Donated. Thanks for letting us know, @iiandyiiii .
Hang in there, Chris! (@Idle_Thoughts )
Donated. Thanks for letting us know, @iiandyiiii .
Hang in there, Chris! (@Idle_Thoughts )
Yeah. I’m in.
Idle_Thoughts is overwhelmed. He can’t believe the outpouring of support, and it feels like a dream. He’s not used to asking for help, and it’s a little scary. He says he plans to post here sometime today.
I’m in. Hope everything works out ok for @Idle_Thoughts.
Indeed it is.
Indeed not, especially with fellow dopers to gather around.
Thanks for the heads up, and glad to be able to help!
2008-2012 I was laid off and subsequently only intermittently employed, trying to support a disabled spouse and dealing with aging (eventually dying) parents. Several members of this community helped me out during that time period so we could make the rent, buy my spouse’s meds when we had no health insurance, keep our vehicles running (so when I did have work I could get to work) and deal with the inevitable emergencies and upsets of life until life stabilized again.
There are good people here.
I threw some more money in the pot.
I sent a dribble. I hate when people hit a bumpy spot.
Note post/screen name combo.
Carry on.
Sent in two dribbles worth, one to pay some recently received fellow doper kindness forward and because nellie set such a good example, a second dribble for a beloved Mumper who would if they could (more paying it forward via a slightly detour).
I remember @Idle_Thoughts. One of many here who have taught me things over the years without knowing. Love, good thoughts, and prayers if appropriate. My own $20 dribble sent.
When I was new here and was being put through the usual Newbie Ring of Fire, @Idle_Thoughts friended me on the old vBulletin software. I was so touched. (Of course, I didn’t know then that he friended everyone!)
It helped me decide to stick around. I’m glad I did. And it’s nice to be able to repay in a small way his kindness to me at that time.
Put in some. I’m mostly a lurker, but I remember him. Hopefully the extra raised can provide some joy (or peace).
Donated. I know exactly what this is like. Had a very similar experience when our van gave up working. I posted on Facebook about it, and one of my Dad’s old friends from high school started coming over to drive him around. And then he set up a Go-Fund Me, and got more money than any of us ever expected.
And between that and helping us with other things involving disability, it’s why I’m able to donate to this.
The Dope was able to donate a great amount when @dropzone died.
His family was able to get him cremated and cover some of his debt.
Believe me they were very appreciative.
I appreciated it as well. He was my very good friend.
I still miss that man.
@Idle_Thoughts was never my biggest fan, but I wish him the best of life going forward.
This bad time will pass.
Grieve well and take care of yourself.
I spent a few months in 2014 essentially homeless. I’m not going to go into details or backstory. That is not necessary. Life happens. I know what this feels like.
I hope this gives him a bit of breathing room.
I’m overwhelmed at all of this…
8 years ago, I left these boards.
Since then, I’ve made three posts…two of them to pay respects to members who have passed away in that time.
…but it’s always stayed in the back of my mind. I’ve kept in contact with many of you, mostly via Facebook, where I have many of you added and, from time to time, I would visit here and lurk.
During those eight years, though, my life was mostly unchanged and not too much to complain about…
…but the last two months have been the worst of my life.
It started on July 5th. My mom passed away in a car accident. Had she been wearing her seatbelt, it would have saved her life, but she wasn’t and…well, not much can be done now. It was sudden, though. Unexpected. Sent me into shock for a while. Some days I still wake up almost unable to believe it.
She was also my representative payee, via the social security administration. Since 2001 (when I was 21), I’ve been disabled and on social security income.
For 24 years I’ve been on it now, but after she passed, I got word it was going to pause until either a new payee was found or I became my own payee.
And another thing was hitting me hard during this time.
You see… I was a drug addict. Pills. Opiates. No, I didn’t have a prescription for them…but I was addicted nonetheless. I would get them from unused pills via my mom.
Yes, that was wrong of her…but, it’s not like she’s around to get into trouble for it now.
It didn’t change the fact that when she died, though, I was now forced to quit. In a way, great…in the short term, immediate…not so much. I was now forced to quit, cold turkey, after being addicted to opiate pills for 10 years. From 2014 to 2024, I was addicted to them and now I had to face the fact I would never have them again.
The last one I took was 55 days ago. Clean since then.
Yes, it was very hard at first, Withdrawal like nothing else.
But it was my own fault. I had nobody to blame but myself. That’s 100 percent fact…
It didn’t make it any easier, though…dealing with the loss of my mom and now, severe withdrawal.
I know… I know…it’s tempting to think about asking if you should get out all your violins for me, heh. Not just yet.
I got the notice my income would be paused. That it, in fact, already had been and that I wouldn’t get my income for August.
