What a wild weekend this past Memorial Day weekend was for me. To all the military service men and women out there and their families, I'd like to say thank you. We had two beautiful days to kick off Memorial Day weekend and then comes Monday - major storms to the point where we were out of power for about eight hours where I am staying at.

So how is everyone doing? I am getting more nervous and worried about my upcoming surgery. It was originally scheduled for July 19, then last week it was bumped up to July 14 and I just got a call yesterday from my doctor’s office it is now bumped up to July 1.

According to my orthopedic surgeon from University of Michigan, “the patient will undergo revision decompression at L5, laminectomy at L4, and fusion from L4 to S1 with instrumentation.”

I plan to be in the hospital for probably a week and then I am looking at six to 12 months of recovery. Every day it feels like I am getting worse and worse but I still try to keep my spirits up.

The team at Washtenaw County's Community Crisis Response Team that I am working with right now has talked to Social Security and they are hoping that there will be a positive outcome by the end of this week. I am applying for disability payments.

I am praying that it will be approved. This would give me the strength and the support I need to get into an apartment hopefully by the time I go into surgery. That way everything will be in order so I am not worrying about what will be happening or where I will be going after I'm released from the hospital.

There is something else to add to what has been going on that I have not really talked about. I will try to make this short, because there are way too many details to explain here. Back in 2006 and 2007 I was working for an apartment complex in Illinois and I got injured on the job. I was out of work for about five months and the employer would not pay for the workman’s compensation insurance because the employer said he was paying me was as an independent contractor. For the past three years I have been dealing with the IRS, among other agencies, and recently found out that it was determined I was an employee and not an independent contractor.

Now I am trying to get all this sorted out and I have been told by the IRS and the Taxpayer Advocate Service that I'll need to hire a lawyer, which is another expense.

Other than that, I'm just trying to keep myself occupied ahead of my surgery because I really can’t do much under doctor’s orders. Well take care and thank you for letting me share my stories with you.

Thomas Bare writes about being homeless in Washtenaw County. Contact him at tab72266@yahoo.com.