...Or we would have been, had I not just paid the rent with every last dollar that I have. My 14th wedding anniversary is a week from today, and what I'm going to get her is simple. I'm going to buy food so we can eat.
Those of you who have been following my diaries already know the situation. For those of you who are just tuning in, it basically comes down to this:
I'm disabled, have a disabled wife who does not qualify for benefits, and we live on $800 a month in Social Security. The only reason we survive is that our best friend lives with us and works as our care provider. With her meager check - which Republicans in the state would like to cut even more than it has been - we just barely are able to survive as long as a catastrophe doesn't strike.
Which, as the links above show, a big one did.
The state is finally catching up on everything, but in order to have a place to live I basically have to give all of it to the landlord who has been so kind as to let us to live rent free for almost half a year. The hole that we have been dug into is so deep that I no longer see the top. Life for us has been one disaster after another for almost three years straight, and while I finally am getting the right situation under control, I have utilities piling up, and still have to figure out how to feed us.
On top of all of this, I just had to buy a new bed frame for my wife's bed because her back is very close to going out and she cannot go to a chiropractor due to the severe lupus that has basically left her house bound for the last 10 years. I paid that first before paying anything else because I will not let my wife suffer any more than she already does if there's anything that I can do to stop it. So with that out of the way, I have a roof over my head and a solid bed frame under my wife's back, and that's pretty much all I can say right now.
The last time I posted one of these diaries, I got a cheery right wing hate mail, which reads as follows:
From Jonathan Tellman
Government already helped the disabled (they made you unemployable-say thank you)
Disabilities act makes it idiotic for anyone to hire a disabled person. There's your government at work bozo. Now sit down in the back of the bus and stop your sniveling. You should be grateful for all the "help" the government has given you. Thank God for Washington or else we would all be without any hope at all.
These are the people who want to take over the gov't once again in less than a month. These are the people who destroyed our economy, and would gladly see people like me lose what safety net we do have. So while I'm uncertain if I will be around here much in the coming days, think of me and people like me when you go out and vote for Democrats who have disappointed you as much as they have disappointed me, because regardless of that disappointment I'm still going to vote straight Democrat come November. They may not be doing everything I'd like them to do, but you know what?
I'm living proof that it could be a whole lot worse.
UPDATE: Thank you so much for the Mojo and recommends! I've been asked in e-mail if we would accept help, and the answer is that any help would be greatly appreciated. My e-mail address is on my diary page, if anyone wishes to contact me. Thank you so much for all of your kindness!