An October To REMEMBER Part I

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.

I'm a bitch I'm a lover
I'm a child I'm a mother
I'm a sinner I'm a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I'm your hell I'm your dream
I'm nothing in between
You know, you wouldn't want it any other way~~~"I'm A Bitch I'm A Lover"; Alanis Morissette

I truly don't even know where to start with this one. The thoughts and the memories having to do with events would have the most gifted Skinner Psychoanalyst have their heads spinning. One of the things that September would represent for me, was the cut-off-month of my TRIAL WORK PERIOD(TWP), with the Social Security Administration. The TWP is the nine-month free-for-all, if-you-will, that the SSA allows for those on a benefit program, to work and not suffer any conflicts with their benefits. For those nine months one is pretty much given a blank-check on income accrual. However, at the end of the ninth month, the microscopes and the abacus is brought out and placed on the table. In knowing all of this, I attempt to arrange in the middle of September, to make an appointment with the local SSA office. With the wheels of bureaucracy being what they are, not well-greased, the appointment isn't actually effected until Tuesday 11 October 2011; not good. I do not want to do anything that will put my SSDI in jeopardy to be discontinued. Realizing that getting the Powers-to-Be to be able to sit down with me at the ECBOE, and effect the details of what has to be done to avert a discontinuation of my benefits, will be a tall order.

Even in the lengthy month of this October, I know I am going to have take some unilateral surreptitious actions to dodge this TWP cut-off bullet. The cut-off on a monthly basis is $1000.00. And October, as Fate would have it, is like the longest October in 823 years!! Based on my rate-of-pay @ 20hrs/wk~~~I am IN TROUBLE. In the long term, I need to get my rate-of-pay reduced. I don't want to have the hours-per-week reduced because that will have a counter-productive effect on my family-coverage health-insurance plan. Getting the rate-of-pay reduced, will take weeks---so this is what I started doing, even before my meeting with Paul B. of the SSA did actually take place.

Starting Monday 10 October 2011, and following every week throughout the rest of October, I did as shown: Monday and Wednesday(full-time days), I would punch-in at 08:30AM. Then for lunch, I would punch-out for 13:00PM. When I came back from lunch, I wouldn't punch in. Then, when I left for those days, I never punched-out.

On my Thursday part-time-day, while I was in there for four and one-half hours working, I NEVER punched-in, or punched-out. Total paid work-hours for the week=EIGHT. Because I do not want any nail-biter situation with the SSA, I followed this pattern every week throughout the remainder of October.

The pressure-release-valve development that did materialize from a mid-October meeting with the commissioner of the ECBOE, was that in the third week of October I received word that my rate-of-pay was reduced. The reduction that is now in effect, is such that I should be able to punch the clock for all of the hours I work, hold onto the family health insurance plan, and most importantly, hold onto the bedrock of our household income, my SSDI.

The whole experience with the SSA has been fraught with anxiety. It is an income that I have been paying into, all of my life, but the administration overseeing the funds, treat you as if you are doing something scandalous in seeking and having these monies. This would included the period of time when I was drawing a stipend from AmeriCorps Buffalo when I was doing the volunteer work @ The Belle Center. It is my prayer that this recent development with the rate-of-pay modification will finally give me some peace-of-mind---at least in this segment of my life.

Wednesday 12 October 2011, was a DC current---kind of evening!! It was new, it was challenging, and it was interesting!! Slated in the evening was this pivotal fund-raiser for the Erie County Executive Democratic candidate Mark Poloncarz. It was to take place at The Colter Bay on Delaware Ave in downtown Buffalo, NY. While this was a favorite watering-hole for Robert Preneta a very good boss from my Barnett Brass days, I had never been in this place myself. While it was raining, and challenging, it was as well, appealing. There were lots of people. That can be an asset, as well as a liability. Some people I recognized; others I did not. Thank God for lots of people. For starts---I had to get myself, and my scooter, out of the rain!! Initially, I had to have myself and my scooter ascend two crescent-shaped steps---and then a door threshold to get into the place. And i will add---with no hand-rails present and accounted for. What was sweet was that there were these three guys and these 2 women who just came out---like guardian angels, to help. Between getting the door, keeping me stable as I walker-wrangled and was shoulder-gripped up and through the entrance area, I was pleased to see my scooter was coming up right behind me~~~into Colter Bay!!

