Author Topic: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable (Read 3865 times)

AGelbert · « **Reply #105 on:** March 23, 2017, 01:34:49 pm »

The Forces Driving Middle-Aged White People's 'Deaths Of Despair'

March 23, 2017 5:00 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition

Jessica Boddy

In 2015, when researchers Ann Case and Angus Deaton discovered that death rates had been rising dramatically since 1999 among middle-aged white Americans, they weren't sure why people were dying younger, reversing decades of longer life expectancy.

Now the husband-and-wife economists say they have a better understanding of what's causing these "deaths of despair" by suicide, drugs and alcohol.

In a follow-up to their groundbreaking 2015 work, they say that a lack of steady, well-paying jobs for whites without college degrees has caused pain, distress and social dysfunction to build up over time. The mortality rate for that group, ages 45 to 54, increased by a half-percent each year from 1999 to 2013.

But whites with college degrees haven't suffered the same lack of economic opportunity, and haven't seen the same loss of life expectancy. The study was published Thursday in Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.

Case and Deaton, who are both at Princeton University, spoke with NPR's David Greene about what's driving these trends. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Interview Highlights

On the original discovery of rising mortality rates for middle-aged whites

Deaton: Mortality rates have been going down forever. There's been a huge increase in life expectancy and reduction in mortality over 100 years or more, and then for all of this to suddenly go into reverse [for whites aged 45 to 54], we thought it must be wrong. We spent weeks checking out numbers because we just couldn't believe that this could have happened, or that if it had, someone else must have already noticed. It seems like we were right and that no one else had picked it up.

We knew the proximate causes — we know what they were dying from. We knew suicides were going up rapidly, and that overdoses mostly from prescription drugs were going up, and that alcoholic liver disease was going up. The deeper questions were why those were happening — there's obviously some underlying malaise, reasons for which we [didn't] know.

On what's driving these early deaths

Case: These deaths of despair have been accompanied by reduced labor force participation, reduced marriage rates, increases in reports of poor health and poor mental health. So we are beginning to thread a story in that it's possible that [the trend is] consistent with the labor market collapsing for people with less than a college degree. In turn, those people are being less able to form stable marriages, and in turn that has effects on the kind of economic and social supports that people need in order to thrive.

In general, the longer you're in the labor force, the more you earn — in part because you understand your job better and you're more efficient at your job, you've had on-the-job training, you belong to a union, and so your wages go up with age. That's happened less and less the later and later you've been born and the later you enter this labor market.

Deaton: We're thinking of this in terms of something that's been going on for a long time, something that's emerged as the iceberg has risen out of the water. We think of this as part of the decline of the white working class. If you go back to the early '70s when you had the so-called blue-collar aristocrats, those jobs have slowly crumbled away and many more men are finding themselves in a much more hostile labor market with lower wages, lower quality and less permanent jobs. That's made it harder for them to get married. They don't get to know their own kids. There's a lot of social dysfunction building up over time. There's a sense that these people have lost this sense of status and belonging. And these are classic preconditions for suicide.

Case: The rates of suicide are much higher among men [than women]. And drug overdoses and alcohol-related liver death are higher among men, too. But the [mortality] trends are identical for men and women with a high school degree or less. So we think of this as people, either quickly with a gun or slowly with drugs and alcohol, are killing themselves. Under that body count there's a lot of social dysfunction that we think ultimately we may be able to pin to poor job prospects over the life course.

On how mortality rates differ among races

Deaton: Hispanics [have always had lower mortality rates] than whites. It's a bit of a puzzle that's not fully resolved, to put it mildly. It's always been true that mortality rates have been higher and life expectancy shorter for African Americans than for whites. What is happening now is that gap is closing and, for some groups, it's actually crossed. What we see in the new work is if you compare whites with a high school degree or less, at least their mortality rates are now higher than mortality rates for African Americans as a whole. If you compare whites with a high school degree or less with blacks with a high school degree or less, their mortality rates have converged. It's as if poorly educated whites have now taken over from blacks as the lowest rung of society in terms of mortality rates.

