Answering Scooter Boy's Questions

It's all in the blogs.

I apply for work every week: send resumes online, answer classifieds, etc.

I go trash picking one morning a week, for apx. 2 or 3 hours.

I sell some of what I find and make arts and crafts to sell from other stuff.

Your taxes do not pay my SSDI; I paid it from payroll deductions. The "I" is for "insurance." If someone is in an auto accident, and the insurance company covers the purchase of a new car, nobody complains. I get MS after working 30 years, and I'm treated like scum.

I paid for the webtv selling trash picking. For the first few months, I paid the monthly fee selling trash. After that, I wrote for net4tv Voice internet magazine, and that paid for it.

My disability is remitting/recurring multiple sclerosis. I am constantly in pain. For months at a time, I can not see nor walk well enough to leave my home.

My webtv is my source of: emergency shopping, selling my arts and crafts, having a social life, accessing resources, etc.

The bus costs a dollar. That's 2 dollars for one round trip to the library to use the internet. I can only use the internet for one hour at a time there, and must sign up to use it and wait my turn. That's half a day for one hour. And I can not email or do online shopping, banking or anything like that. I can only use it for library RESEARCH.

My pets are my companions, a source of great comfort, affection, amusement and protection for me. They can see and hear what I can't. Mental health studies show disabled and elderly people are healthier and happier, whether living alone or in convelescent facilities, with pets.

I go hungry before they do. However, there is an animal rescue organization which will provide food if I need it. I rarely ask, however. They also help with veterinary bills. I rescue ferrel, stray animals. They know this. That's what they do: get strays off the streets. My animals don't breed, spread diseases, attack people or starve on the streets. Like me, they were rejected and unwanted.

I push strollers, Patrick. I have a standard stroller, which folds, that I can take on the bus. I have the twin-sized "jogging" stroller, with rubber tires, when I don't take the bus. I also have a 30 gallon, molded plastic trash barrel with a lid which I sometimes take, especially if the weather's bad, on the bus: it weighs nothing, carries a lot, and fits on a bus seat easily.

I do physical work for about an hour at a time. Then, I have to sit or lie down for an hour or two.

My day begins at 5am and ends at midnight. I sometimes take a nap for an hour or 2 in the middle of the day.

I have to; my strength runs out, my eyesight goes bad, the pain gets too hard to continue physical work.

So, I come in here, lay on the bed with my keyboard, and work on the internet.

I have a job, working for one of the sites listed on my blogs, promoting their web site. I go to usenet groups. I research places to add the site's link, etc., to get the web site more exposure.

It's only about 4 or 5 hours per week. I was paid in advance.

My arts and crafts ARE a job. I spend about 5 hours a week on them, too.

My gardening is done for the season. The greenhouse was a lucky fluke and had to be completed before cold weather.

I grow my own food; I make bird houses from the gourds; I sell seeds and herbs.

But I haven't earned over $10/month recently, because I had no way of transporting my stuff to the flea market. That's why I was walking in the hot sun every day for 2 miles, trying to sell outside the grocery.

When I apply for jobs, they ask all about the disabilities, but not about the skills. I rarely get even an interview; they shoot me down over the phone.

How do they know I'm disabled? First question they ask about my application is: "how come you haven't worked for so long?"

I didn't say I'd only take a writing job; those were the reporter's words. I said I don't think, as sick as I am, that I'm good at anything BESIDES writing.

And I DON'T have an undiagnosed physical condition, as the reporter said. I've had THREE diagnoses, by THREE different doctors. Only one of those was tested, inconclusively. Medicare and MediCaid won't pay for the diagnostic tests. Therefore, I receive no treatment, prescriptions, dental, eye care, disabled ride services, etc. I'm shut out.

I'm all I've got. I have no close friends here and no family. I haven't been able to get out at night or on weekends to meet people.

I'm doing the best I can with what I've got.

I left home at 17 because my father had been molesting me and my mother was having psychotic episodes and trying to kill me.