Things Just Keep Getting Better'er and Better'er

Sorry it's been so long between posts. Things have just NOT gone well. Nothing new there as I'm sure you all know. First I had trouble getting my wheelchair repaired. WHAT an ordeal and in the end it STILL wound up costing me $900.98. Which I of course put on a charge that only has one more thousand to go until it explodes. It's a L O N G story so I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say if you ever become a federal employee who has to deal with the federal worker's comp program, RUN don't walk to the nearest bridge and just jump. it's SO much easier. I retired 5 years ago, did anybody bother to tell me I needed on-going medical documentation to keep my case active? NO! Then did they bother to tell me that once the OWCP finally approved the repair that it was totally impossible to find just one damn doctor who did workers comp? Again, NO! So I totally caved. Then the soft tub is in trouble (faux hotub). No problem it has a 5 year warranty. Right? Guess again, NO! Oh, there is a 5 year warranty but I am in year three and there is a $275.00 deductible. Think that's bad enough? Guess the answer! I also have to drain the 220 gallons of water out, disconnect the "pack" (motor) then ship it via UPS. Guess how much THAT costs? Then the little genie's in Bedford Mass. will repair it and ship it back to me. Guess who pays for that? Yes, you are right, little old stupid me. IF my math skills haven't totally flown from my pea brain, the WARRANTY repair will cost me around $400.00! So guess what AIN'T getting fixed? Wanna buy a used softub? I love my life!! I'd like it all to go smoothly just for one fricking week, just one! Oh, there's more, believe me, there is more. My darling 83 year old Aunt's husband, who is 89 and is deeply in Alzheimer's, fell and broke his hip. I worry so much about them and now this. Of course she has to stay at the nursing home because, he tries to get up at night and even though they have an alarm on him, he moves so fast he ends up falling. So she stays there and can get to him before they can show up. He insists that nothing is wrong and he can walk and he'll prove it too her. This lady is a saint. And of course SINCE he has Alzheimer's it will take longer in the nursing home then wonderful Medicare will pay for. They only pay for 20 days, after that you have to pay 20%, which for the place he's in is 138.00 a day. Well, time has passed and he is scheduled to be released today. I think it will be easier on both of them with him home. Think that's bad enough? Oh wait my wonderful readers. Last Saturday, I had talked to my Aunt, tried my best to help keep her spirits up and I do believe she felt better. Then a few hours later the phone rang and it was her crying. I was SURE she was going to tell me he died. Isn't that terrible to think that? But no, she had just been informed that her only remaining child out of three has stage three lung cancer!!! Her youngest died of Cystic Fibrosis and her eldest of scoliosis. I know the good Lord tests us but I think the lady needs a damn break. Well, this has certainly been an uplifting post, hasn't it? I'm starting to think this thing called life is never going to stop beating on me and the ones I love. I told her I would drive her to Fla. to see him, but with my physical limitations, that is about the best I can do for her and I SO want to do more. Ya'll take care, pray for everyone you know and tell them before it's too late how much they bring to your life. Accept all the blessings and say thank you. Take care.

Kutztown Folk Festival

Hello to all. Have to admit this isn't much of a "rant" but more like a "rump". I just returned from my first visit to the Kutztown Fold Festival. One word can describe the trip - HOT! But VERY enjoyable. I do so envy the creativity of the craftsman and the quilters. There were over 2500 quilts on display. The worse one of them was just plain beautiful. They were all for sale and the one I would have bought cost $1150.00. Of course I left it there for someone else to buy. Also in the "quilt barn" was an area set up where up to 8 quilters were busy hand quilting the raffle quilt. I was amazed at the tiny hand stitching, and again the talent of these people. Speaking of people, everyone single one I came in contact with, whether visitors or staff, were just the nicest folks one could ever meet. They had the foresight to set up some misting stations and a couple places with large fans with seats in some shade. The quilt barn was air conditioned so as you can imagine, I spent a great deal of time there. The food reflected the heritage with funnel cakes, ox roasts, potato pancakes, corn fritters, etc. As with any of these types of thing, food wasn't all that cheap. But water was only $2.00 for a large "sport" bottle, which I thought was fairly reasonable, especially considering the 100 degree temps. My friends got an ox roast sandwich, where wasn't very big at all and it was $8.00. My funnel cake was $5.00. We were fortunate in that we attended on a Tuesday and it wasn't terribly crowded which made getting around in the wheelchair much easier. I finally found the fabric I'd been looking high and low for. It's to make a quilt called "Crossings". It is rather a monochromatic type pattern. I wanted to use burgundy's and rose colors. I was always able to fine 3 or 4 colors but not the total 7 different small prints that I needed. There was a fabric place at the fair where I found just the perfect fabric, so that excited me. If you ever have an opportunity to attend I would highly recommend it. But hope you have cooler weather than I did. It's a very pleasant way to spend the day. Keep happy :).