Once up and in, I am able to find a suitable staging area for SCOOTER & CO!! I was grateful for those whom stepped in to help, and I took the time to let them know that. Derrick S. was huge in running around getting food & drink for me. After some time it would be persons that I did not even know, who would offer to get me another drink or get me seconds on the banquet edibles. It was as if I was a quarterback calling a play-changing audible at the line-of-scrimmage; 12---19---26; hut, hut!! Somebody would be going wide-left for the food, and somebody would be going wide-right for the drinks!! But~~~wide-right was also going to be a huge undertaking later, when I would have to use the restroom. Typically, the restroom is in 'the-back'. This restroom, along with the restaurant, which is behind the lounge of Colter Bay, rests on a platform. Here again, a guardian-angel of a slighter-framed woman, whom I did not know from Adam, stepped up to the plate to run interference through the crowd for me and my scooter. Once at the platform, she helped me ascend that too, with my walker now in hand. She continued to stay with me with my walker in hand, to make sure I got into the restroom without any problems. And I must admit, it helped my ego immensely as she repeated more than a couple of times that I must possess incredible upper-body-strength.

Once the restroom break was effected, it was getting back to the lounge, and back to conversations. in due course of time the fundraising activity ceased and the crowd, thank God, did begin to thin out. The conversations were by-and-large small talk but a tid-bit from this one woman from City-Hall needs to be entered into this journal. I feel so because the juxtaposition constitutes a parallel-world coincidence. As all adults do, at some point pridefully, children are brought up in conversation. As this woman is providing a chronicle of her children, she comes to mentioning ELEKTRA. I gasped, and did an immediate~~~O M G!! The dramatic reaction was the result of the twist of Fate. It was just the day previous, Tuesday 11 October I was having this discussion about music groups in the 60's that had songs devoted to dance-sensations of the era. And one of my offerings in the discussion had to do with the "Freddie," and a local group that had gained some notoriety with this production effort. I had suggested that the local group name was either the INVICTAS, or the ELECTRAS. The next day, I'm discovering that Elektra is one of the daughters of this woman!!

Eventually, I had to leave. And yes, it is still raining outside. I must reflect as an anecdote. Maybe it is just that people, good Samaritans if you will, just help because they realize that they in short, can just walk away. I find it confounding though how people who don't even know me from Adam---just JUMP-IN and help. I don't see that at all, the closer to home that I get. As a matter-of-fact, by the time the documentary film director has his cameras zoomed to the master bedroom, one will observe that bed-side-manners---are non-existent.

As I am leaving, a bit of an entourage formulates around me as I walker my way to the door. While the City-Hall woman anchors the door to allow me to grip the handle and "work" the walker with my left-hand, this other woman grabs my left upper arm saying that she will help---her father has 'problems', too.

Once down the stairs, these two guys Greg and James carry my scooter out to me. Then they decide, in the rain, that they are going to make sure I get to my van without incident. I assured them that I "do-this-all-the-time". Lynn again repeats that she has to help her father and therefore is staying with me. So along comes Greg & James. It is a long wet walk from Allen St. to Virginia St. along Delaware Ave. When we get to my van and open the rear gate, I in due course of time take grip of the control-box that has the allows the ramp to hydraulically come out of the back. Lynn removes the control-box from my hand, assuring that she must help; that she does this all the time for her dad. I acquiesce. I mean---everybody is getting wet, so I am not going to argue. Once the scooter is up and in, I profusely thank all three and make my way into the vehicle. And of course, this just wows them!! This is because I have to do that 'power-lift' of my body---to get in.

For an evening that had me interacting with so many different people, and so many of these were for the first time, I felt while driving home, a---Rhapsody In The Rain!!

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Hickok
The Promise