Saturday, December 27, 2025
REPOSTING DUE TO NOTIFICATION ERRORS Good morning, everyone. Itâs cold and flu season, and these days Iâm much more aware of it than I ever used to be. The holidays bring so much warmthâtime with family, shared meals, laughter, and generosity, but they also carry the quiet risk of illness. For most of my life, that risk barely registered. I trusted my body to do what it had always done: fight, recover, move on.
Saturday, December 27, 2025
Good morning, everyone. Itâs cold and flu season, and these days Iâm much more aware of it than I ever used to be. The holidays bring so much warmthâtime with family, shared meals, laughter, and generosity, but they also carry the quiet risk of illness. For most of my life, that risk barely registered. I trusted my body to do what it had always done: fight, recover, move on. ALS has changed that trust.
Friday, December 26, 2025
Good morning, everyone. Happy belated birthday to Kathy B. I really meant to capture that yesterdayâŚbut Christmas had other plans. Christmas with the grandkids was even better than I expected. Wyatt was up by 6:00 a.m. and quickly made his way downstairs, spying all the presentsâand the cookie crumbs and half-eaten carrots left behind by Santa and his reindeer. Seeing a true believer in Santa is pure magic. By 7:00 a.
Thursday, December 25, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨Merry Christmas! đ This is a special Christmas for us. While Alex usually joins us for Christmas morning, this year weâre lucky to have Nikki and Zack here tooâalong with our two grandkids, Wyatt and Coco. I canât wait to see their sleepy eyes as they cautiously walk into the room, scanning the tree and the fireplace hearth to see what Santa brought. Last night we celebrated with the Balasi clan⌠or at least part of it.
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Wednesday, December 24, 2025 â Day 498 Good morning, everyone.â¨Merry Christmas Eve!đ When we were kids, Christmas Eve meant piling eight young kids into the station wagon and heading to North Chicago to visit my grandparents. They lived right next door to the family businessâRatajackâsâon 14th Street, just a couple blocks west of Abbott Labs (now AbbVie). From there, weâd make another stop at the home of one of my dadâs childhood friends: âRich Uncle Marty.
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨2 days until Christmas. đ No major changes in the feeding tube saga. Outside of Peggy, our care coordinator, Iâve had little sense that anyone truly cares about our situation. I wrote my G.I. doctor, in the morning, expressing my frustration and disappointment with the new feeding tube and received the following response late yesterday afternoonâŚfrom one of his registered nurses: _Hi Mr. Snarski, I apologize that this happened.
Monday, December 22, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨3 days until Christmas. đ Cindy and I want to say thank you to all of you who have been thinking of us this holiday season. Youâve been stepping up in so many ways since this diagnosis, and over the last month youâve taken your thoughtfulness to the next level. Packages have been appearing at our doorstep so frequently that Bear doesnât even bark at the delivery people anymoreâhe just assumes they live here.
Sunday, December 21, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨Four days until Christmas. đ So⌠back to my feeding tube exchange on Friday. Turns out itâs a little more involved than swapping out a propane tank at Ace Hardware. Cindyâs sister Barb came along with us to Glenbrook Hospitalâpartly to support Cindy and partly to help schlep me around. Everything takes more effort these days, especially when winter decides to remind us whoâs in charge. We arrived early, and the O.
Saturday, December 20, 2025
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Friday, December 19, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨6 days until Christmas! đ Iâm not exactly sure who to thank for yesterdayâs Jevity delivery. A few people stepped in to order formula to help bridge the gap while we wait for our Medicare supplier to deliver just-in-time inventory somewhere between Christmas and New Yearâs. So thank you, Kim⌠Nikki⌠or whatever helpful elf made it happen. Much appreciated. đ đź Yesterday was massage day with Ashley from Sullivan Mobile Massage and Spa.
