CH 12 Our New Lives In Texas

For two months after moving to Plano, Texas from North Idaho in 2005, I was looking for a new job and had applied for about 55 jobs but no luck because I'm DEAF. I made a very nice resume with some help from Richard's oldest son and gave them out with some application forms. I had taken a six hours training in a "meat cooler" room (brrrrr and teeth chattering) at the cell phone company in Fort Worth and failed the test with lots of long numbers, etc which I didn't know after a six hours long lecture because the two interpreters who took turns interpretering didn't do a good job. I was fortunate to having worked for one day after moving here because we were able to have a large tax return on our moving expense.

We were not looking forward to taking the driving test here in Texas. We had taken the test when we moved to North Idaho in 2003 from Liberty Lake, Washington near Spokane. We were not in a hurry to replace the Idaho license plates but about three weeks after moving there. When we went to our Ford Focus to drive to the store, we found a flat tire, replaced it with a spare tire. We rolled the flat tire toward to our Ford Exploerer and found another flat tire so we put both flat tires into our Focus and took them to the tire center for repair. The repaqir person said they had been slashed by someone at the same time. Remembering what the Texan told my dad about his and others fears on Idahoan due to the Neo-Nazi when he saw an Idaho license plate on my parents' Explorer when we visited in Marshall, Texas in 1997 for my mom's family reunion with my youngest son and two brothers, (my brothers, youngest son and I flew there and joined with our parents who drove there from North Idaho.) I realized that some Texans had some fears about the Neo-Nazi Supermacist group who had set up their camps in about an hour and half drive from north of Post Falls, Idaho where we lived for two years ( These camps are gone for good before we moved there.)
We went to the Tax Assessor Collectors office the next day to get some new license plates and found out that we didn't have to take the tests if we surrendered our Idaho licenses which we did the next day. YES!!! I didn't have any more gray hair. The clerk found out online that Richard had an old Texas license and gave him a renewal one.

When we received the new license plates, we were given with the windshield stickers that were lot bigger than old ones we had on old license plates. I asked the lady if we should put them on the left side of windsheild and she said yes. Thats odd. She also said that we would need another stickers about the same size as others placed below the other stickers when we had our cars emission tested. These stickers on the windsheilds had been very distracting for a short time when I was driving. That's Texas.

Afterward I continued looking for a job because I needed it real quick so we could purchase a new house which the loan officer said applying for a loan required two salaries each household.

I started to feel flu-like symtoms more often and I noticed the weakness in my leg muscles which I didn't understand why and what was causing my illness. I have had several syndromes like thyroid problem I had since 1992, Meniere's disease, low blood sugar, frequent sinus infection, sjogren's (dryness in the mouth and eyes),chronic fatique syndrome, Restless Leg syndrome, allergies and asthma problem, etc. Some doctors in Washington were unable to diagnose exactly whats wrong with me. I had never felt good or healthy for years. I had the gallstones removed at home without a surgeon's knife. I felt like my immune system was attacking me. One day I became so sick again two days after I recovered from the same illness, I went to see the new female doctor whom I was seen by a week earlier for thyroid medication refill request. After series of tests, she finally found out that I had some autoimmune disease meaning my immune system was attacking my body. She said that she would refer me to the specialist but warned me that he would give me some corticone (steriod) medication for the disease which I was against because they don't help but only makes people miserable. She suggested me to look up online about the disease and learn more. It was bit complicate. I put my job hunt on hold for a short time and had to have my SSDI restated to help pay bills. I spent time searching online, found and ordered a book. I changed some diet and added some vitamins including the fish oils. I still have some health issues and try my best to avoid some stresses. I had a "Stiff Man" Syndrome for a few months. Later I started looking for a job again and still no luck. I sent my resume to the Radio Shack manufactoring in Fort Worth twice and haven't heard from them. I guess when they read my resume, they noticed the name of the high school where I graduated from was a state residental school for the Deaf and wouldn't hire me. In Washington state I was employeed with the laptop manufactoring as a repair technican for seven years before resigning when we moved to Texas. Its Radio Shack's loss but there was a huge lay offs about a year later. I decided to go back to college after purchasing a new house.

I will write more about making an offer on a new house with some pictures in next post.

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