I get 1,360 a month. May not seem like a lot to you, but for me, it’s livable and I don’t tend to go hungry. But now, it was a huge problem. I didn’t have any money coming in to pay the rent. I didn’t have any to buy food.
On August 6th, I got a five day notice of eviction on my door. Thankfully I talked to the manager and she said I had until the 19th, but then she’s have to take me to court.
I started going to the SSI office here to see what I could do. I became my own payee that VERY DAY. That was unexpected and I thought “well, great! Now that’s all done”
Oh, what an optimist I was…
Seems they only made me my own payee with one of my benefits. I get two, two amounts every month and the only one they changed me on was the lower amount. So that’s all I received this month. 390 bucks. Not enough to pay the rent.
I went back the next day. Okay, it was fixed. Now I’m my own payee on both.
But wait…another problem. The money still wasn’t coming in…even though the worker that had my case at the SSI office told me that he had “pushed through an instant payment directly into my bank account”. I went back a third time…and keep in mind…all of these visits to the SSI office required me to take a number and wait in a crowded room anywhere from 2-4 hours before being called…I went back a third time in two weeks and said “why hasn’t the money come in even though he said it was an instant payment?”
They didn’t know why. They said it was listed as “gone through”. They gave me a printout of the sheet/transaction to take to my bank and ask the bank “where was it?” on their end.
It was discovered fairly quickly what the mistake was. Someone had typed a “1” instead of a “0” in my bank account number by accident.
So NOW, I just—three days ago----got that mistake to them and told them what it was. The guy who had my case said “I fixed it and am sending through another INSTANT PAYMENT TRY into your bank account”.
That was three days ago.
Still no money.
Sigh… looks like I’m just going to have to go down there a fourth time, wait my turn, and ask what it was this time. I had heard noises from him about “the system not accepting me as the payee” or something like that and once or twice heard mentions of “we may have to take it to a higher investigation”…oh? Higher than the US Social Security Administration? I mean, hell, the SSI administration were already pretty high, weren’t they? Sort of on par with the US post offices and the Department of Motor Vehicles.
…
So that’s the last two months in a nutshell. I know, it seemed a lot longer than a nutshell. I tend to be very wordy sometimes.
I did approach Andy a few days ago with the possibility of making a gofundme for me, but I didn’t want it to be for a high amount.
I was raised with a very “take only what you need” mindset. IMO, 500 is a lot of money. I can live on 500 for a month, because that’s what is usually left over once I pay my rent. Rent is 800, 500 is left for food, that makes 1300…the monthly amount I get.
So 500? Would have been enough. I didn’t want to make it more than that…
…so imagine my shock when the goal was already met BEFORE it was approved to be posted on here. It hadn’t been met yet when permission of the mods was asked, but by the time approval was given, yeah, it was met.
I then faced a quandry, of sorts. Allow it to go on or message the mods to shut it down and take the link out? I was leaning more towards doing that, but a lot of my friends on FB (who doubled as SDMB members) suggested that I let it go for a bit more to see what might come of it.
I didn’t expect much. A day and a half ago, when I had last seen it, it was at 700 and I was overjoyed it got even that high. I was like, WOW, that’s 200 dollars MORE than I asked for!! I figured “okay, it did well, much better than I had hoped”. Truth be told, I questioned if I would even get to the goal of 500…
But then I woke up today, after avoiding it for a while, because I was already convinced that it wouldn’t get any higher than that…
And I saw it was 2,100.
I was speechless. I said “Oh my God” to an empty room. I had to struggle to realize it was real. Even now, it’s like, it hasn’t fully sunk in yet.
That is the most money I’ve ever had at one time, in my entire life. I once had 1500 on me when I traveled overseas, but…this? This was like…
I didn’t know what to do or say. I started to cry. I was just so overwhelmed at the kindness of people. I didn’t expect it at all.
It’s too much. I still think it’s way too much. I don’t NEED that much. I don’t need even that much DIVIDED BY THREE or FOUR…just 500 would have sufficed. I mean, not that I’m mad… hah…
It’s also extremely hard for me to ever ask for help… I often just ride things out and wait until things are too late to fix before speaking up.
Even this month, I would have been evicted legally, on the 19th, if not for my cousin. I never did get the money yet, still haven’t…so she gave me 500 that–put together with that earlier amount I said I got again, the 391—allowed me to pay the rent for this month, at least.
I have the promise of the guy who has my case at the local SSI office “it will be fixed by your next rent day due”…but… I have my doubts now.
…but…I struggle with thinking “This is all wayyyyy too much”.
I don’t know what to say. “Thank you” seems way too small. So inadequate. It’s all I can say, though…but …the weight of it, if you only knew. If all of you only knew what gratefulness and appreciation and gratitude was behind and beneath it…
Thank you, all.
Ya’ll can put your tiny violins away now, heh.
We love ya.