Quote

Agelbert RANT: Since WHEN are "Hispanics" a RACE!!!? Hispanics share some culture but are from ALL RACES! Hispanics are NOT considered a "race", but an ETHNIC GROUP. Yes, "race" is an unscientific concept itself because we are all one species, but the term "race" has always been associated with skin color, NOT CULTURE or LANGUAGE (until Trump, that is). You just read an NPR article making the thoroughly unscientific BACKDOOR allegation that "whites" can not be "Hispanics". What next, the old "one drip of black blood makes you a you know what" revival from a century ago? I guess they've been listening to Trump (Trump said, "What the hell is a white Hispanic?".). So it goes in our brave new world of racist Trump pseudo science.

On the geography of mortality rates

Case: There's not a part of the country that has not been touched by this. We like to make the comparison between Nevada and Utah to look at the extent to which good health behaviors lead to longer life. Two thirds of Utahans are Mormons. They don't drink, they don't smoke, and they don't drink tea or coffee. Two thirds of Nevadans live in Las Vegas paradise, where there is a little more of everything, so the heart disease mortality rates are twice as high in Nevada as they are in Utah.

But both states are [in the] top 10 for deaths of despair. Utah has had a terrifically hard time dealing with the opioid crisis, and suicide rates [are] going up as well. There's a lot of surprise here in parts of the country that we weren't really expecting to see.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/23/521083335/the-forces-driving-middle-aged-white-peoples-deaths-of-despair

AGelbert · « **Reply #106 on:** April 13, 2017, 10:15:09 pm »

Quote from: RE on April 13, 2017, 08:19:50 pm

Quote from: azozeo on April 13, 2017, 08:12:53 pm
Quote from: RE on April 13, 2017, 07:53:02 pm
Bad Newz.

I got a second rejection on my appeal to Alaska Legal Services to get some representation for my SS Hearing. So I am now once again left twisting in the wind. I can make a 3rd Appeal to the Executive Director but I suspect it will be the same result.

So next week I am going to try a new tactic of walking in to a local lawyer's office for a consultaion, and not telling them what the case is until I am actually face to face with the scum sucking bottom feeder. I'll pay for the hour of his valuable time.

If that doesn't work, it's time for the Nuclear Option. I'll make an appointment with the Newz Editor of the Frontiersman and see if I can get them to do a story about this. Perhaps that will get me a lawyer, and at least it will give a lot of Bad Publicity to SS, the Dimwit who took over for Colleen at Sen. Murkowski's Office and the Legal System and Bar Association of Alaska.

I'll probably lose the appeal anyhow, so there isn't much in the way of downside risk. If I do lose the Appeal, I can still appeal again to the Federal Circuit Court. That will drag it out another year at least.

The worst case scenario is I will have to cough up $10K to pay SS the clawback they want for "overpayments" , and continue to live on the current reduced income until I turn 62, at which time I believe my SSI turns to SSR and I SHOULD get back to the original payment amount. I haven't been able to verify that though, SSA doesn't respond to my queries on this sent by Snail Mail.

I'm in no danger at the moment of ending up as a Homeless Cripple Freezing to Death on the Streets of Palmer, Alaska ©, I have just about enough to meet my monthly bills without dipping into my savings, and so far according to both my WC lawyer and HR Block, there is no tax liability on my WC settlement. The IRS accepted my Tax Return far as I know, though it can take months and sometimes up to 3 years before they whack you with an audit. After 3 years they can't question it long as you filed a return. Even reduced by $10K it's a good buffer, more than I had when I went the first 7 months with no income. So as long as the monetary system doesn't crap out, I should be OK until the Nukes start flying in. If the monetary system does crash, everybody will be in the same deep pile of **** as me, so I don't worry about that. I will have met my goal of lasting long enough to see it all go down in flames before I Buy My Ticket to the Great Beyond. ©

RE

Here....

http://law.freeadvice.com/government_law/social_security_law/

I've been to that site. They don't list any lawyers handling SS cases in Alaska.

RE

Bummer.

Here in Vermont, the moment they figured out Trump was going to ax programs that helped the poor, aged and disabled, they went into overdrive to make sure Vermonters don't suffer because of Trump's inhumanity. They collected $50,000 in just a few weeks so nobody would miss any meals on wheels service this year. Needless to say, the Republicans here don't have any use for Trump whatsoevah.

But, I understand Alaska is a bit different.

Keep us posted. I hope and pray for the best outcome for you.

AGelbert · « **Reply #107 on:** April 22, 2017, 02:59:31 pm »

Quote from: RE on April 22, 2017, 03:13:26 am

As you folks know, I am now engaged in another "appeal" to Alaska Legal Services to get representation on the SSA case, which I fully expect to fail. The first appeal was to the Asst. Director, who works in the same office as the Executive Director and I am certain consulted with her before rejecting the first appeal. Very unlikely the Executive Director will countermand the Asst. Director on this. Cupla Girlfriends who have lunch together every day of course.

