Social Security Benefit 2016

There was no increase in the cost of living during the past year based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the Department of Labor.

[The CPI is the Federal government’s official measure used to calculate cost of living increases.]

Social Security Benefit will stay the same in 2016!!!

For more information about Social Security please check out: www.socialsecurity.gov for more information about Social Security.

• Call us toll-free at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) if you have questions. If you speak Spanish; press 7. For other languages, wait until we answer, and then ask for an interpreter.

• Contact your local Social Security office, or contact any United States embassy or consulate office when outside the United States.

For information about Medicare contact:

www.sociaisecurity.gov/mediinfo.htm

or call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778).

• If you do not sign up for Medicare Part B (medical insurance) when you are first eligible, or if you cancel Part B and then get it later, you may have to pay a late enrollment penalty for as long as you have Part B.

• For questions about Medicare coverage. Visit: www.Medicare.gov or call

1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) (TTY 1-877-486-2048).

• The Extra Help program may help pay the costs of a Medicare prescription drug plan for people with limited income and resources. Costs include premiums, deductibles, and co-payments. You can apply online at:www.socialsecurity.gov/extrahelp or call

Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778).

• The Medicare Savings Programs may help pay the costs of Medicare hospital and medical insurance for people with limited income and resources. You can start the application process when you apply for Extra Help or you can contact your State or local medical assistance (Medicaid) office.

Curb Cuts Do We Need Them?

In this blog all pictures were provided by Google maps. Google maps is located at www.google.com/maps.

While on a public transit bus sitting in my Quickie QM-710 Power Chair,  going eastbound on Rosecrans Avenue. I got off the bus on the south east side of Rosecrans at Crenshaw Boulevard.Curb Cut Picture 4A 08032015 at 2.53.45 PM

On the corner where I needed to cross the street at Rosecrans and Crenshaw Boulevard there was no curb cut as indicated by the red square, to get to the north west side of Crenshaw Boulevard to the bus stop. To wait for the next southbound bus on Crenshaw Boulevard. What I had to do was to use a driveway apron to get down into the street in order to cross Rosecrans Boulevard. This is indicated with a green square around it in the picture that shows a red square around the corner where there is no curb cut. All of the other corners had curb cuts in them as indicated with a green square.

Curb Cut Picture 4B 08032015 at 2.55.51 PM

Curb Cut Picture 4C 08032015 at 3.00.08 PMThe pictures with a blue square in them indicates the bus stops that are used in this trip.

Curb Cut Picture 4D-08032015 at 3.05.46 PM

Does the corner indicated by the Red Square where there is no curb cut and the driveway apron indicated with a green square is close to one another does this meet the ADA requirements for reasonable accessibility?

When using a driveway apron instead of a curb cut you really have to watch trucks, cars & motorcycles making a right turn because they do not expect a person in a wheelchair to be there.

Times are Changing!!

As you know in the past the TV Land has removed The Cosby Show from their program line up.

Recently on May 22, 2015 The Learning Channel [TLC] has removed the reality television show 19 Kids and Counting from their program line up.

Is this going to be a new trend in television programs?

What television show is going to be next?

What is on your Mind?

Now that Gov. Jerry Brown orders a 25% Mandatory water restrictions in the state of California. When will Golden State Water Company raise their rates to offset this mandatory 25% water restriction?

The Farmville 2 playing field will not expand to a full screen, on my computer!! At Zynga who do I need to contact about this?

US Postal Service is raising the rate for a first-class stamp to $0.49, starting January 26, 2014. This will be the last Sunday in January.

I am very glad to hear that Kobe Bryant’s contract with the Los Angeles Lakers has been extended for another  2 years.

 

Dr. Jeremiah Aguolu is very slow in refilling prescriptions. It took me one week to have a prescription refilled. In the past I’ve had to wait about one hour after my original appointment time to see Dr. Jeremiah Aguolu.

 Dr. Jeremiah Aguolu office is located in the city of Lawndale, California.

.

There has been no raise in Social Security Benefits since the year 2009. The last raise was in the year 2008.

The cost of food and utilities [water, electricity and gas] are on the rise.

 

 

Please keep it clean!!
Be respectful.
No verbal abuse!!

My Horror Story, A Former Client of Westside Regional Center

 The Regional Centers within the state of California work with so-called people with disabilities, however their services are geared more for the mentally retarded.

In the past, I was a client of Westside Regional Center. The service coordinators would write up a report on the clients which was called a Individual Program Plan, also known as an IPP. For my first IPP meeting we met at a McDonald’s on La Tijera Boulevard. At my IPP meeting I tried to talk to these people on a professional, intelligent level. This Service Coordinator wanted to know why the caregiver was terminated, I tried to explain to the Service Coordinator that for the last couple of months the caregiver would arrive to my house late. All the Service Coordinator was interested in finding out is if I was sexually attracted to the caregiver. This Service Coordinator was trying to find out if I was trying to get in the pants of the caregiver. I told her “NO” that could be considered sexual harassment and ‘verbal abuse. The Service Coordinator said, a lot of people who have a disability who sometimes dose not get out in their community a lot, might find someone who comes into their house to perform a service [cleaning or preparing meals] they, the person with a disability might find them to be “attractive.” Because of this Service Coordinator, the vendor lost the contract and a lot of people lost their jobs. This service coordinator might have been jealous of the caregiver?

With the bad economy that we are in, this service coordinator did a great thing by cutting back on services. Other service coordinators should use this as a good example to cut back on services to their consumers/clients.

