Friday, January 2, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Happy Friday. Pondering question: is this an actual workday for people? It seems to me most folks would be off since yesterday was a holiday. Just saying. So I get all settled in this morning. Cindy always gets up with me, helps disconnect me from the feeding pump, makes sure I have my coffee (which I barely touch these days), and gives me my one pill that canât be crushed or split.
Thursday, January 1, 2026
Good morning, everyone.â¨Happy New Year!! đ Okay⌠Iâm a little shocked that I received a few texts just after midnight wishing me a Happy New Year. I honestly didnât think that was still a thingâŚstaying up to midnight. Maybe they were drunk textsâalthough none included an âI still love you!â Either way, thank you for thinking about me while you were celebrating last night. It means a lot to know youâre thinking about me.
Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Good morning, everyone. Happy New Yearâs Eve. 2025: A Year of Reflection When I look back on 2025, itâs impossible to separate the year from the diagnosis that arrived the summer before. ALS was already part of my life when this year beganâquietly changing what my body could do while, at the same time, forcing me to pay closer attention to everything else. This year became more than a medical timeline.
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Good morning, everyone. Happy birthday, Daveâaka Wilderness Man! I just finished reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King, a novel about the temptation to change the past and the cost of trying to alter events that shape the future. King repeatedly uses the word obdurate to describe the pastâits stubborn refusal to be changed. The greater the significance of the event, the more resistance you encounter when trying to rewrite it. That word stopped meâŚabout 26 times or so the internet says.
Monday, December 29, 2025
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Monday. Letâs talk food⌠Because I do overnight feedings, I only have one daytime formula feedingâusually around lunchtime. That gives me the option to eat a little by mouth during the day. Since all my calories come from formula now, nutrition is no longer part of the equationâŚI can eat whatever I want. My bigger problem is that I have almost no appetite. Fortunately, Cindy keeps nudging me throughout the day to eat something, so sheâs essentially become my appetite trigger.
Sunday, December 28, 2025
Good morning, everyone. The kids flew home yesterday. It really was a treat to spend Christmas with them. Saying goodbye is always hardâmade harder by the fact that we donât get to see them as often anymore because my travel is so limited. But it ended on a high note. As they were leaving, I got a hug from Coco⌠something sheâs been very selective about sharing with me. Maybe it was because I finally shaved off the beard Iâd been sporting for the past year.
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
Good morning, everyone.â¨5 days until Christmas! đ Well, it turns out I had a technical glitch this morning and when I went to paste my story into this blog, I deleted it. No time to start over. Long story short, I have a new feeding tube. Iâm going to give it a go this morning and I should get back to regular feeding schedule and move on to other things.
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).