Originally, I was rejected when I first applied because my assets were too high for this free legal service for poor people. The reason they were too high was because of the one time award I got from Workman's Compensation, which is precisely what this whole case is about!

In this second rejection, an entirely NEW reason was given, that due to their "limited resources", they can't represent me. This doesn't surprise me much, given they probably have an overwhelming caseload of poor people with worse problems than I got.

I'm still not quitting on trying to get an attorney though, what I am doing now is some documentation of my attempts to GET an attorney, so that when I go into the hearing WITHOUT one, I can claim my right to representation (which SS themselves informed me I have) and show that I made every attempt to do so. I will represent myself under duress. Then the hearing becomes unconstitutional from the get-go and I can file an appeal in the Circuit Court of Appeals on Constitutional grounds. That can go to the **** Supreme Court! I can face down Neil Gorsuch! lol.

So, even though I already know after 2 phone calls to the Alaska Bar Association that they have no lawyers listed in their referals who take SS cases, I am sending them a Snail Mail letter requesting that once again this way. They will reply to me they have no lawyers to refer. BLAM, that goes in my case file, along with the rejection letter from ALS AND the requests for a Court Appointed attorney sent to SSA which they never responded to.

Now for some really GOOD NEWZ! :icon_sunny:

Even better than all of this is that tonight I decide to research the Offset Law as pertains to Alaska, and I FOUND the specific case law that applies to my case! It's SSA's OWN document off THEIR website! Here's the URL if you want to read all 9 pages.

https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/1502505002

Here are the relevant paragraphs:

Quote
CONCLUSION

It is our opinion that the Agency should recognize Alaska's reverse offset provision that was enacted in 1977. See AS § 23.30.225(b). However, the Agency should ignore the additional provision that the Alaska legislature enacted in 1988. See AS § 23.30.225(c). The Agency should disregard the August 1977 Regional Attorney opinion, and should no longer implement the federal offset computation under 42 U.S.C. § 424a(a). Therefore, the Agency should change the current POMS guidance as Ms. H~. has requested. See POMS DI § 52120.010(A).

a. Alaska WC Payment Types That Meet the Federal Offset Exemption: Temporary Total, Temporary Partial, and Permanent Total

The Alaska legislature enacted its provisions for temporary total, temporary partial, and permanent total WC payments in 1959. See AS §§ 23.30.180, 23.30.185, 23.30.200; and SLA 1959, ch. 193, §§ 7(1-2), 7(5). The Alaska legislature amended these provisions twice after February 1981, namely, in 1983 and 1988. See SLA 1983, ch. 70, §§ 5-6, 8; SLA 1988, ch. 79, §§ 31-33, 35-36. However, these amendments did not affect the reverse offset provision already enacted in 1977. See AS § 23.30.225(b); and SLA 1977, ch. 75, § 9./ Accordingly, we believe that these WC payment types meet the federal offset exemption, and the agency should implement Alaska's reverse offset when processing disability cases involving these WC payments.

CONCLUSION

It is our opinion that the agency should implement Alaska's reverse offset when computing temporary total, temporary partial, and permanent total WC payments. However, the agency should ignore Alaska's reverse offset when computing permanent partial impairment and reemployment/vocational rehabilitation benefits.

Besides all that, I don't actually receive any benefits from the State of Alaska. The entire settlement was paid for by a PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANY! All WC did was mediate the settlement!

I am going in there with a **** BULLETPROOF CASE! I am going to have a reporter there from the Frontiersman. I will record on video also if possible, in full Trotsky RE getup! :icon_mrgreen: I will SMOKE these motherfuckers!

Clarence Darrow RE is BORN!

RE

GO FOR IT!

AGelbert · « **Reply #108 on:** April 25, 2017, 06:54:24 pm »

Quote from: luciddreams on April 25, 2017, 10:39:30 am

What could be more important for a healthy psychology than a sense of purpose? Without purpose what type of a life can be lived? Purpose is not something that you can fool yourself into either. I'm not referring to the purpose of family life. If you are married, your purpose can be to be a good spouse, and if you have kids, your purpose can be to be a good parent to your children. Those things are purpose with a lower case "p." They are important, but we all have our own unique purpose for being here. Or do we?

