h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's two kinds of stubborn, obverse sides on the same coin:
"I will and you can't stop me!" and "I won't and you can't make me!" I believe we all have each of these.

My friend made it through and Ivy League university, on to a noted Technology school and now is employed at an even more famous Technology Institute by not letting himself be stopped.

I, on the other hand, have managed to not be swept aside, discounted or dismissed by being unmovable. I've survived, I'm not invisible, but haven't achieved much, either.

Now I wonder if I should/could have tried harder, or is that just not my nature?

as my "kids" grew up (I've been a single parent since they were 5 and 6 yrs old, they are now 24 & 25) I instilled in them - you can only get out! what you are prepared to put in
I had disadvantages though life(it'll be rait)but! I do have "experience" of life to be able to advise wisely

I believe that has helped your son very well with his current challenges, Prof. Well done!

I keep looking back and wondering what I could have done better, and believe me, there's a lot. I should have worked more, instead of part-timing for a few years while I went to college, and I should have finished my degree.

For a while I was my husband's caregiver after his stroke, and I could have worked harder to get him the help he needed. In the US, if you don't have medical coverage (which he didn't, after his stroke put him on permanent disability), you're screwed. You ask for therapy or rehab, and they turn you down. What I've learned since is, when it comes to Medicare or Medicaid or Social Security, "No!" *never* means no. So now I keep asking, until Iget what I need, or know the reason why not. If I'd only known that then...

thank you love



what the world would be like, if we could have hindsight BEFORE the events happened


I have always been saddened by the health system over there, as I agree with you - no insurance and no care for anything
I've always thought what would have happened to me if not for the NHS here (and "poorish" parents that would not have had money for insurance etc) I know that without the specialist that took me on, I would have been at a 90% angle at the hips and wheelchair bound.

and now on a lighter noteI now know your a lady, as I haven't seen anything in other posts etc that could give me a clueas for male/female and over the years, I've got it wrongsometimes

so! my apologies for not knowing sooner

and here I was, thinking the feminine suffix -"ette" would give me away!

I had a doctor hint that I might have scoliosis, though if so, saying that at my age means it would have to be *really* mild. I personally think it's just from slinging a heavy over my shoulder for a few decades...

"thinking the feminine suffix -"ette"" I'm not that clever
that means learning english and I'm a Yorkshiremantha' noz (you know)

in a disco a good few year ago, I saw a youth who had the same back trouble as meso talking loud with my mates so he could "overhear" I said that we could make a fortune, hiring ourselves out as novelty bookendserr! he took umbrage and left

SC, one of the things I've learned is that it does no good to wonder "what if". We can't change one minute of the past. I think you've faced the past several difficult years bravely and with dignity. That is quite an achievement in my book. Sometimes I despair of a society that places more importance on financial success than it does on character.

Thanks, Hyp. I think on one level I know that's it better to not think about the past, since we can't change it. I do worry I won't learn from my mistakes. Just because I don't repeat the same mistakes, it doesn't mean that the old lessons don't apply to new ones!

Like now, I keep forgetting to keep after the agencies that can help me -- all that paperwork is exhausting! I wonder if I can make a claim for writer's cramp?

Sometimes I think they make it so tiresome and irritating to discourage people from filing.

Prof, I'm glad it didn't come to blows with that guy!

Kinda like the time a blind friend of mine got bumped hard as he was going through the doors at the college bookstore...he shouted, "Can't you see I'm blind!", whereupon the bumper whacked him in the ankle, with HIS white cane! I couldn't help myself, I laughed! So did F, after he heard the guy say the same thing to him.

There's no "sometimes" about it, Hyp. It's a business tactic.

I worked as a claims examiner for Blue Cross insurance, and we had to return the claim forms if the info wasn't in the right box, even though it *was* there. Return it often enough, and people just give up. The company then saves that money.

That is so sad. I know it is standard procedure, but I honestly don't know how the ones who actually make the rules can live with themselves.

Lack of empathy. It's a requirement for conservatives and insurance company bureaucrats.

A63505253

I missed a certain word in post 5 "scoliosis" see above