Clay's Blog

| Reality Check ~ Working and Poor in the USA!

Clayton Bruster — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:43:25 +0000

For those interested in learning more about this, see the websites of Interfaith Worker Justice, the National Employment Law Project, and the National Jobs for All Coalition.Bill Quigley is a professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans and Associate Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. He can be reached at: quigley77@gmail.com. Read other articles by Bill.

via | Reality Check ~ Working and Poor in the USA!.

SSI SSDI & Cataract Surgery

Clayton Bruster — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:53:31 +0000

So it appears I’ve got my social security locked in Retro to June 4th 2010. Still fighting for the disability component. Have 30 days to submit more proof dating back to 2006.

Opthalmology at Olive View my left eye is healing nicely so they’re trying to schedule the right eye in the next 30 days. Woot Woot!

2011 in review

Clayton Bruster — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:59:55 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,600 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 27 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Vision and Disability

Clayton Bruster — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 05:17:03 +0000

It’s now confirmed the my Disability hearing is January 4, 2012. I hope this judge doesn’t get confused. I found out all you need for disability is severe chronic asthma! Hell, I’ve had that since I was a kid. It’s become much worse now especially with the added Interstitial Lung Disease and Pulmonary Fibrosis. The black outs (syncope) is still going on and the memory loss, light headedness and confusion is also still going. I also still make noise when I breathe and get out of breath really quickly. If that isn’t enough, add the type II insulin dependent diabetes, chronic kidney disease stage III, angina and a few other less critical problems. I’ll also be hitting 60 in February. This should have gone through the first time, it damn well better go through this time or I will dedicate the rest of my life to topple this greedy and corrupt Government.

I had my surgery on my left eye done on Tuesday, November 29th, 2011. I can now see with my left eye. Still not 20/20 but hoping it gets better. Look out world, I’m coming back. Sometime after the first of the year, you’ll start seeing some art from me again.

Social Security Disability Hearing

Clayton Bruster — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:21:43 +0000

I was scheduled for my hearing for an appeal of my disability decision on October 5, 2011 at noon. Despite standing in the rain for over an hour with three bags of medications and medical machines waiting on a late Access Paratransit to pick me up, I did get there in time. Court was 12 noon and I was there before 11 as my attorney requested. He was right on time and we went into a small conference room to discuss “things”. Well time rolled on to 12:30 and someone came out and said they were going to reschedule the hearing. So now I have no idea when I will be able to get my case heard.

My lawyer did tell me that once your original case is rejected, the first hearing afterward usually has a 80 to 90 percent denial again. He said my case is what they call a prototype case where we bypass that second rejection and now we are on the next step.

Sharon who had told me previously that she would be willing to testify at this hearing told me she couldn’t get off work. Part of the reason might be because the lawyer didn’t tell me anything about wanting her there 36 hours before the hearing. He wants me to try again when they set the new date with more warning. If she refuses again she will be out of my address book and on my brown list.

Here I am, in Hacienda Heights California

Clayton Bruster — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:59:01 +0000

Been about a month since I posted so I need to get on the stick and be more consistent here. OK, so you know I’m almost blind and they won’t do the cataract surgery on me because they say I’m too high of risk with my breathing, throat and vocal chord problems. If I can get the ENT to sign off next month that they have “maximized” me, meaning there is nothing else they can do for my breathing or vocal chords, then they will reconsider and have set a tentative surgery date for May 25, 2012. If I get it and if I have to wait that long that makes it over three years I’ve been waiting to see again. Eyes, as is typical with cataracts are still getting worse. I see huge black floaters pretty much all the time. Sometimes they startle me cause they are so big and they look like a shadow when they come floating in. I have been told i you wait too long the damage can be irreparable. Really hoping that’;s not me. I’m not going to be much of a photographer or artist if I’m blind.

I have moved into my new place with a years lease and I love it here in Hacienda Heights California. Gated community and heads of house must be 55 or older and no tenants under 18. So peaceful and quiet. Still need to get everything out of storage here though.

more to come…

Long Time Gone

Clayton Bruster — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:09:27 +0000

Wow, can’t believe it’s been this long since I have posted here. I’m in a program now called Access to Housing for Health. They helped me get a County section 8 voucher and I am moving onto my new place in Hacienda Heights California next Tuesday. Hey, could really use some help btw.

On another note: I have been waiting over two years for cataract surgery and it finally got scheduled for October. I went in yesterday to see the anasthesiologist and was told I was high risk because of my breathing problems and cancelled till I can get the ENT to sign off that there is nothing more they can do. At that point they will reschedule the surgery and treat it as a high risk surgical procedure.

I’ll write more later but that brings you up to date. I still have no internet but just got an app for my phone to manage my blog. Have a great weekend and make it memorable by paying it forward and making it memorable for others too.

I’m writing this from motel room in Van Nuys California.

As of Today

Clayton Bruster — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:08:10 +0000

Things appear to be coming together slowly but surely. I was dealing with Independent Living Center yesterday. They are a group setup to help and support disabled people. They are working on getting me my hearing aids. They were trying to figure out my health care and insurance, which I have also been trying to figure out for years. Well, it appears she got Medi-Cal motivated enough to take me off of the pending list and get it put through. They said I should have my card in a couple of weeks. Woo Hoo! Now, my Clinical Social Worker was working on trying to get me into a program for housing for the chronic health problem population and I have that appointment on Friday this week. This would get me into subsidized housing and I would have my own place with the rent based on my income. All this is great but I have had so many disappointments in the past year (actually over 10 years) that I am skeptical and not going to count my chickens before they hatch. Meantime I still need to pay my storage and my phone bill. $119 and $60 respectively. This is all great news and makes me very happy but still worried about it all coming into fruition and my bills this month. Please keep me in your prayers.