That statement is one of belief. I want to believe that there is a purpose for me and everybody else on Earth. To believe otherwise seems to be the germination of Nihilism. If there is no purpose to my life than there is no purpose to anything else.

The things that I am advocating for in my life are important. Specifically I'm referring to Bamboo and Permaculture. For me the two go hand in hand. Both are fringe topics. Permaculture comes from the margins of society. My favorite principle is the 11th one: use edges and value the marginal. Permaculture itself is marginal in our society, and within that margin, on the margin of Permaculture, bamboo is there. Even in the Permaculture community bamboo is seen mostly as just another invasive. It's the most useful plant to our species that grows on this planet. How is it that it is such a hatted plant? I believe this hatred goes directly to the root of our anti-cultures dysfunction. That dysfunction begins with privacy fences on property lines. Property lines being the main dysfunction (closely tied up with money of course). Bamboo does not respect property lines. It goes right under fences, and with enough time will cross a road bed. It's also the most useful plant to our species! Yet in our anti-culture it is the most hated! Why!!! Are we ultimately an anti-culture composed of sadist and masochist?

Then there is Permaculture itself. It's antithetical to the conventional suburban landscape of monocultured grass and shrubbery, just as bamboo is.

My purpose is to advance bamboo and Permaculture into our anti-culture in an effort to do what needs to be done for a life of lower per capita energy. Because we will eventually get that life, if they don't blow us all up with the "mother of all bombs" first. Yet, holding that purpose I go forth with small engines to make money managing the typical suburban landscape. The "greatest misallocation of wealth in the history of the world."

I'm all the time fighting to advance the usefulness of bamboo and permaculture all while pouring gasoline into my hemi and mower and plethora of other small engines. I burn gasoline everyday to make money. We all do this in the working first world. We have to. I have no choice. But why? You never end up with enough money either. Everybody works because they need money, and we all come up short and use credit. Extend and pretend goes all the way to the lowest level of poverty that's just above mailbox money. Many times in the recent past I have said "what's the **** point in working so hard?" My efforts are met by more financial obligations, and there is never enough money no matter how much I make. Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up and just being a shitbag in line for some mailbox money.

I'm told that what I am doing is of the utmost importance. "The world needs you," my mentor says. The world needs me because of my unique understanding and knowledge on bamboo. Apparently the world is hungry for bamboo experts. It's a similar story with permaculture. The world needs me for that as well...to advance that sanity. This must be a tired old story that has always been throughout all of the ages. That which is most important gets pushed to the margins, and hated...or at the very least ignored. Money is repelled by importance. The more important something is the less money is available for it.

I'm struck lately by how this works. What I'm doing is so important and yet I have to spend the majority of my time worried about acquiring money. It seems to me that if what I'm doing is so important then I should not be worried about money. If it's so important then where is all of the money that should be helping to advance these causes? It makes my life feel like a delusion.

I have been struggling lately to maintain a belief in purpose. My destiny is bamboo, and I'm starting to wonder if that's a good thing? My destiny is hated by the majority of our anti-culture. Out here on the furthest reaches of the margins, where even the marginal argue my cause...it is lonely. I've begun developing a hatred for my species and it's ignorance and stupidity. My vital energy has been declining. I'm growing tired of the fight.

Me too. However, we all make a series of decisions in life that require that we honor the good ones and learn not to repeat the bad ones as we live, observe and learn.

Nurturing the lives of those that depend on you is part of the package for you, as it is for me and Eddie. It ain't always a lot of fun, but it is part of your purpose in life. A horse drawing a cart with his family in it would be a type of metaphor for anybody that starts a family. It has become part of your responsibility to haul that cart.

RE says the main thing is to respect oneself. Well, I CANNOT DO THAT if I act irresponsibly. RE's argument to Eddie ignores the fact that being a provider is part and parcel of Eddie's self worth calculus, as it is mine and yours. We can't just ignore what we have contracted responsibly for. RE didn't make that contract, so he has, technically speaking, a lower threshold of physical requirements that he must meet to continue respecting himself.

LD, in regard to your purpose in permaculture work and bamboo growing efforts, I think what is getting you down is a low level of peer group acceptance (we all have to deal Maslow's hierarchy) from humans around you that you interpret correctly as lack of respect for your efforts on behalf of the biosphere.

