until the paramedics arrived after I face planted in his driveway. :)

Tony

--- In [email-masked], "Sullivan, BR" <br911sullivan@...> wrote:
> last time I was here.

---

From: Bill R sullivan <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 01:02:13 -0700

Wow Tony!

I guess I've really had it easy by comparison.  I thought when they put 
two staples in my already pain throbbing head that blood-sucking 
vampires might be a real pleasure, but I'm sure I wouldn't be so 
flippant after planting my face in a driveway.

I'm hoping you're well enough to help me with my HSGPL problems . A 
little different for the  4 bank and 16 bank units.  They are more 
severe when used with the 3MB HRD-16 than with a real floppy drive.  I 
don't have any hard drives working , yet (MFM, IDE or SCSI), and I can't 
pursue those problems until I fix the TI-99/4A system's PEB as it is 
frying PC cards.  So far two Rave99 TI Speech Adapter cards have been 
fried.  That PEB is disassembled at the foot of my bed waiting on my 
return from a doctor's appointment in Henderson tomorrow afternoon.  I 
will be it's doctor after having been doctored myself. :-)

Bill R Sullivan (fdos)

On 8/18/2013 4:32 PM, Tony Knerr wrote:
> I'm also the proud owner of a 3 year old pacemaker since we've last 
> spoken, glad to have that, too. And thankful to my Brother-in-law for 
> keeping me alive until the paramedics arrived after I face planted in 
> his driveway. :)
>
> Tony
>
> --- In [email-masked] <mailto:TI994A%40yahoogroups.com>, 
> "Sullivan, BR" <br911sullivan@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >