2 years and 8 months ago I fell eight feet onto my wife's car and landed on the flower box that tore loose as I was leaning over it. Believe me, 60 year olds don't bounce like they used to at 18. I had a posterior dislocation of the right shoulder and four broken ribs on the left side. Basically I can't use my right arm above my waist. No tricep, no ligaments, no tendons left. And after this long no chance of repairs. For a time I had self paid insurance but lost that a year ago. Since then it's been community health clinics that won't prescribe narcotic pain killers so I've lived on Aleve by the handful and, at times, drink to dull the pain.

My first two hearings were basically "Yeah you're broken but you can still work".

Today I had my third hearing in front of a Federal Disability Judge. He went over everything, asked a few questions of me and my lawyer, looked at the medical records, and then turned to the Disability Work Assessment guy. "Can he do Electronic Technician, Electronic Supervisor, or Industrial Electrician work anymore?" The guy hemmed and hawed and finally said "Without the full use of his dominant arm and hand? No he can not."

So, as of 04/04/2010 at 8 PM I became fully disabled. I collect full disability back due since the accident. I can collect SSI. I get full Medicare as of the date of the accident. I can tell the bill collectors to go deal with Medicare now instead of harassing me.

I'll tell you, it lifts a huge financial and mental load off my remaining shoulder.

Now I can become the scum of the earth by living off of the working people in this country. Except that, unlike a lot of people out there, I've been working for 50 years on the books. I've made some darn good money doing some darned good work. Even the Judge commented on my long and solid work history. What I have coming I've earned by the sweat of my brow and the scars on my body. It's mine. I don't feel the least bit bad about collecting on what's owed and promised to me.

Nothing will give me back full use of my right shoulder and arm. Nothing will make me 24 again, but darn it all that rum drink in the Bahamas is going to taste mighty sweet this winter! Yes I'm going to blow the back payment on stupid things like remodeling the kitchen, putting new windows in upstairs, and going on a two week vacation with the woman I love and who has supported my poor tired, saggy butt for the last three years. Two weeks of sun, sand, exotic drinks, and no cell phones is the least I can do for both of us.

Some of you decry the "socialist" medicine in England and Canada. The fact is that in either one of those countries I would never have had to worry. My shoulder would have been repaired while it still could be fixed. My medicine would have been paid for. I wouldn't have to worry about medications or much else. Instead I live in the great and free county of the United States where I'm not disabled until some judge tells me I am and it's about 3 years too late to do anything about it. I've spent most of those years trying to treat the pain with alcohol or over the counter drugs. They didn't work by the way.

And, to really make it feel so much better, my Disability, Social Security, and SSI will be taxed as income. It's NOT income, it's payback. Payback for all the thousands I have contributed for 50 years out of every legal paycheck I ever earned. But this country doesn't care. I'm not really bitter, I'm grateful I've got something out of it, but I'd rather have a working shoulder, BP below 180 and glucose levels below 400. All of which could have been dealt with years ago if I had insurance coverage.

Oh Lord, let us be grateful for the crumbs thrown before us.

Illegitimi non carborundum
In memory of Denis Keegan.

fell from the attic ladder, eight feet to the concrete garage floor. Was slowly recovering in the hospital when a host of tiny blood clots did him in. RIP Colonel Nick Muralt, USAF (Ret.)

Bondo Phil
USAF (Ret.)

He said if I hadn't hit Cindy's car with my right arm first I probably would have died from head trauma. I've had at least six concussions in my life already and hitting concrete from 8 feet in the air would have done me in for sure. I guess I was lucky? If you can call it that. Busted up beats dead.

Illegitimi non carborundum
In memory of Denis Keegan.

anyone ever says anything derogatory about you, send em my way, I'll set em straight!
I am sorry as hell you have had to endure what you have endured. I am sorry as hell you have a bum wing. I am happy as hell knowing a little of the money I pay into ssi and medicare is going your way. I have NO problem with it in your case in any way, shape, or form. I have NO question whatsoever you have legitimate problems. While many use and abuse these programs, you aint one of them.

So, you have a nice windfall coming. GD it all, ENJOY it! You are the one who paid the price, you are the one popping otc pain meds to no effect, so you are the one who deserves it. And Cindy too! Heck, she had to put up with the likes of you! Have a few of those fruity rum drinks for me (since I can't). Sit on the beach and count the waves, oogle all the pretty gals, and take a nap or two, you have it coming.


Thanks, Bruno.



"Bruce Springsteen? I LOVE him! He's like the American version of Bryan Adams!"

_Robin Sherbotsky

As for the fruity rum drinks, consider it done. Believe me, you and I have been to hell and back in the past and that will never change bud. It's good to have friends.

