Being disabled and trying to take care of myself.

byjohnmcge972

1.2K followers

9 years ago

Started Affiliate Bootcamp a day or 2 ago. I'm getting excited. I want to help people find ways to make money over the internet. Back in 2005 I had gotten a postcard advertising a seminar, in Green Bay WI, which would teach you how to earn money on the internet, from your home. I had been apprehensive about it, because am always thinking about scams. I know the ads you usually see, in the paper, about stuffing envelopes or putting handicrafts together are pretty much a scam.

After high school, the Wisconsin Department of Vocational Rehabilitation insisted I had to go to college to make something of myself, because I was disabled with polio and got around with braces and crutches. I hadn't really thought about what I would do after high school, so when they approached me, in the 2nd semester, of my Senior year, it was too late to change anything.

I hadn't taken the necessary classes, which I would need in college. The most important being Algebra. I had taken Algebra I, as a Freshman in High School, then Geometry, when I was a Sophmore. I wanted to take Algebra II, when I was a Junior, but it conflicted with bookkeeping, which I wanted to take more.

Growing up, I didn't really get an allowance. I remember, when my dad was still living, before his accident, he started myself, my younger brother and my younger sister off with 50 cents a week. Wow! We were excited with that! Soon it was 75 cents, then finally $1.00 a week.

Of course we had our "chores" to do, mainly the dishes, while everyone was in the barn doing the "barn chores". Soon my younger brother and sister were able to work in the barn, so that left me alone doing the dishes, by myself.

I remember when my mother came in the one night and asked me to bake a cake, for dessert, I said "I don't know how to bake"! She said, "Well, you know how to read don't you?" and chuckled. I began baking box cakes and later from other recipes. Soon I was making supper, so when they came in, they could just sit down and eat.

It made me feel good, when she would brag about all my baking and people would say "It's just box cakes!" My mother would get mad and tell them you have to know how to do it, they don't bake themselves! I did a lot of baking back then and would only cook a few things, which my mother showed me how to do.

Of course back then things didn't cost a whole lot, plus we lived out in the country and away from any stores, to spend our money on. I couldn't get a regular job, because back in the 1960's & 1970's it was difficult to find a job, since most businesses were not handicapped accessible.

I have never been fond of holidays, especially Christmas, because it puts a lot of pressure on a person, to find the right gift for the person and hope they like it, plus have the money, to buy the gift, in the first place. It is also very hard for me to pretend I like something, even though I don't.

The reason I wanted to take bookkeeping was one year, for Christmas, my sister-in-law gave me a handicraft kit, for making "Free Form Film Flowers". I was hooked on it right away and began making flowers with it.

You would twist a piece of soft wire around the cap of a spray can, form it into a flower petal, then dip it into this thick liquid, which came in different colors. You stick the wire in a block of styrofoam to dry, then arrange the petals around a stamin, center of the flower, with piece of stiff green florist wire, using florist tape to hold them together.

They were quite delicate, but very pretty, a sort of cellophane type film in different colors. You had to be careful with them, because you could break the film quite easily. They looked really nice, in a small bouquet.

My mother had over 100 chickens, so she collected a lot of eggs every day. I would help her wash them, then grade them, with a little egg grader, which would classify them either small, medium, large, extra large or jumbo. She had quite a few neighbors, who would buy eggs from her, because they were fresh from the farm. Not only that, but they got a better deal, from her, because each egg was individually graded, so the dozen was quite a bit heavier, than the eggs they would buy, in the store.

When her egg customers would come, she was my sales lady and promoted my flowers and I would sell them. It worked out great, even buying the product to make them with, I still made a fair amount of money with selling them. I took Bookkeeping, Instead of Algebra II, so I could learn how to keep track of the sales and expenses of my flower business.

The DVR insisted I go to college, so I went, because they were going to pay for it. My parents didn't have the money, to send us to college. My oldest brother worked out, to earn his money, plus he had financial aid and scholarships, to pay for it.

The first semester went all right and even though the campus, at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh was pretty close together, there was still a fair amount of walking between the buildings and going to classes. It was okay, in the beginning because I didn't have to deal with the snow, which began in November of 1972.

I had some classes at 5 pm, so had to be out walking, in the dark, on sidewalks, which were not lit up very good. I had a backpack, for my books, which helped, but some days it would snow and even though they had cleared the sidewalks, there would be a strong wind and they would drift shut.

I really don't know how I managed to go to college, relying only on myself, not having a wheel chair or anyone to assist me. I was pretty much alone and sometimes I had to trudge through deep fluffy snow, on the sidewalks. I dressed warm, but many times would stumble and fall and have to get myself up. I had friends back at the dorm and enjoyed their company, sharing pizza and soda and visiting, but going from class to class, I was alone.

