Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Why do some people feel that being handicapped is a privilege to take advantage of?

Today as many may have guessed from my title that we had left the compound and wandered into the other world of a society with many wonders… that at times may boggle one's mind…

I had my follow up eye doc appointment to see if I could see with some operative intervention to repair the very large cataract (thanks to high doses of steroids, for that I am pretty sure!) now encompassing my optic neuritis damaged right eye and it was a non-promissory decision by the surgeon; he firmly admitted that he didn’t know. He confirmed that my right eye’s optic nerve is not at all useful, and that my left eye is not playing hide and seek at all in my mind but now is cloudy due to some fog getting under my cataract lens that he installed back on January 12th 2010, that’s right that fateful day of horror for Haiti, and that the left eye could be fixed by laser surgery if I should want to tackle that bit of a problem too… but no rush..
Good news that eye freckle has not changed for the worse and my reprieve is to not to have it checked again until next year!
Dilated eyes and all I was out into the world and I wanted to have some fun and so since it was afternoon we decided to go to our healthy choice for lunch, Crispers, but sadly to our chagrin it is now closed and they left a note on their door that as of July 31st 2011 and we would have to from now on visit them at their Fort Myers location! But that is over forty miles away, one way, bye old friend…!
And so to cheer me up Hubby took me over to my other choice Red Lobster where we have not been in quite some time but their recent crab fest commercials have been calling to me, boy are they great brain washers! And so for a lunch a wee bit higher in cost than usual but we had Alaskan king crab, sea scallops, shrimp, corn on the cob, little red potatoes and cole slaw and all this glorious seafood for twenty bucks for the two of us! Yep, it was plenty for two but one price, the festival of the crabs goes on until the end of this month. If you have one nearby I recommend it wholeheartedly and don’t forget to bring a friend!

From there we were rather pooped and so we decided instead of going to Publix for our full blown grocery shopping and since we were up that way near the Walmart Super store. It’s the one with a little bit of everything, and I needed toiletries, tooth paste, mouthwash, body soap, shampoo and conditioner and maintenance for my naturally blond hair upkeep supplies and everyone must admit that they do have very low prices on all that stuff.
We also needed milk, eggs and something for dinner and wow did you see their new wine shop? This one was put in the area that used be a McDonald’s and all the prices were very reasonable, and so we bought a few bottles and we got up to the register and it registered them the wrong price and so I told the cashier but apparently my memory was not as good as I thought. When we got into the car after Hubby got all our packages and my scooter broken down with me safely installed too; Hubby said he believed the wine to be even less on sale and so he went back in leaving me in the car with my cooling vest and the car running in our handicap parking space. And sure enough he was right the wine was even fifty cents more discounted on the sign where we got the four bottles from, actually and dollar and half less each than the register proclaimed and so while he was getting back our overcharges I sat and waited out in our car.
While there I felt guilty that we were still in a handicap space while he was going to get our rightful refund for the overcharge. I bided my time by listening to the radio and feeling worse thinking that the gas that we were using idling was it really worth the few dollars of refund monies? I did watch people too, a hobby that I started when in my twenties and working at an upper class mall for Lord and Taylor’s called the Fashion Center in Ridgewood, NJ those were my credit manager years. Any-who, I noticed a well dressed sixty-ish couple exiting the store running to their car with no packages and I thought how spry they were for their age…both parties got into a blue Lexis SUV that was parked in a handicap space, how odd I thought and I almost called out to them!
I was incensed, but who am I to judge. They could have many ailments that my untrained eyes probably could not determine and goodness knows, my eyes are not that great to begin with, hmm…
I was still aggravated when Hubby got back into the car fifteen minutes after he had gone in and I told him that I almost shouted at them, but what would I say?
Fraud, handicap space stealer, shame on you, and then I thought what if they were just having a better day than they had yesterday and felt the necessity to jog through a parking lot to celebrate that… nah I WAS JUST PLAIN PISSED and if I knew they could hear me and see me I might have yelled to them and have even given them the finger, so unlike me, gosh I still cringe at the writing the word ‘hell…O’!
Below are the criteria in our state to attain a handicapped placard or license plate. Are all states the same, I wonder?


“Florida Disabled Parking Permit
Disabled Person Parking Permit Application (83039)
Disabled parking spaces are designed to provide physically impaired people with the opportunity to access public or private facilities that they may not have access to otherwise. If you wish to take advantage of these parking spaces, you must display a valid placard on the rearview mirror of your vehicle. The placard can be transferred to any vehicle carrying a disabled person.

Be certified as legally blind;
Be unable to walk without the use of, or assistance from, a brace, cane, crutch, prosthetic device, or other assistive device, or without assistance of another person. The person will not be eligible if the assistive device restores the person's ability to walk without severe limitation;
Meet specific requirements for restrictions by lung disease as measured by spirometry;
Use portable oxygen;
Permanently use a wheelchair;
Be restricted by a cardiac condition to the extent that functional limitations are classified as Class III or Class IV by standards set by the American Heart Association;
Have severe limitations in the ability to walk due to arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic conditions.
Depending on the nature of disability, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles may issue temporary or permanent placards. Temporary placards are valid for up to six months. Permanent placards will expire in four years on the owner's birthday.”
Now you see why in the end I had to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it was genuinely hard for me.
On that compromise of trying to understand others allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you all to kindly count those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!
And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

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