Furthermore, you are keenly ware of the vital importance of those activities you engage in for the future of mankind in general and your offspring in particular.

Your anger at the willful and destructive ignorance of humans who do not value such activities, while they value highly some commercial baloney or feel good propaganda, is a logical and reasonable threat response being activated. The fact that you see that anger as being misanthropic is normal. When I first began to feel that way, I felt the same.

But now I realize that it is NOT because I "hate" those dummies that I get angry. On the contrary, it is because you (and I) CARE for them that you/we get angry.

True, nothing I said will make you feel any better. I know because I'm where you are quite often.

The only thing I recommend that may offer you some justification for everything you do that is good is considering what would happen if, all of a sudden, you weren't there?

You may, as I have often done, wish that you had never been born. But more likely, you will see, as I have also done when I thought about it for a while, all the BAD STUFF that would have happened if you were not there to prevent it from happening.

Therefore, my friend and brother, I ask you to do what is, and always has been, very hard for me to do. YET, somehow, I have managed to do it (see below).

AGelbert · « **Reply #109 on:** April 25, 2017, 07:43:18 pm »

Quote from: Eddie on April 25, 2017, 07:29:28 pm

Hear, hear!

AGelbert · « **Reply #110 on:** April 25, 2017, 10:54:12 pm »

Quote from: agelbert on April 25, 2017, 10:52:40 pm

Quote from: RE on April 25, 2017, 10:04:05 pm
Quote from: agelbert on April 25, 2017, 06:33:31 pm
RE didn't make that contract, so he has, technically speaking, a lower threshold of physical requirements that he must meet to continue respecting himself.

Actually, it's a higher threshold. A monast has nobody else to blame his shortcomings on, and nobody to comfort him and love him when he makes mistakes. Married people share these burdens, they don't have to bear them alone. It's why solitary individuals are far more likely to commit suicide. It's a much higher calling and more difficult path to follow than marriage.

RE

The perceived ability to pass the buck on perceived lack of success in marriage and family is an illusion. Yes, some people certainly do that. But single people can do that too with their peer group, society, etc.
Honest people, be they married or single, have the same principles.

I do agree with you that single people are more likely to off themselves. But this stat is unrelated to the ease, or lack of it, of providing food, shelter and clothing. It is simply due to the fact that humans are social beings wired to live, care for, and depend on, each other in social groups. Your ability to remain stable and at peace with your accomplishments or lack of them in your life is certainly more challenging when you rely only on yourself for assessing your value as a human.

All that said, the fact that you are single, does NOT mean you are not dependent on others for peer group acceptance. For you to claim that you need no moral support, or feel you are independent of the need to provide any, just ain't so. You HELPED LD because you CARE. That means you are LINKED emotionally to LD's success in life. You are, in effect, a PART of that social group, even though you live by yourself.

I'll go further. I'll say that, despite your claim to have an ego the size of Mount Everest, you would suffer from depression and lack of self esteem if LD failed in life. Your skin ain't all that thick, RE. And that is one of the reasons I remain your friend after having some heavy duty arguments with your over the years.

You hide it pretty well most of the time, but you are as much a slave of ethical behavior and the responsibility to treat others with respect as I have ever been. GOOD FOR YOU!

AGelbert · « **Reply #111 on:** April 26, 2017, 08:02:09 pm »

Knarf said,

Quote

So it matters not your station in life, but what you do with it.

AGelbert · « **Reply #112 on:** April 26, 2017, 08:05:17 pm »

Well, RE, while you are singing solitary man, I'll sing my song too!

https://youtu.be/kNjU-E0JjqE

AGelbert · « **Reply #113 on:** May 05, 2017, 08:41:44 pm »

You are not your body: Janine Shepherd at TEDxKC

https://youtu.be/bX32U_hfri4

Published on Oct 1, 2012

We often define ourselves by things that are "outside" us: relationships, work, family — even our own bodies. But what would it mean to have your life dramatically altered and your body irrevocably damaged? Who would you be then? This talk explores the impact of loss on the human psyche and the universal quest to find meaning and fulfillment. It is only through the process of losing everything we thought we needed that we find who we truly are.