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Good morning, everyone. One week until Christmas. đ When I was diagnosed with ALS, I did some basic research. I didnât know much about the disease and had never known anyone who had it. I was aware of the Ice Bucket Challengeâthat was about it. My first real exposure came from the movie The Pride of the Yankees, starring Gary Cooper. Itâs worth watching if you want to understand Lou Gehrigâthe baseball phenom and his unmatched character.
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨8 days until Christmas! đ (got the math right today) My sister Maria and her husband Pete stopped by yesterday on their way back from Florida to Minocqua. Somehow, I had it in my head that they were simply driving through the Chicago area. Why else would you stop in Crystal Lake, right? They arrived right at 2:00 p.m., loaded down with packagesâincluding dinner. I mistakenly thought I heard Jordaniancuisine, but it turned out to be Georgian food⌠a pretty big difference.
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨11 days until Christmas. đ Surgery is scheduled for this Friday to replace my feeding tube. It turns out these tubes have a useful life of about six months. Iâm right at the edge of that window, which explains why it keeps failing. I just wish the GI specialists had given us a heads-upâwe could have replaced it sooner and avoided doing this right before the holidays.
Monday, December 15, 2025
Good morning, everyone. Happy 67th Birthday, Ric! đĽłđđŻđž This morning got off to a rough start. Had Cindy not gently nudged me awake, I might have slept right through my self-imposed publishing deadline. Yikes. Yesterday, I finished Cry Havoc. Itâs a thriller set in Vietnam around the Tet Offensiveâwhen the course of the war shifted decisively in favor of the North Vietnamese (not that the U.S. ever truly stood a chance of winning).
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨11 days until Christmas. đ Yesterday, Cindy cleared out the furniture from the main floor that would hinder the wheelchair, with some much-needed muscle from Mike H. Where did it all go? The basementâŚwhere everything eventually ends up. Iâm honestly surprised there was room, although I have no idea what the basement hoarderâs den looks like anymore. I havenât been down there in nearly a year. No matter.
Saturday, December 13, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨12 days until Christmas. đ If youâve been paying close attention to the details of my blog, you may have noticed that I sometimes mix up days of the week and dates⌠more than Iâd like to admit. Like yesterdayâwhen I was convinced it was Friday the 13th.â¨Wrong!! So anyway⌠please pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. I also try to recognize birthdays here on the blog, and thatâs a little hit-or-miss as well.
Friday, December 12, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨12 days until Christmas đ Yesterday, the cleanup continued from Tuesday nightâs formula debacle. We have a large rug in our bedroom that once lived in my parentsâ living room at 1922. Our bedroom was the only place it fit in our townhomeâand we figured it would be safe from spills and food. Well⌠until now. I had a nagging feeling that something was eventually going to go sideways with the feeding pump in our bedroom.
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Good morning, everyone.â¨14 days until Christmas! đ Last nightâs sleep worked out perfectly. We went to bed a little anxious after the recent feeding-tube âleakingâ eventâthe one that left formula soaking the rug, the floor, and the HVAC system. Honestly, we shouldâve called a disaster-recovery team. That stuff dries stickier than Elmerâs glue. This time, though, the pump didnât finish early. We adjusted the rate downward, and by 4:00 a.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Good morning, everyone. Todayâs post is about gratitude⌠and a gaffe. Yesterday, my triplet brothers, Tom and Tim, stopped by for a visit. As luck would have it, they arrived at the exact same time as Stephanie, my PT. My brothers were looking for things to do, so Cindy put them to work on a handful of small tasksâjobs she wouldâve had to tackle later herself. That alone was a gift.
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Good morning, everyone. 16 days until Christmas. đ Itâs been a week since I started the overnight pump feedings, and so far my body is tolerating it surprisingly well. Iâm essentially doing the equivalent of two feedings while I sleep, with a third one midday. Itâs much easier to stay compliant with my required nutrition this way instead of trying to carve out three separate times every day. HeckâŚI never ate three times a day even before ALSâŚI was a lifelong lunch-skipper.