So today, What a day. Let's try and break it down.
About 6:30am I wake up, it's a beautiful day, my spine has seized into a solid unmoving mass from L4 to S2 and getting out of bed requires no less than 30 minutes of agonizing fucking wonder.
After some unpleasant grunts and groans and more pain, I'm dressed, thanks muchly to the role of my girlfriend who's assistance was invaluable.
7:45am - My friend arrives to pick me up, my recent relapse has made getting behind the wheel of my car a relative impossibility. His large van makes for much more pleasant travel.
7:55am - We arrive at the college, I gimp my way on my crutch to the health office, to deliver unto the nurse an updated report on my condition from my doctor, once again asserting my inability to participate in PE classes (And what the fuck college requires you to take PE any goddamn way.)
8:01am - I hand the notice to the nurse practitioner and I speak the holy words, "This is an updated script from my doctor, as of friday, due to your overturning of my last doctor's decision I have had nearly a 100% relapse of my condition, and I'd like to thank you for that." and I turn around, and begin to hobble away on my crutch. She begins to scream at me, about how it's "Not her fault" and "You have a disability" and then, having successfully baited me into turning around to respond. "Yes, I have a disability, which you chose to ignore when forcing me into this class when you knew I wasn't capable of performing it without further injury. So, in fact, it IS your fault, as my only option was to attempt to comply with your demands, or not get my degree in december." Three words into this statement, which I assure you, was calm-voiced and relaxed (counterpoint to her screaming at me angrily) she calls security.
8:04am - Three, yes, THREE 3 tres, a fucking TRIO of big, beefy, stick and flashlight bearing security guards (campus safety, what the fuck ever) come marching into the health office to take up position directly behind me. During this time, I have remained calm, and the nurse is now full-out fucking HYSTERICAL yelling at me, trying to rationalize what I can only assume is her guilt (read: fear of getting sued) over my exacerbated condition. I noticed, of course, three large men behind me with the threat of violence on their breath and raw primal pheromones from their under-deodourized armpits promising me a world of new pain. And I comment, while leaning heavily on my crutch, further obviating that I am incapable of doing much of anything in my condition, "It takes three big men with sticks to handle a cripple these days?" They showed genuine discomfort at my exposure of their intent to do harm to a defenseless man.
DING! Light goes off, my business here was done minutes ago, I said what I'd needed to say, and was ready to move on, but was BAITED, oh that evil bitch, she put the bait out, and I'm the dumb fucking sucker that bit. So I said, "I'm done with you. Goodbye." And walked out.
8:10am - I sit down on a bench to let my spine try and recover from the extended period of standing, and once again curse the Physician's Assistant who repeatedly tells me that I cannot have anything for the pain because I'm too young to risk getting addicted to pain killers. Beyond the fact that not too many years ago I was deep into drugs that make darvocet and hydrocodone look like flinstones vitamins, I just curse her stupidity, and my lack of a voice when it came time to remind her that NYS laws dictate that I cannot be refused treatment, esp. pain relief, make a mental note to make a new appointment with said Physician's Assistant's overseeing M.D.
We break from the timeline for a moment. For anyone who doesn't know, I suffered a serious spinal injury while I was a truck driver, effectively ending my career behind the wheel of said 40-ton weapon. It was revealed after that, that I would never recover, because I have degenerative disc disease (something I'd never heard of) and that my condition will only worsen over the years and the damaged discs will eventually become dessicated and inflexible, and eventually I will likely be unable to walk. I have been fighting workers' comp. for nearly 3 years now, seen more doctors than I care to remember, all of them with the same grim prognosis, and refusal to give me anything for the pain. I am not a surgical candidate and any attempts to perform surgery would likely result in my death, or permanent paralysis (if I can't feel my own dick, I don't wanna live, so fuck that.)
9:30am - I've been sitting in my ceramics class (which doesn't begin until 10am) working on a new sculpture for about 30 minutes now. My phone rings, clay-covered hands fish it out of my pocket. It's my neighbor, informing me that some creepy guy with a speech impediment and a pickup truck is demanding that my car be moved from my driveway so that he can drop a dumpster out back (apparently he owns the house in the rear) when I inform him, proxied through my neighbor, that I am unable to do so, and will not be home until 5pm, he informs me that the driveway "Is MAH PRAH PARR TEE AND I BEEN LETTIN YOU SUMMABITCHN KIDS PARK HERE FOR FREE" and mumbles off into incoherence. I am aware that the driveway is in fact within the property lines of my landlady, and tell him he'll just have to wait, and that should he feel the need to speak with my landlady to get into the specifics of property, that's his prerogative.
9:40am - Another phone call, there is now a tow truck, backed up to the rear-end of my FRONT WHEEL DRIVE car, ready to tow me, out of my own driveway. I tell the tow truck guy, through my neighbor, that the man who called him does not in fact own the property on which my car is parked, and his tow is illegal, but if he really wants to push the issue, i've got a friend willing to drive my girlfriend down there to move the car. He says "Too late, not my problem." and tows my car.
9:45am - Good Officer Somebody (Can't be arsed to remember his name) informs me that they don't deal with private property issues, and regardless of who owns the property, they can't get involved with the situation, that it's out of their hands. So without having to present evidence of ownership, yes, you can have someone's vehicle removed from their own driveway.
I make a mental note of this as well. Apparently I can drive over to Officer Risi (a cop with whom I am unpleasantly aquainted) and have his car towed from "MAH PRAH PARTEE!" without presenting proof of ownership of the property, and there's nothing the police can do about it. But moving on.
9:46am - The security guards come down to take a statement on my side of what happened, and I give it to them, word-for-word from my arrival to theirs. Also I ask them to make a note that while she was hysterically screaming (at a cripple) I remained calm and unthreatening, hence her calling them was obviously a ploy to escalate the situation into something dramatic and their presence was obviously un-neccesary, which they agree with. I inform them that I will be speaking with Dr. (Name deleted) the Dean-of-Students, as I have an appointment with him Friday, and will be lodging a formal complaint of misconduct and discrimination against the nurse.
12:45pm - My friend's class is over, mine has been over since noon, and a whole slew of my pottery and clay sculpture are being loaded into the kiln for a firing - the first good news all day. I am then driven to my Chiropractor's office, and I retrieve the form I will need for my Workers' Comp. hearing.
1:58pm - I am early for my comp. hearing and get the opportunity to chat with my attourney's comp. specialist about what we can do about some missed payments and other grievances, and he says he'll get it sorted. Also, because of some bullshit paper trail thing that the insurance company failed to comply with, my weekly comp. rate will be bumped up, tentatively, so, more good news.
2:05pm - I am again staggered at how much of my comp. case is handled before we ever have to sit down before the judge. The details come out so fast and furious in lawyer-jargon that I don't understand much of anything except the part where it clarifies a pay increase for YT[sup][sup]*[/sup][/sup]. I am then sworn in, and testify with single word responses that I am in fact, (Name Deleted) and that I am 26 years old, and that I am disabled, and that I have not worked since december...whatever, of last year (the date of my last hearing)
2:10pm - Back in the van, and rolling like a candy kid at a shitty garage rave. Turns out, my friend who is driving knows the man who owns the towing company. So we head on over there...
3:00pm - Arrive at the towing company, as my landlady is also calling said towning company, they assure me that they will release my car to me today, by 5pm (this never happened) but that they couldn't release it until someone paid, since this guy called for the tow, and since the tow was found to be unlawful, it has to be this guy who pays. I remove some things that I need from my car and I go home.
The day goes on uneventfully from there, and I am still without a car.
So, I guess new idea for a mindfuck, having people towed out of their own driveway.