I also have doctor appointment today.

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What Really Happened in Washington

Clayton Bruster — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:52:59 +0000

I was homeless in Los Angeles and Deb (Debbie Walke-Ciappara), someone I had known online for almost 7 years and helped with her photography sent me a $135 bus ticket to come to her in Sumas Washington. From the time we got to the apartment everyone was very nice but when ever it was just Deb and me, she would bitch like mad about Gus and Mark. Calling them every name in the book. Then the furniture and tv’s almost everything but the kitchen table and Deb’s laptop and the DVD player got repossessed. Deb and I were talking about opening a studio together and of course, Deb wanted me to teach her photography and PhotoShop and Asset Management while I was there. Her settlement was not going through and things were getting shut off, electricity, Internet and so on. I had just spent the last of my food stamps at the grocery store when Deb decided she was taking me to the hospital and deserting me there. Then after about 4 days I ended up in streets of Bellingham Washingham having not eaten all day and no money. It was cold and raining and all I had was my hoodie from California and Deb knew this. She would not bring my medicine nothing. Well, I was found about about 6 am the next morning laying on the sidewalk of Bellingham unconcious and in a diabetic Coma. I woke up about 14 hours later still unable to move much. It was another 24 hours before I could really move much. They said my sugar was in the twenties so I was basically brain dead and they had a hard time getting my body to take the sugar, it was fighting for some reason. While waiting for being dismissed again. Deb texted me and apologized and said she just flipped out with Mark constantly bitching because I was there and Gus constantly bitching because I was there and Mark was there.

It was a strange situation when I got there. Mark is Debbie’s husband that can’t go back to New York because he beat the shit out of Deb and has a protection order filed against him so they moved to Sumas Washington, where Mark, again proceeded to beat the shit out of Deb and got another protection order. Well, Deb couldn’t stand for Mark to be on the street and Mark convinced her it was her fault he beat the shit out of her so she was hiding him in her house, the one he was ordered to stay away from. Now there is Gus, Debbie’s boyfriend. A very soft spoken computerfile. He was constantly bitching about both Mark and me being there and Deb was constantly bitching about both Gus and Mark being there. Mark, well, Mark was just constantly bitching. It was sort of like living in hell. I was so excited about getting a ticket to get home again and away from that oppressive and angry environment. Now, twice Deb apologized to me for bitching about Gus and Mark so much and twice I forgave her only to be hurt again.

OK, well Debbie picked me up from the hospital and said everything was cool at the house. But then, on the way home in the car, she added to it. She said don’t talk to Mark or even acknowledge him. Well, Now I know Mark is unbalanced on the lithium again and ready to fight again. Geesh! What in Gods name did I set my self up for? So for a few days I managed to avoid the fighting hate monger. By this time, Deb some how managed to get the protection order dropped against Mark in Washington so he as making his presence known since he no longer had to hide.

I had $40, enough to pay for Gas to get to Seattle, which is where you’ll remember Ed suggested was the best place to catch the train. Well, I figured when the money from Mary got there, I would ask again if they would take me to Seattle to catch the train and shut up about that. Then Deb checks the price of the train, and the train from Bellingham had now gone up to over $150, the amount Mary sent me that nobody has seen yet. So she absolutely blew up and started screaming and I continued to sit in my chair working on the website for Artist Mommas. Then Mark came flying out of his room saying he was going to beat the shit out of me, all the while I’m sitting there trying to figure out what the hell what is going on. Gus and Deb caught Mark just as he was entering the kitchen where I was and pushed him back into his room as I dialed 911 because of the physical threat of violence. As soon as the police got there, Deb pushed them outside despite the fact I called them and then they came in and told me to pack my things I needed to leave there. Never even asked about Mark and being threatened so once again Deb protected her man. Or was Gus her man, I still don’t know. She told me she hated them both and wanted them both to go away and us to start a studio. So right now, I’m still trying to figure out what the hell happened.

Oh yeh, mean while, Mistic Butler, Barbara Butler, Blue Mystic Ice or Mystic Butler (what ever she is going by now) has been doing her best to get me to come to Massachusetts with her. I mean, trying real hard. But I told her it would take thousands of dollars to get me there and I was trying to get enough money to get to Los Angeles again and that’s less than $150. it turns out she had been leading me on for quite some time, evening buying some of my work to convince me she was good friend. Now I have reported her and Deb both for Harassment and Cyber-bullying on the Internet and Facebook to the police and the FBI.

My Night on the Streets of Bellingham

Clayton Bruster — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:49:10 +0000

OK, so the night I was released from Bellingham Hospital for my breathing, the taxied me to the city mission. Well anyone who knows me knows my biggest breathing trigger is cigarette smoke. I could not get near the door. I walk around that night trying to stay warm. I didn’t have much lunch and no supper before being dismissed. I remember trying to text Sheila and just couldn’t figure out how to use the phone. They found me some time after 5 am unconscious with my sugar level in the twenties. I woke up sometime that night in the ER, moving me around with hoists in the ceiling. I still couldn’t sit up. Some time the next day I start getting over the extreme lathargia. That was scary. OK, so I’m through that now and trying to get back to Los Angeles to see if I still have some health care there.