About to try to be a bit more active for the first time since my back locked up. Wish me luck lol

 

Sitting with my pup, enjoying a nice 18yo single malt and watching the fire.

 

You might find the stats on who's receiving Social Security to be interesting.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/OASDIbenies.html

No surprise, the vast majority of people who receive SS are the elderly, who put into the system for decades - over 73%.

Survivors get a little less than 10%. This number has actually been going down for decades for a couple of reasons. People are having fewer children and women are more likely to get gainful employment. Benefits for widows/widowers are REALLY low, so most get a job if they possibly can.

That leaves the disabled (SSDI) at less than 17% of all SS recipients, 10.4 million people for the whole USA. That's around 3% of the US population. That number is also dropping, for a lot of reasons. One is that in some cases, people who have been doing physical work for decades become disabled in their late 50s. Bad backs and knees can mean that the work they did for 40 years is simply impossible, yet they are too old to really be able to train to do anything else. Of course, these folks are usually on disability for a few years and then switch to retirement SS when they reach 65.

Another reason the number of people getting SSDI is the improving economy. You see, many, if not most, disabled people would like to work, but finding an employer to hire them is tough, especially when their competing with a lot of more able bodied jobseekers. Many people with disabilities work. Some need accommodations from their employers, but many don't. But when that disabled worker gets laid off, they may have no choice but to get on SSDI because it's harder for them to find a new job. There are plenty of older workers who have to take early retirement at age 62, at a reduced amount, for the same reason. They just can't find anyone to hire them. But when unemployed is down and good workers are harder to find, many disabled and older workers are able to get jobs again.

Someone like my quadriplegic cousin, who has never and will never be able to be gainfully employed, gets $751 a month in 2018. That will go up to $771 in 2019. They might be able to get food stamps, which would be another $192 MAXIMUM. What able bodied person would want to try to live on that? The idea that there are millions of able bodied/minded adults who are getting SSI or SSDI who could be supporting themselves with gainful employment is a right wing myth. There are some, I'm sure, but frankly, it's just too hard to live on so little $$$.

 

In emotional recovery.

I went to the cenotaph memorial today, and they had huge active duty cannons (with dummy rounds) or whatever kind of mobile guns you call them, and the first round caught me by surprise. I am quite sure I know what it means now when people use the phrase ‘my heart skipped a beat’.

I stood, listening to the service, trying to slow my heart, just soaking in the words, silently sending my love upward, when the laying of the memorial wreaths began. A name rang out I was completely unprepared for; the son of a serviceman killed in Afghanistan. I’d heard the name of that boy dozens if not hundreds of times straight from his father’s mouth as we talked family and weekend plans; now that son, a proud cadet, called forward to lay a memorial wreath in his father’s name, joining in honouring the seemingly endless list of names, sacrifices to conflicts around the world.

I was utterly unprepared for it. All of a sudden, I wasn’t just trying to still my heart, I was trying not to sob out loud.

Mine join the veritable ocean of tears shed for men and women lost to us in the name of protection, of peacekeeping, of war, an infinitesimally tiny contribution to a vast sea of anguish and grief.

I’m very thankful for the liberties I enjoy, the rights and freedoms I rely on, the safety provided to me by Canadian Armed Services the world over.

I remember, and honour them all, and I’m more than a little emotionally tender today.

 

This is a great status for me. I’m in the hospital, left knee replacement was done early this morning. Have been up and walking, able to walk normally (with a walker) but relatively pain free. Thanks to my friends for their positive thoughts.

 

@tenguy
I'm amazed that a vet would work on such an old grumpy dog...

So no more walking with your peg leg.

Heal soon TG.

 

Deciding what to have for breakfast, avoiding work, listening to Georgia snore, as always.

 

Coming up on four weeks since my left knee was replaced, walking without a cane and only a slight limp. Still not driving due to the pain meds which, thanks to my wife’s insistence, I’m taking before therapy. They allow me to work it to the limits without pain holding me back.

 

Surprised as F! I did some laundry the other day and when I went to get it out of the drier, someone had taken my winter comforter. Did some more laundry last night, and it reappeared as I was putting my stuff in the drier...

Go figure!

 

Take the meds and a little bit more sometimes...do all the exercises, that's when I needed the extra. I ve had both mine done, and I learned I was allergic to metal staples and to physio terrorists ...

 

Cool and rainning, took today off.

 

Current Status: Code Red, Will Robinson, Warning, Alien Approaching.

 

Current Status: Code Red, Will Robinson, Warning, Alien Approaching.

 

Current Status: Code Red, Will Robinson, Warning, Alien Approaching.

 

Dick throbbing from dope, stroking not to cum

 

I fucking hate insomnia!

 

All packed and headed to check in on a mini-indulgence getaway.

I might check in on y’all while I soak in the jacuzzi. Then again, I might not.

Have a lovely Sunday, pervs.