Past, present & plans 10-19-16

 

Past

 

Dad was from Sulfur Springs, Texas and he was raised plowing the cotton fields by walking behind a mule. They were too poor to own a tractor in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

 

However, in the 1960’s we had a tractor and dad taught me how to plow, disc, pull a trailer, back the trailer up and many other aspects of a farm tractor.

 

After, I had that down, he went to the Charlotte Hall Farmers Market and bought a mule. He taught me how to plow the field walking behind a mule, so I could get a glimpse of life without machinery.

 

Sometime after that, dad had a Middle Buster plow, sent to our farm in Maryland from his family in Texas, so we used it to unearth the peanuts and potatoes.

 

A normal plow digs into the ground and throws the dirt in one direction and that’s to the right. With a Middle Buster the point goes into the earth, then throws the dirt to both sides, thus the name Middle Buster.

 

I was amazed that we had a tractor and we broke ground with a mule. No one else in the neighborhood did that. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

Present

 

On October 1, 2016 at the age of sixty two, I was enrolled into forced retirement by Social Security. So I lost my Medicaid, but my Medicare will not start till June of 2018. I found out I was in the donut hole, can’t go back and can’t go forward.

 

I went to Social Services this morning and because I receive so little money, I was able to renew my Medicaid. That brought tears to my eyes.

 

I had four more appointments to fill out the rest of the day. The day started at 7:30 am and ended at 9:00 pm. Suffering from COPD that made for a long draining day, but very beneficial.

 

Plans

 

Tomorrow I’m going to sleep late, then call and reschedule the four doctor appointments that I had to cancel last week.