The first thing I had to do was drop the Algebra class, because I was totally lost and even though the professor said to come to him, if we needed help, he was never in. Back then, I was pretty much on my own and no one to steer me in the right direction or help me make decisions.

My mother couldn't really help me, because my dad had an accident, at the mill, in October of 1967 and couldn't do anything, so she had her hands full, with him and trying to run the farm with my older brother, as a hired hand. I didn't know I could have gotten a tutor to help me get back in the groove of things. I had loved Algebra I, in high school, but had forgotten a lot about it and just needed someone to help me along.

Even though I did all right and could have gone back, I didn't have a high enough grade point average, for the DVR to pay for it, so had to quit. I decided to go to Technical College, which would have been a lot better than trying to go to regular college. I didn't realize I could have started in 2nd semester, so waited until the fall of 1973, to start.

I took the 1 year Account Clerk Program and did quite well in it. I had bought my own car, even though my mother said I could use hers. It was at that time, in a guy's life, when you want to own your own car and take care of it. I was no exception.

I had taken Driver's Education, when I was 15 and passed the written test. I was excited to begin behind the wheel training, but naturally they didn't have a car, with hand controls on it and made no effort to find some solution, so I could drive with the instructor.

I had bought hand controls, for my mothers fairly new car and the instructor had suggested we could maybe use her car, since it was already equipped and was a newer car, so everything worked on it. Of course they figured my mother should pay for the duplicate brake, on the car, but she wouldn't and the school made no effort to figure something out.

I could drive with my mother, but I would have to wait until I turned 18, to take my behind the wheel test. When I did take the test I passed it, but it would have been nice, to have a driver's license, when I was still in high school, so maybe I could have become more involved with everyone.

My first car was a 1969 Chevrolet Impala, 2 door hard top. It was a nice looking car, even though I didn't like the pukey green color of it. After I got out of Technical School and got my first job, I ended up getting into an accident and smashing the front end, when I guy in the oncoming traffic lane made a left hand turn, in front of me, when I had the green light.

The guy, who fixed it for me, wanted to sell me a 1970 Impala he had painted a gold metal flake, with a white vinyl roof. I should have done that, but had him fix my own car and he repainted it a 1972 Spring green, which Chevrolet was featuring, in that year. He put a fake vinyl roof on it and it turned out great.

Of course I made the mistake of taking it through the car wash in downtown Antigo, before the paint had totally dried and the plastic whips, from the brushes scratched the finish really bad, which irritated me. Back then they didn't have any "touchless" car washes, which power washed your car.

Once I got out of Technical College I was able to get a job, as a bookkeeper at this small log and lumber yard north of town. They bought logs, took the bark off them, then sawed them into lumber, which they sold to Play Skool, to be made into children's toys.

I ended up getting laid off, because the company was not doing good and about a year after I got laid off, they folded. I was able to get a couple other regular jobs, but ended up losing them and even though I went a great distance from home, looking for a job, I couldn't find any.

I had taken a night course, in upholstery, so when I had a rough time finding a regular job, I decided to create my own job and started my own upholstery business. I would go out and sell the job, then have someone bring the furniture to me and put it on a table for me to work on. It worked out good, but I had to depend on someone to move the furniture for me.

Once it was on my table, I had no problem moving it around, it was just getting someone to bring it and someone to deliver it, which was the problem. I could do it, but it was very labor intensive and it was a struggle to make enough money to live on.

I had done some work for the Currative Rehabilitation Center, in Green Bay, so in July of 1989, I went there and learned how to work on a computer. I had never touched a computer up until that time.

I was able to get work for a Temp Agency, so got into a Medical Claims Processing Company, which was one of their clients. While I was there, I could apply for any positions, which opened up. I was able to get in as an Associate Claims Analyst, in January 1990.

I worked there almost 6 years and had Health Insurance and Dental Insurance, but the stress was getting to me, so I quit in October of 1995. I tried to get back into the upholstery, but after being out of it for so long, it wasn't doing very good.

I ended up leaving there and trying to get back into the upholstery, but it just was not working out. I had inherited some money, put up a sectional house on a piece of land I had bought, when my Aunt passed away and I inherited some money from her.

I had invested it in a 3-bedroom house, so in case I had to sell, it wouldn't take too long to sell. I had bought the sectional, before I left the Insurance Processing Company, so even after cashing in the 401k and Profit Sharing, I was running out of money and not able to make ends meet.

I decided to put the house up for sale, before it went into foreclosure and I lost it. I put it up for sale April 4, 1998 and it was sold before the end of May, just in the nick of time.

Of course then I only had 30 days to move, no one to really help me move, plus it was one of the hottest Junes in Wisconsin's history and we had terrible windy rain storms, which didn't help either.

I paid off everything I owed and then put money down on another piece of property and was going to buy it on land contract. I had rented a huge dumpster, to try and get rid of a lot of the old furniture I had collected, thinking I would fix it up and sell it, but that don't work out, because then it's not the right color or the right fabric. I wasted a lot of money storing junk furniture, which I ended up discarding.

