Book report time. One of the items I’m reviewing is titled “Easy Computing for Seniors”, written, it says, by the staff at FC&A Publishing. ISBN 978-1-932470-21-5. This remarkable book has to be one of the best-written I’ve ever encountered. It covers all the important points and I can recommend it for everyone, not just seniors. Every so often you find a computer book that is honestly out to help rather than just written to sell more books. I give it the supreme compliment: it successfully avoids the MicroSoft author style.The sure signs of fall are here. Shorter days, leaves turning color (that's a joke in Florida), windy days, Quebec license plates. There must be another major storm in the area upsetting the days, spotty rain most of the time. I decided a quiet day was in order, plus that let me check in on Dave-O from time to time. He zonked out for nine hours. When we called, he described his job in the merchant marine in his twenties. It was unionized and he had only a temporary card. Got a job as an oiler.
Now you see, there is a job I didn’t even know existed until I was committed to another career. You walk around the engine compartment with an oil can and put a drop of oil into the piston heads once every hour. He got out of it when it became obvious the ships were converting into massive robotic-operated fleets with minimal staff. He spent a while as a steward washing dishes, and that is one job I am proud to say I’ve never had to resort to.
He gets a settlement this upcoming January and wants to see the California redwoods. So would I, but until further notice I am neither driving a car or being a passenger inside one. Shift driving is only good for long mileage anyway, not for seeing the country. It works well enough if you have pre-planned stops. But the nice things to see in America are not exactly spread evenly over the landscape. I’d like to tour the Smithsonian, but from a hotel within easy bicycling distance.We also talked about the social security system. He has not admitted he will never make it back to work whereas I am resigned to my fate on that count. I am most aware I was only two points away from getting the top rate, and it would be nuts to suggest I didn’t really try to get back to work for the lousy three months I would have needed to qualify.
I spent plenty of time in the government office waiting room. Listen closely, I consider my case extraordinarily rare because my condition shows no external symptoms whatsoever and cruelly targeted my career, the last thing I was prepared for. So how does the government ever manage to find another 95 people with no symptoms whatsoever to always show up on the same days I do? If you can answer that, smart ass, then explain why I’m the only one there who spoke English.
Dave-O tells me of the disability tests in England. They put you in a hospital bed and “forget” to leave a bedpan. If you make it to the toilet instead of soiling the bed, you aren’t disabled. We don’t want that here, in America, the system considers only whether you are able to work, not personal quality of life. Considering that is what you paid into, it is only right. Now, did everyone pay into it like I did?
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