I got a reminder today that fall is here and soon I will need to get some kind of heat in here. I have hot oil base board heat. This means that oil heats water through a small boiler in my laundry room. The hot water gets circulated through the pipes in my house. These pipes give off heat that heats the house. It is a very good heat when you have oil. Right now I don't have oil. I try to keep the house at 65 degrees to help save the amount of oil I use but oil is very expensive and I hate being cold. I mean I HATE being cold. It actually hurts all the bones that have been broken and The joints and muscles that have not been affected by my 2 car accidents will become very stiff and tight. This will make it more difficult for me to move around. I have a Snuggie. It's one of those blakets you can wrap your self up in. It does help. I can't wear it when I sit in the chair. It gets in the way of the wheels. The Snuggie becomes a fancy blanket. I can only use it when I am out of the chair. I do have energy assistance. It helps pay for some of this stuff. I can' rely on that though. The reason why I can't rely on energy help is because I applied in the beginning of July. I was approved but now its the beginning of October and the check has yet to be given to my electric company. I will get assistance for heat but it supposed to come in November. At the rate they are going it may not get here until January and its time to re apply.
I know it seems that I am a broken record. I complain about one thing and then get that resolved and complain about the next thing. I don't want to be like this. I do want to let people see what it's like to live with a disability and depend on public assistance for everything. It's not I have my disability money for fun and the government takes care of the rest. It's a struggle to live. I love to shop for clothes and things and go to shows and movies and trips. On public assistance all that stops. Your food stamps don't get you to the end of the month. You have to spend some of your disability money. The energy and heat assistance may pay for a month or two but you have to pay the rest. If you are lucky enough to get housing help, government money doesn't pay for it all. You must pay too. So before you know it your 6 or 7 hundred dollar a month check is gone. You are left with nothing. You are now sad and depressed because you have no money to have fun with. All you do is wait for the few days or week or whatever until the first of the month and you get money again. You learn to go from one free place to another and get whatever crap you can get. You also learn that if you do get money you must hide it or spend it before anyone knows about it. If you don't your assistance gets taken away. That really doesn't help people learn to save and prepare for later in life. I am grateful for the assistance I have gotten. I wish it covered more but I know that more people need this now and money needs to be spread out. I just wish we could make it so people who need this assistance are not people who are homeless or a step above. We rally need to find some way to bring back a middle class. If you consider that it now takes about $2,000 per month to run my home. With roommates I get about 1650.00 per month. You see my issue. When I do have a job I feel rich because I am not used to having money left over. When I was making 21,000 a year and getting money from roommates I had to be reminded I was still under the poverty level. By no means do I expect the government to give me money to make me rich. I sure wish they would help me not be broke. The next time you see someone with a disability spending their money on something really stupid, try to remember for that day, at that time, they were probably just sick of being a victim of the system. Take Care
No comments:
Post a Comment