I get to go somewehre

Hello to All, Sorry I've been wayward in posting but to tell the truth, when you're a old, fat, cripple guy there ain't much to tell you LOL. I'm FINALLY getting over the loss of Buttons, but I have to tell you, we had some very noisy storms over the weekend and at the first clap of thunder, I looked for the little guy. I haven't been sewing or embroidering or anything, mostly just sitting and reading. But I am getting excited about a trip I'm going to be taking on the 5th of July. I'm going to travel to Kutztown, PA for their Folk Festival. There will be over 2500 quilts on display and I'm am very excited to see them. I'm traveling alone but following a couple of my sewing friends so wife doesn't have to worry about me being alone. I've never been to anything this big since I went into the wheelchair in 2000. SO exciting. I'll fill you in on all the fun when I get back. I'm only staying one day at the festival itself, takes about 8 hours to get there and my best friend cashed in his travel miles to get me the hotel for two nights and will travel back on the 7th. Wife is packing me a picnic of cold fried chicken, macaroni salad and nice cold watermelon. And I must say, my opinion is if the good Lord made anything better than fried chicken, he kept it for himself. As to my usual rant, I have come to the conclusion that not enough people are reading my blog because those handicapped parkers are still insane. I wish I was tech savvy enough to figure out how to get the blog out to more folks but, alas, I am not. My buddy and I went to Sam's this weekend and I swear to God, this one "gentleman" parked his car perpendicular in TWO spots. No wheelchair, no cane, no lack of energy in literally running to the door. I mean I know not ALL disabilities are apparent, but I figure if you can jump out of your car and run anywhere, you don't need a handicap parking space. I'm going to start carrying signs I can put on their car's THANKS BUTT HEAD, LEARN TO PARK. Think that would help? Well, I am trying to promise myself that I am going to start making a sweatshirt jacket for my wife, I think a Halloween one. I've got a really nice large design of a haunted house from Anita Goodesign that looks perfect. We'll see. Until later.

Just ticked at the world

Hello fellow cyber space people. I'm having a poor, pitiful me day. Since by now all you smart people have figured out I'm in a wheelchair. That means I'm usually hurting LOL. Like every martyr, I usually keep my pain to myself, I figure someone else probably needs the wood of the cross I'm carrying. Haven't slept well at all this week and my usual ankle, knee, hip, thumb, back, shoulder, neck pain (don't laugh) seems to be extremely noticeably this week. Like I said, I usually try not to complain too much because, honestly, there are a lot of folks out there with a lot more problems than I have. But quite honestly, it's really starting to piss me off. I hobble around the house holding on to things so I don't fall, I can barely get the cap off my water bottle, I'm tired of taking super strength percocets and ibuprofen all the time. Besides, they say it's mostly nerve related so pain pills don't help anyway. I haven't been in my sewing room since Buttons left me. I can't seem to get interested in a book and Lord knows there is certainly nothing to watch on television at night, let alone during the daytime hours. About all I've accomplished this week is eating many Reese cups, oh, did I mention I'm also diabetic LOL. And the jokes just keep on coming folks. Besides I bet no one even reads this thing anyway. Have one follower, myself, no comments. Poor me. Oh well, this too shall pass, said the doctor to the constipated patient. I hope everyone takes time to stop and smell the roses. I tried that but got stuck by thorns.

