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by Brent Kellogg  See photo

Stop the Medicare premium increase!

SATURDAY, 06.28.08 - Something happened on Tuesday.

My checking account is set so that if the balance gets critically low, the bank sends out an email alert.

It was too set to alert when Gail's payroll check was deposited, and since she lost her job in January, I hadn't changed the settings.

So on Tuesday when an alert came in about a significant deposit amount, I logged in to see where the money could have come from.

A deposit from Social Security very near to the amount we understood Gail's benefit would be once her application was approved. But there was no official letter from the SS in advance of the deposit. Could it have been a mistake? The SS doesn't just deposit money into people's accounts, does it?

So skeptical, I checked the next day to see if the mistake had been caught and the money removed. On Thursday the money was still there. But how could it be? SS couldn't have approved Gail within the span of 23-days could it?

It could!

The official "award" letter came yesterday. I love how they call getting your own money back an award. For what? Living long enough to collect it? Getting cancer?

Having never seen the government act so fast. I was stunned. Gail's doctor had said all along he's never had one patient who applied be denied, and that most are approved thanks to the "new" Social Security and it's "fast track" to get cancer victims back on their feet.

I'm not complaining.

We were so close to foreclosure I was making contingency plans. Looking at the dog, I wondered how we'd be able to take Lucky with us wherever we wound up, and had sworn an oath to myself to live on the street if that was the only way to keep Lucky with me. Those of you with animals can understand that, but recall this is a dog who may have saved my life a few years ago.

In short, that SS came through for Gail so fast has literally saved us. Almost overnight we have gone from grave depression to elation. The first thing we did was to pay the regular bills, then the smaller medical bills, and then we bought some food - and some gas for the Ford!

That old saying, you don't know what you got until it's gone, is so true.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the readers of this page who helped us. It was only because of you that we didn't go bust long ago.

Plus, yesterday, Gail's radiation doctor showed her time-lapse images which show that the radiation is killing the cancer cells. She may never again be her old self, but Gail is expected to live and that's the really good news.

So, with this new lease on life, I decided to reward myself by taking a day off from the news yesterday. There wasn't much going on anyway that can't be caught up with on Monday which is when I should be back here.

Enjoy your weekend!

 
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Brent's morning coffee courtesy of Speeder & Earls, Burlington, VT.