McCall, Cascade, Stanley area

[Lehi]

Originally Posted by geo

Yeah, Lehi, I bet I told you more than you wanted to know, huh? ;-)

LOL, I appreciate the time you took to tell us all your experience. Switzerland doesn't sound like a place I would enjoy either. It is very pretty though. I can't believe the Swiss people think German food is the worst food in the world. I spent 3 and 1/2 years in Germany and I LOVE German food!

I hope you and your family's situation improves and I wish you the best of luck.

[JANETL]

geo, I can see why you wouldn't want to live in Switzerland. I had no ideal they treat people so rude. It does sound better to stay here. Did you think about an Attorney for SSDI. I think when I had an Attorney help me receive SSDI it took less than a year. I hope things work out for your family.

[huntman58]

Originally Posted by geo

I often have difficulty walking. I can only work 4 hours every week or two. I am uninsurable now. I am unable to get social security which is another surprise to my husband. Maybe I'll get social security eventually, but I'm told it'll take years to go through the process. I am not hoping for social security. I am doing everything I can to get better and return to work. I was well paid. If ONLY "I"
could work--I could pull us out of our bad situation in just 2-3 years!!!

.

I became disabled at the young age of 41 also. I know how your feeling I think. I would say get a lawyer and fight for it. For some like me it can take time (2.5 years for my self) others just a few months. I would say use a lawyer if turned down one time some wait for the second time but by then have one. The cost is set by SSI and comes out of the back pay you get if you win. If you do not win they get nothing also. even with SSDI you can try to get back to work but it can help you over come a few things like having some money coming in or at lest Medicare not much I know but better then nothing . Also with getting ssdi you can also get a cheaper supplement health coverage plan that covers you about as well as one dose when you’re a full time employee. send me a PM if you want more info on getting SSDI I can even give you the name of the lawyer I used and would use again if needed she was good .

[geo]

Thanks for your response! This is also to tell you that I sent you a private mail.

geo

[JANETL]

Well, I don't know if I will be moving to McCall area. My husband and I were both on SSDI with many different health problems. My husband passed way last week and they don't know what caused his death, I think it had some thing to do with the heat. We have our house on the market. I just don't know what to do. I do know I don't want to live where I am at. Janet

[huntman58]

Sorry to here this as I to am on ssdi also. I know it is not easy for me I would move closer to Boise were the medical is good and also close by along with many other sources to help out. I just found Idaho not that great of a place when livening on ssdi as in help that is again sorry for your lose

[shades_of_idaho]

Jantel I am so sorry to hear of your loss. I know our area in Cambridge is not a cool weather wise area other than in winter. I LOVE winter.Course the electric costs are less expensive for now. So you might be able to run a cooler to stay more comfortable. I am with you and suffer in the heat. I just try to do other things than to work outside when it is too hot. With your disabilities I do think living closer to hospitals or medical services is something to consider and McCall does have a nice hospital. We live 59 miles from McCall. If you want to come over this way and base yourself here while looking around you are welcome. We have done a lot or research around Idaho for living conditions.

