My back went out again yesterday. While bending over to toss a couple of sticks into the woodstove. Which I was doing because…
…that’s the way yesterday started.
Today, naturally, it’s a gorgeous day. Couldn’t be better! Started out mild, topped out in the mid-sixties, no wind at all. A fact I’d have appreciated more if I could have gone out into it with any pleasure. Instead I’ve been sitting in my too-deep reading chair and making a huge production out of standing up to make tea or go to the can.
It gradually occurred to me this evening that I’d be more comfortable in the desk chair, which is higher and has arms I’m not afraid to push against. I can in fact get out of this chair without pain, so this is where I’m spending the evening. Whadaya think: Master and Commander or The Northman?
Oh, speaking of being a broken-down geezer: The Social Security thing actually happened! With no trouble at all. Starts in May, I’m told. I naturally assumed that because my life isn’t exactly conventional in any domestic or financial sense there’d be some all-consuming problem at some point but it seems the SSA isn’t the DMV.
Sorry to hear of the back problems Joel. When mine cranks up it responds ‘favorably’ to 800 mg of ibuprofen; just be careful, that stuff will corrode the stomach.
On the SS front, congrats! Hey, if they can gave those sheckels to folks that just walked across the border, they should be able to get some to an actual citizen, even if he’s a desert dweller. A little extra coin can’t hurt…
I have my share of back problems with a two level fusion with titanium ladder reinforcing it. I learned that if a keep a chair in front of the stove and tend it sitting I don’t stir up the back so much! Since I live in Alaska I do poke wood into the stove more than you do.
Oh Joel, it’s not the years, but the hard miles you’ve put on that frame of yours.
I’m curious how the slight increase in revenue from SS is going to make a difference in the hermitage. Plans?
CZ: The increase will not be slight. I’ve been living on a few hundred dollars a month for the last 8-9 years, which was about double what I had before that. Not counting the occasional odd-job gig, which is why I’ve always looked upon those with such favor. If what I’m told is true, and this is coming from the federal government so you know you can believe it, my income is about to increase something like fourfold.
Having said that, I don’t have any plans for change. Access to better tools may be in my future but that’s about all. What this really does is give me something like an escape hatch for when I get too feeble or blind to keep living here. Which I definitely didn’t have before.
Out of curiosity, were you not already getting some form of SSD for the missing leg?
Not as such, no. I did apply for medicare five years ago to help pay for a new leg. But I’m not on some sort of disability if that’s what you mean.
Joel: I do hope you enjoy your new-found wealth.
I applied early because I couldn’t afford a replacement car and I NEEDED a car. The surprisingly nice SSI lady on the phone told me she hears that reason all the time. Made me feel a little less financially incompetent. A little. The bank apparently did not consider “selfless service to others in need” to be fungible.