Depression + Credit Card = STUPID

First a question. Have you ever done something, then a couple weeks later you wake up at 2:00 AM, eyes wide open, saying to yourself, "OMG, why would I DO that?" Well, that's what happened to me last night. Let me digress to explain what Paul Harvey would term, "The REST of the Story". The day we lost Buttons we were terribly depressed, needless to say. We got home, sat around, gave the other two dogs and over abundance of affection, and decided we weren't hungry for supper. So we sat some more and chatted a bit. Then I had the bright idea that we should do something. Our cellular phone contracts had expired and we both badly needed new phones so we decided to make the trip to our local AT&T shop. BIG MISTAKE! I was being very picky about a new phone because due to my surgeries my hands, well more specifically my fingers, don't have the sensory feeling they used to have. So I was looking for a phone that had a keypad that I could actually FEEL. The ones with slick, flush numbers and letters just wouldn't do the trick. The only one I could find was going to cost me $29.00. What happened to the concept that the phones were FREE with a new contract? Anyway, I got past that and then was helping my wife find a phone. Now I just cannot say "NO" to her. She's just too great a lady for that. But you must remember, we are OLD people. I mean a phone is just a phone. I basically carry one because I'm old, fat and cripple and don't want to be caught somewhere with something wrong. Well, she fell in love with the IPHONE. It's cost? $150.00 and that's WITH the new contract. She questioned the cost but, as usual, I say "Honey you get whatever you want". God, I'm a nice guy. So we got the new phones, got back home, I set them all up and you would assume we were happy campers. Right!?!?!? Okay now to the wake up call. Last night, at 2:00 AM I sat STRAIGHT up in bed and had the OMG moment. I just realized that my bill was going to go up $50.00 a month because these new phones "required" "data" plans. What the hell is that all about? We don't USE the phones to surf the Internet, we don't text, we don't do anything but use the fricking phone!! So now comes the realization that the only way to resolve this is to return the phones. Of course there will be the mandatory "re-stocking" charge if we do that. The other problem, at least for me, is finding a phone I can actually USE! IF we do this, it will of course be much cheaper, but will I be able to feel the damn thing? So that's how this week is starting out. Questions, Questions, Questions? That's the result of having a STUPID attack.

This week has GOT to be better

Good Morning to all. Last week was a complete waste. I did NOTHING! Friday night we had a big storm and at 11:00 PM this big clap of thunder woke me up and the first thing I did was reach for Buttons. He was terrified of storms and I had to hold him like a baby during them. Of course he wasn't there when I reached for him this time. I have promised myself to make this a better week. So to start off on the right foot, I thought I'd revisit my favorite thing, handicapped people who don't know, or care, how they park. My friend and I were sitting in the parking lot of Best Buy waiting for them to open. We had arrived early and had 10 minutes to wait. As usual, I had been careful in my parking and selection of a spot so that I could get my wheelchair out of the van. As we sat there, this lady, approximately 40 years old, pulled her big SUV into a handicapped spot, literally JUMPED out of it and fast walked to the door. Of course, she thought she was clever and going to beat all the rest of us into the store. She didn't seem to notice the huge steel gate covering the entrance. Then you know what she did. Go ahead, you know. YES, she stood there and YANKED on the door. Oh did I forget to mention when she parked, she left her SUV HALF in the spot and HALF on the diagonal lines painted there so that somebody in a wheelchair could use them. Do you think SHE care? NOT! So now tell me, exactly HOW does a person who is able to JUMP from their car and RUN to the door qualify for a handicapped placard? My buddy and I sat there amazed, not only at her about the doors but how totally inconsiderate of other handicappers. PEOPLE pay ATTENTION to how you park! PLEASE??? Go shopping, have fun, but be thoughtful of others not as "handicapped" as you are.

A kinder, gentler, rant; I lost my little best friend

Last Friday I had to put my 13 year old Buttons down. He had developed a large hard mass in his abdomen. I still haven't recovered. We've had lost several dogs over our 39 years together, but this one was the hardest. We had initially bought him as a Mother's Day gift for my Mom who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. She wanted a puppy so we got her one. He was SO little then. They had six months together before she passed. He then became MY dog. We have a total of three but Buttons was MINE. He was on my lap when I'm in my chair. And when I said I was going to bed he ran into the bedroom, sat at the corner and waited to be picked up and put on the blanket I kept at the foot of the bed for him. But when I woke up, he was curled up right next to me. He was such a good dog. Never had an accident in the house, loved to play outside and in and was so gentle and just loved everyone. He never chased the cats, tolerated dogs we rescued, but he was always the boss and let the other dogs know it LOL. I miss him so much. Well enough before I start to slobber all over myself some more.