BIOGRAPHY

Janine Shepherd is a walking paraplegic; she is also a qualified pilot and aerobatics instructor

, international speaker and author. Once voted as one of the world's most outstanding and inspirational people, Janine devotes her professional life to empowering others to overcome adversity.

www.janineshepherd.com

AGelbert · « **Reply #114 on:** May 18, 2017, 05:25:08 pm »

Quote from: jdwheeler42 on May 17, 2017, 09:32:22 pm

Quote from: agelbert on May 17, 2017, 04:39:15 pm
May God Bless you and your family and heal you of your afflictions, my friend.
Thank you very much for your sentiments. God has already blessed me greatly. I count well over 1000 people praying for me. I am also blessed, for now, to have health insurance that nominally pays 80% of my costs and in actuality is cutting my costs well over 95%. I am also blessed to live where I can get cancer treatment within daily commuting distance. I am also very blessed to have an extremely supportive family, especially my wife. I am also blessed to currently live in a functioning global economy where I can buy products like organic coconut oil to speed my healing. My afflictions pale in comparison.

You are most welcome.

You are a credit to a life well lived as a servant of God.

AGelbert · « **Reply #115 on:** June 30, 2017, 09:40:00 pm »

I See Dead People: Dreams and Visions of the Dying

Dr. Christopher Kerr | TEDxBuffalo

https://youtu.be/rbnBe-vXGQM

Published on Dec 2, 2015

Dr. Christopher Kerr speaks at a 2015 TEDx event Buffalo, New York.

Dr. Christopher W. Kerr is the Chief Medical Officer at The Center for Hospice and Palliative Care, where he has worked since 1999. His background in research has evolved from bench science towards the human experience of illness as witnessed from the bedside, specifically patients’ dreams and visions at the end of life.

Although medically ignored, these near universal experiences often provide comfort and meaning as well as insight into the life led and the death anticipated.

AGelbert · « **Reply #116 on:** August 10, 2017, 09:57:49 pm »

Quote from: RE on August 10, 2017, 02:59:04 am

I am super weak and can't focus my brain on anything. I do not think I will make it down to the Total Eclipse of the SUN☼ now.

I can't think of anything I want to write for the Diner anymore. That alone tells me I am on my way to the Great Beyond. I have some videos in the can I am going to try to get up on YouTube. My self-obituary is in the Drafts on the Blog. I sent out some additional copies of my Will earlier today to Eddie & K-Dog here on the Diner plus my friend Brian in Couer d'Alene, ID and my sister in Springfield MO.

As of right now, I am going to die in one of 4 places I shuffle/limp/crawl to around my digs. I make a little circle that goes from the Bed to the Throne in the Bathroom to my Office Chair to the Chair out on the porch where I go to smoke a Cancerette. I never got cancer though! Anyhow, as I said before, this is a good place to die. It was perfect for me these last 3 years in retirement.

I am not going to go to hospital now. My medicaid was cut off for some unknown reason and my medicare doesn't kick in until Sep 1st. I'm not going to have my Nest Egg for SUN☼ eaten up by the sick care industry in a stupid attempt to keep this broken meat package ticking for another day. I don't want to live inside it anymore anyhow.

I know I have been even more insufferable than usual over the last few weeks. The process of dying kind of irritates you. My apologies for this. I do wish all the Diners all the best as Collapse makes its inexorable progress forward. I'll keep my eye on all of you from my new perch on the 50 yard line of the Great Beyond.

SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE

RE

Dedicated to my Friend RE.

I too am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean. a vapor in the wind. Still, God hears me when I'm calling, and it is my prayer that He will hear you too.

https://youtu.be/NWeEYKqAdQ8

AGelbert · « **Reply #117 on:** August 11, 2017, 01:33:30 pm »

Quote from: RE on August 10, 2017, 10:00:40 pm

Quote from: agelbert on August 10, 2017, 09:46:29 pm
Quote from: RE on August 10, 2017, 02:59:04 am
I am super weak and can't focus my brain on anything. I do not think I will make it down to the Total Eclipse of the SUN☼ now.

I can't think of anything I want to write for the Diner anymore. That alone tells me I am on my way to the Great Beyond. I have some videos in the can I am going to try to get up on YouTube. My self-obituary is in the Drafts on the Blog. I sent out some additional copies of my Will earlier today to Eddie & K-Dog here on the Diner plus my friend Brian in Couer d'Alene, ID and my sister in Springfield MO.

As of right now, I am going to die in one of 4 places I shuffle/limp/crawl to around my digs. I make a little circle that goes from the Bed to the Throne in the Bathroom to my Office Chair to the Chair out on the porch where I go to smoke a Cancerette. I never got cancer though! :icon_sunny: Anyhow, as I said before, this is a good place to die. It was perfect for me these last 3 years in retirement.