Chris & Joe

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Originally Posted by geo

I must have cried for 3 years trying to be just "okay" with the idea of living out my life in Switzerland where, with my husband being a teacher, we'd be better off financially. We have both decided that living in the Swiss-French culture would be too difficult for me (and the family as a whole). I feel that if I lived there, a huge part of me would die. I have spent some months there and even the Swiss tell me the bad about themselves (which was not hard to see)...they have severe xenophobia, chauvinism, insularity, and general feelings of inferiority and prejudice and also insensitivity towards women. I am quoting a Swiss man in that last sentence, BTW. I have spoken with many couples who say Americans move there with stars in their eyes and then usually end up back in the states after about a year or two to try to salvage their marriages. I even can't take the Swiss visiting us in my home in the U.S. for too many days! To give a background on my culture, I was raised in the U.S. by a German father and a quiet, French-American mother who was a farm-girl. I am quite Amish-like in my way of life and I just don't have an interest in TV or movies (except some documentaries) and it drives me nuts that Swiss people speak to me and criticise all things American quite openly after hearing that I am American. I guess it's a hot topic, but the more they speak, the more I feel the barrier that they wouldn't give it a chance to know me. When I told a Swiss over the phone that an hour ago (on Sept 11) terrorists flew a plane into the World Trade Center, he laughed and said I had been watching too much Hollywood. This is what they think of Americans--they think Americans view the world through a Hollywood mindset. I became very emotional and nauseous. It makes me nuts to hear them speak of how "decadent" Americans are and then for THEIR entertainment, they go to see an American film with some famous American actor they think I watch all day long and I don't even know who the actor is (yet I've been not just prejudged but prejudged by those who are guilty of chasing after what they criticize!) Yuck! I watch about 3 hours of television per year. I go to theaters about once each 10 years! Don't you think I'd feel oppressed there knowing that they are all speaking to me as if I'm somebody else? In time, they might notice their error (some never would), but either way I don't have much patience or energy for that. It's an inconvenience I don't need. It would be too weird to move there and have people prejudiced against me, the "American" as I live with my husband (a Swiss man) who, ironically, is twice as American as I am!

I also am conscious of the way that I cook to be simple in life and grateful. The Swiss can spend 3 or 4 hours at a table discussing the quality, texture of the food and, let's not forget, the PRESENTATION! I just want to go home. Here in the U.S., we invited a guy over from church for dinner. We made a fancy dinner and our guest (a wealthy airline pilot) was all smiles. I told the guest how my husband helped me with this and that and with how it was presented. He fell silent with his chin hanging down. I almost fell on my plate when finally, he said, "Ma'am, I'm just glad to be eating." I looked to my husband to say, "This is something I LOVE about my culture." I find people in the U.S. to be more grateful and unpretentious. I once offered to take a Swiss guest to the best German restaurant in town. Instead of declining politely, she said, "AAAuuughhhh! Everyone knows that German food is the WORST food in the whole world!" Another told me that American Christians aren't really Christians at all. This was said to me by a Swiss guest in my home whom I'd only been around for a few hours. Many Europeans I know tell me that the Swiss culture is the rudest in the world. I will have failed as a mother if my 2 year-old grows up speaking as I've seen so many Swiss speak. I also feel I stand a better chance of raising a child who is grateful if I raise her in the United States. ..

Sounds almost like what other states automatically think of Californians. Just take out the word "Americans" and substitute "Californians".
Other states "Ass"ume we are all rich from our houses, we all look and dress like movie stars, our kids are all in gangs, and we all have an agenda when we move to "their" state (as if they themselves owned the state).

Sorry to hear about your health issues, and the struggles your family is facing to find peace anf harmony Hope all works out for you.

[geo]

Yeah, it's unfortunate that some Californians ruin it for the rest of the Californians giving the new set a reputation. I think people should really be informed about how to enter foreign territory before they go. The military doesn't properly instruct our soldiers of how to interact among others of different culture before sending them on their outbound assignments and most people switching states don't know how to face the differences. As for me, I was there long enough to see the differences. If I'm not willing to accept the differences then why move there?

If your choose to face the foreign, however, I always thought THIS was a good piece of advice from a German guy sending his nephews to live in Canada...."Kids, when you arrive in Canada, you will think that everything they do is wrong. Keep your mouth shut for the first five years." Heh, heh, heh ;-) Unfortunately, I can't take the oppressive feelilng knowing that they think I'm something else and treating me as such. I told a friend it would be so difficult to willingly go into a country where people assumed such false things about me. I asked her, "Can you blame me and could you imagine an oppression like that--being treated as something else even something so opposite with little chance to counter it?" She said, "Yes, I can imagine that oppression." I said curiously, "Really??? You have never lived in a foreign country." She said, "I know, BUT...I'm BLACK." (I'm colorblind, BTW)