An elderly couple, whom I met at the donut shop in Green Bay, where I used to go almost every morning, were basically the only ones who helped me move. My family couldn't help me move, because they had jobs and could only, maybe, help on the weekend.

It was not easy, but I moved into the new place, which used to be a country store, at one time. I knew it had buried gas tanks, but didn't think anything about it, until after I moved. Then I began to hear all the horror stories about how much it cost to remove old underground metal gas tanks, which had leaked.

The contaminated soil had to be removed and trucked across state, to a special land fill and it ended up costing over $300,000 for different ones to clean up gas stations, before they could sell them.

After a heavy rainstorm, in 1999, my sump pump went out and had to have someone replace it for me. It was then that I found out the previous owner had taken the bathtub drain apart hung a narrow plastic bag around it directing the water into a rain trough, which went to the sump pump. He had also put in a dishwasher and had the hose going through a hole, in the floor, and emptying into the same rain trough. The wash machine, on the ground floor was also emptying into the sump pump and being pumped underground out the side of the basement wall.

I found out they had fixed it so the sump pump went to the tavern next door and emptied into a culvert, which went under the road and into a farm field. I would go to the tavern next door once in a while and had talked to a farmer who had worked up the field and could never figure out, why it was always so wet there, even when it hadn't rained in a long time and everything else was bone dry.

I stayed there for 3 years, even though it was getting difficult to make ends meet. I had gotten into an accident, in June 1999 and had found out my hiatal hernia needed to be repaired. I didn't have any kind of medical insurance, so decided to look for a job.

I got another full time job, in the fall of 1999, at a Telemarketing firm, taking incoming calls, doing credit card applications over the phone, when Citibank sent out a mass mailing of balance transfer offers. It seems a lot of credit card companies were doing that, at the time.

I took the job, because I needed Health Insurance, so I could get the operation to have my hiatal hernia fixed. After 3 months, I was able to get it fixed and I liked the job okay, because at the time, the Citibank program went down and I was dealing with a program, which dealt with public assistance and the EBT cards.

I didn't have any trouble with any of the callers calling in, because I showed them respect and seldom did they ever go off on me, unlike some of the CSR's around me, who would have people screaming at them, then had to give the call to a Team Leader, to handle.

I ended up letting the guy have his property back, after the 3 years I had it and moved again on the other side of the Bay of Green Bay. I moved in the fall of 2001, just before 9/11. I was doing my paper route, at the time and heard about it on the radio. On the way home, I saw how the gas stations were jacking the price of gas way up, raising the price several times in the same day, gouging the people.

I didn't worry about it and just went home, while other people were panicking and rushing to fill every container they could find, filling all their vehicles etc, not stopping to think they were only making matters worse.

My brothers talked me into applying for Social Security Disability, in April 2002. Since I had been on it before, when I first moved to Green Bay and was able to get off it, when I got the job at the Insurance Company, I was sure to get back on it again. The only problem was I had to give up a daily paper route I was doing, to get my income below $750 a month.

I got on it again and at least since I was on SSI right away, I had Medical Assistance, so didn't have to worry about going to the Doctor and not being able to pay for it. I had ended up filing bankruptcy mainly for the medical bills I owed and also to protect myself from being sued, if the property I just let go back to the original owner, ended up having to have the old gas tanks removed.

I ended up renting a store, for my upholstery business, with an apartment in back, but even with the disability checks and what little I made with the paper routes and the upholstery, I just couldn't make it. That is why, when I got the card, in the mail, about a seminar, in a hotel in Green Bay, that I fell for it, thinking it was legitimate.

They were going to show me how to make money over the internet. They had a slick presentation and made it look so easy. You supposedly didn't even need a computer, but could use a computer at the library to get your web sites set up and earning you money.

I am depressed in the fall of the year, I guess because Seasonal Adjustment Disorder, so it is not a good time to start anything. Not only that, but I didn't have a good internet connection and my computer wasn't big enough to do it.

Once I began getting into it, I became more and more leery about it, because they were always wanting more and more money and I just didn't have it to invest. I wasn't making enough to even live on, let alone invest into what they were talking about and not knowing when I would get anything out of it. I don't know if they are still out there, but they are a scam.

I recently saw a video clip, on my home page, for Sitebuilder.com and they made it sound like CNN had investigated it and were doing a news story about it. It got me thinking about blogging again, so this time I went on the internet, to check them out and although they are out there I can't for sure say what they are, but when I began filling out the form, they wanted my credit card information, which made me pause.

They had said it was free, but then right away they want you to pay. It sounded like they wanted you to pay a full year in advance, which I can't do at this time. That is when I found Wealthy Affiliates.com and have now gotten involved here. At least I am making progress setting up a web site and seeing it.