I am not going to go to hospital now. My medicaid was cut off for some unknown reason and my medicare doesn't kick in until Sep 1st. I'm not going to have my Nest Egg for SUN☼ eaten up by the sick care industry in a stupid attempt to keep this broken meat package ticking for another day. I don't want to live inside it anymore anyhow.

I know I have been even more insufferable than usual over the last few weeks. The process of dying kind of irritates you. My apologies for this. I do wish all the Diners all the best as Collapse makes its inexorable progress forward. I'll keep my eye on all of you from my new perch on the 50 yard line of the Great Beyond.

SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE

RE

Dedicated to my Friend RE.

I too am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean. a vapor in the wind. Still, God hears me when I'm calling, and it is my prayer that He will hear you too.

https://youtu.be/NWeEYKqAdQ8

Thanks AG. Your friendship means a lot to me.

I may still make it through this episode, and perhaps the long saga of the Diner will continue a bit longer. We'll see.

RE

You are welcome, bro. At any rate, neither of us is going to be around in the valley of tears much longer. So, though we have much to daily be thankfull for in this life, it is prudent to live each day as if it may be the end of this short experience and the beginning of a much better experience (see below).

https://youtu.be/wBxoqZ_GlE8

AGelbert · « **Reply #118 on:** August 11, 2017, 07:31:11 pm »

Quote from: RE on August 11, 2017, 06:51:50 pm

Quote from: agelbert on August 11, 2017, 01:49:18 pm
RE,
I want to touch base with you on cogntive issues. I am having a lot of toruble speeling words that I am well acquainted with. It seems like a form of dyslexia or the beginning of Parkinsosn. I don't know but I'm making more and moe mistakes on the keyboard too. I mean, how many times do I have to write common words like "believe" and "neither" and "weird", etc. to stop having to think about whetehr I am spelling them right? :icon_scratch:

In short, I am having cognitive problems.

Is that how it is with you, or is it ti totally different?

No, I'm not having trouble spelling as far as I can tell although my keyboard speed is much slower. It's more a short term memory issue. I will get up from my chair to go do something, but then before I do it I have forgotten what I wanted to do. So then I go back and sit down and a few minutes later it comes back to me. Then I get up again to do it and forget again. Rinse & Repeat.

Then I have developed this huge fear of misplacing or losing my keys, phone and wallet. I don't want to go anywhere because I think I will forget one of them. I had an episode at Home Depot when I got back to my car to go home I couldn't find my keys in the pocket I usually store keys when out and about, and I panicked. I tapped all my other pockets and they didn't seem to be there either. I was about to go back into HD to have them search the store or call a locksmith to get me into the vehicle. I have another key stored inside. But then at the last minute I found the keys in a little pocket I don't usually use in my sweatshirt. PHEW!

Other than that, the issues are more physical than mental. Every little task is exhausting. Stuff like cutting up the veggies took ages because I keep having to go sit down to rest. I don't want to get out of my chair to do anything.

Also, nothing gives me any pleasure anymore, not eating or drinking or smoking. In fact all of them are chores I don't want to do also.

Excretion is a chore. Fortunately, I still wake up when the call of nature comes so I don't wet the bed, but then I have to drag myself from the bed to the throne. Then on the other side, when I get the call of nature there, I have maybe 30 seconds to make it to the throne or there will be poopy pants.

All in all, this is a very unpleasant way to live.

RE

I agree those are VERY unpleasant experiences. Thanks for the info. I didn't mention it, but I have similar short term memory problems, though not more than once a week or so. It is very frustrating. I have a timer software clock to remind me of paying bills and updating passwords and such. That helps somewhat. I'm still walking on the treadmill five days a week and still do enjoy the taste of food. I am also relatively pain free.

But if my mind goes

, what good is health? The upside is, of course, that if my mind goes, past a certain point, I won't even know it.

But then I would be a huge burden for my wife.

I've told her that if that happens, just put a harness on me and a leash to keep me out of trouble!

AGelbert · « **Reply #119 on:** August 14, 2017, 05:04:55 pm »

Agelbert Note: A fascinating trip to the other side and back.

Kimberly Sharp - Beyond the Body but not Over the Line: NDEs and OBEs

Quote

"Where Mountains met Water."

https://youtu.be/CEo_b-a8XUA

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