Illegitimi non carborundum
In memory of Denis Keegan.

xfgn

Keep your Sprues Empty

Somehow spending a week running around Florida sounds good to me. Cindy's never seen where I was born, Gainesville, and she's never had sea food straight off the boats. She loves shrimp, crab, and clams but she ain't tasted nutten til she's had them fresh from the water. Me? I'll enjoy slurping down a few dozen fresh oysters. And eating a few pounds of fresh shrimp. And then maybe tearing apart some of the ornery Blues. A lot of work but well worth it. Besides, they make lousy pets so I might as well eat them. Since I've got you and several other modeling friends scattered from Key West to Jacksonville I figure it could be a lot of fun. We will see how things work out.

Illegitimi non carborundum
In memory of Denis Keegan.

...but your injury and disability are 100% legit and deserving of benefits in my book. Sorry it took so long, and I'm glad your burden has been lifted. Your experience makes it even more frustrating when we hear of the many who do game the system.

Carry on with your house upgrades and fruity-drink drinking! I'll raise my martini glass to you Friday night when my wife makes Cosmopolitans: You are a-okay in my book.

Best wishes,

Lee G.

The scum of the earth are out there not even TRYING to work and bankrupting the system for guys like you! I'm glad you finally won your benefit...

waiting for their hearings. One 30 year old guy was obviously drunk as a skunk. At 10 AM? He signed in, used the bathroom, and then sat down in a chair and covered himself with a black rain coat and went to sleep! I glanced at the guard and he just raised his eyebrows.

There was another lawyer there. The court clerk came out and asked where the client was. The lawyer said she had talked to the client and was fairly sure she might show up for the hearing. The clerk said he would wait until the time of the hearing but no longer. A few minutes later a 30 something woman shows up. The clerk comes back out and asks where her child is. "At home, he didn't feel well." The clerk said the child was the one being evaluated for Social Security, so he had to be there. (Seems logical to me!) The clerk just shrugged his shoulders and said they could go in for the hearing but he doubted the judge was going to grant anything to anyone without the principles being there.

I'd be willing to bet neither person there had ever worked "on the books" and yet they will probably get benefits if they just keep coming back enough times. I'm sorry, but if you didn't contribute to Social Security you shouldn't be able to draw from it. It doesn't happen that way. "It's not fair! I've been too drunk to work since I've been 16. It's not my fault! I need the Medicare and the money!" Yeah, sure. It just seems odd that people that haven't even lived in the country can collect it, and people that have never had a job can collect it but those of us that have worked and paid into the system faithfully for years and years have to fight to get what is owed us.

Illegitimi non carborundum
In memory of Denis Keegan.

n/t

I wouldn't count on it being around in ten years time. When I met with my financial advisor to discuss savings needed for retirement, he just says act as if there will be no Social Security...because in all likelihood, there won't be.

Math will beat Politicians lies every time.

Don't you think you're doing just a little pre-judging here? You don't know the circumstances affecting the people you saw.

Maybe you're doing them an injustice, ya know?

talking the other day, different scenario, they were drawing unemployment under the extended program, and they were both drawing it because they intentionally made their employers so miserable they were let go.

Now, please believe me when I say I don't believe all unemployed people are that way, but Bruno is right... I've watched it (first hand, via a family rife with people hooked, drunk etc, lowlife in-laws, etc) all my life, and my mother, whose hands were almost two inches thick AFTER reconstructive surgery for Rheumatoid Arthritis worked mopping floors and cleaning a nursing home until she paced the floor crying in agony at night and still took a long time to get on SS Disability... A friend of mine who is a social worker and who was as liberal as anybody I've ever known went to the ghettos of Cleveland and he took a twenty thousand dollar pay cut to leave it.. .and he's as now right wing as he was liberal. He can't stand a lot of the people he has to work with...because they do anything required to not have to work.

That, and the credit mongering scum and the free traders are obliterating the work ethic in this country, obliterating families and destroying our way of life... somebody better scream...

by @hit like that and it's bankrupting this country. The people better start screaming because the powers that be will do nothing until the water is up to the stacks...

it's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when.. I thinking sooner rather than later..

Cheers,
Dave

... At least you worked for your benefits.

I'd have one of those 'fruity drinks' right along side ya if I could.

Instead, I'll have a shot of Jose Cuervo tonight in your honor.

Hope you heal and feel better, no matter what the docs say! Just do what ya can to take care of yourself.

We stole the eagle from the Air Force, the anchor from the Navy, and the rope from the Army.
On the seventh day while God rested, we overran his perimeter, stole the globe, and we've been running the whole show ever since.

Semper Fi, Don