My second service coordinator:

The Service Coordinator wrote “As other SC prior to this SC also mentioned the Harold that his home was very unkept and needed a lot of cleaning. Harold stated that.he understands that perhaps his home is a dirty but it’s his choice to live in this environment and no one has the right to tell him how to live.” It is not really my choice to live like this, I just deal with it. This service coordinator has the director wrapped around their little finger!!

I have gone through quite a few service coordinators from Westside Regional Center. One day I had an appointment to go in and meet with my service coordinator. I left my house about two hours before my appointment time, while I was in route on the bus to my appointment my service coordinator called and left me a message, that they would not be in on this day. My personal attendant said that they would meet me at Westside Regional Center for this meeting. When we arrived at West side Regional Center my personal attendant and I went in and announced that we were here for my semiannual meeting. That is when we were told that my Service Coordinator had called in sick. We met with the service coordinator of the day, this was a very big mistake. This Service Coordinator was very rude and very disrespectful to me, because I was a Caucasian man sitting in an electric wheelchair. I would ask this service coordinator a question they would turn away from me ignoring me and answer to the personal attendant. This went on for a bout 2 or 3 times, then I told this service coordinator that I am the client and you need to talk to me. This Service Coordinator still refused to talk to me. I went over to the receptionist and ask them to please call the director to come down here now!! When the director of Westside Regional Center came into the room, I explained to the director, that this service coordinator was refusing to talk to me. The director of Westside Regional Center forced this service coordinator to talk to me. This service coordinator started perspiring, I thought that he was going to have a heart attack because he had to talk to me. I thought to myself, if this person does not like talking to people with disabilities then they should not be in this industry. Did the director violate the civil rights of this service coordinator by forcing them to talk to me?

My next service coordinator explained to me that it would cost me about $100.00 per month for someone to come out to clean my house. I explained to the service coordinator that since the year 2008 my eBay business has been very slow and I have not made enough money on it to pay out $100.00 per month for someone to come in and clean my house.

Someone from Westside Regional Center told a caregiver that I could not  feed myself or communicate. No one from Westside Regional Center called to tell me that they were going to send out a caregiver to feed me and teach me how to communicate. Maybe Westside Regional Center needs to hire this caregiver to teach the service coordinators how to communicate with their consumers/clients. This caregiver made an appointment to meet with me at 2 PM at my house. I waited around at my house for about two hours for the caregiver to come out, they never showed up so when they called me back I was tired of waiting for them so I told them to meet me down at a fast food restaurant. I arrived at the fast food restaurant the caregiver was not there, so I went ahead and ordered my meal. I started eating my meal and was feeding myself when the caregiver came in to the restaurant. The caregiver started to watch me feed myself, they did not tell me that it was their job feed me and they shoved a napkin in my mouth without telling me what they were doing. I ask the caregiver if they wanted anything to eat or drink, for themselves. Then I gave them my gift card to pay for it. The caregiver was very nervous about ordering anything to drink or eat. I went over to the counter to try and figure out what this caregiver wanted, I explain to the order taker to order whatever they caregiver wanted and I would pay for it. This caregiver was very surprised that I could feed myself speak english and comprehend english. Westside Regional Center expected this caregiver to feed me three meals a day teach me how to communicate all on 20 hours per month. It looks like Westside Regional Center might be operating a slave labor camp. Whenever we arrived back at my house the caregiver started asking me a lot of personal questions a bout my parents medical history and medical history of my sister. I asked the caregiver why they needed to know the medical history of my parents and my sister? The caregiver refused to answer my question. I also asked the caregiver who at Westside Regional Center  told them that I could not feed myself or communicate. The caregiver again refused to answer my questions. This caregiver explained to me that I need to hire someone to come in and clean my house. I explained to this caregiver that my eBay business has been very slow since the year 2008 and I do not have enough money to justify having someone come in to clean my house. By this time I was getting to be very upset about all of this. I can see now that the  paid employees at Westside Regional Center and their vendors are used to working with mentally retarded people, people who cannot feed themselves or communicate.

It is very difficult to get a straight answer from anyone at Westside Regional Center.

Westside Regional Center cannot be responsible for the actions of their paid employees or their vendors. It looks like that the paid employees of Westside Regional Center walk all over the management. The paid employees of Westside Regional Center are not good team players at all. The paid employees of Westside Regional Center are professionally trained college educated. I hope that First Lady Michelle Obama does not find out about the bad service that I received from Westside Regional Center.

Paid employees of Westside Regional Center are trained professionals with a college education. The question is, what college degree do these paid employees have?

The services that Westside Regional Center offers are Free!!

For more information you may please call: 1-310-258-4000 or email at: info@westsiderc.org.

I hope that someone from Facebook reads this blog?

I look forward to reading everyone’s comments on this blog!!

Free Toilet

California is now in a drought.

In the past I received a free  flapperless 1.6 gallon flush toilet from my local water company.

Liquid waste goes through on one flush. Solid waste goes through on 2-4 flushes or more. After 4 flushes I stopped counting on the amount of flushes it takes. Maybe the water company will not raise my water bill because of this?

With the bad economy that were in, this might be looked at as job security for the paid employees of the local water company.

I look forward to reading a lot of comments about this!!

Apple’s IPad 2 & Google Chrome

When I use Google Chrome on my IPad 2 and I want to print out information from a webpage I have to copy the URL [web address] over to their competitor Safari. Safari photoInfo 03222013

Please note the information circled in red.

Then I’m able to print out part of that webpage or send it out as an e-mail.

IPhoto Right Side 03222013

Or I can take a picture, screenshot of the webpage then it goes to the IPhoto and I can print out the picture, screenshot or send it out as an e-mail.

 

 

Raising Money!!

The place to be for raising money is Los Angeles County California.

The different fundraising organizations have done an excellent job in raising over 4.6 million dollars for the reelection of President Obama.