http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018917217Time for something different from the usual primitive resentments and fantasies.
Tobin S. (9,244 posts) Mon Jan 23, 2017, 12:13 AM
I think a friend of mine is physically disabled, but he's being very stubborn about it.
I went over to a friend's house tonight. It had been about three or four years since I'd seen him, but we have talked on the phone from time to time in that time. The guy's an alcoholic and he lives with his mom. I've thought for a long time now that he was self medicating with the booze due to a mental health issue. That might be what it started out as, but tonight I saw the extent of his physical disability.
He's a former trucker and he's also worked as a mechanic. He couldn't do either one of those jobs right now even if he quit drinking. I don't think he could even do a desk job and he's certainly not qualified for anything like that.
When I got to his place, I could not get the driver's door shut on my car. It was like the latch was stuck in the locked position with the door open not allowing the latch to operate as it should. My friend tried to help me fix it. We took the door apart trying to figure things out. Several times I had to help him up after he got down into a kneeling position. I mean I pretty much had to bear hug him and lift him up. His back and neck are ****ed.
We got the door fixed. We had to look it up. Thank God for smart phones and the Internet. I was thinking for a while there that I was going to have to call a mobile mechanic. God knows how much that would have cost, being an emergency call on a Sunday. I was 70 miles away from my place. I sure as hell didn't want to drive all that way with an open driver's side door.
Anyway, I knew my friend should have tried to go on social security disability for a while now, but I didn't know how much he had deteriorated since I had last seen him. I have tried to get him to get a lawyer and apply in the past, but he wouldn't do it. I guess he has too much pride. He says he wants to work, but I know that even if he was sober he wouldn't be able to do it.
I talked to his mom via text after I got home tonight and I told her that the guy was physically disabled. I also told her how to proceed if she can get him to apply for benefits.
As I was talking to my buddy there tonight he asked me to look over a packet he had about a living will, organ donation, and health care power of attorney. I explained all of those things to him and he said that was not what he thought it was. He wanted to make out a will. He's 42. Then he got all emotional and was trying to explain what he wanted done with his possessions when he died. I asked him why he was worried about it right now, but he didn't answer.
The thread starts developing nicely until the Penny primitive kills it with a
non sequitur.
*PennyK (1,155 posts) Mon Jan 23, 2017, 01:04 PM
16. About the car
Any chance it's a Ford Focus? There's a recall out on the door latch; I got the notice for mine, but they don't have parts unless it's actually acting up.
*For primitives who don't know, that means "it does not follow," i.e., it's irrelevant to the issue at hand. Primitives
non sequitur a lot.
Anyway.
Tobin, Tobin, Tobin.
You have to remember, Tobin, not everybody thinks like a primitive. Not everybody relishes the idea of getting aboard the disability gravy train, a first-class seat in the parlor car, every wish and whim catered to.
Your pal the big guy in Bellevue does, but Omaha Steve's not "everybody."
Speaking from first-hand experience, Tobin, some of us look at this as the end of our lives; we're used up, broken and no good anymore, and have no future. It's a hard self-admission to make, and so we usually put it off for as long as possible, hoping against hope that it's not true.
You're thinking that fulfilling the material necessity in his life is more important than satisfying his spiritual longings, Tobin, but of course you being a primitive, you won't ever figure
that out.
