Should you be doing that?

I was using my jigsaw to shape a piece of wood.


"I mean, no offence, but couldn't you get someone to do that for you?" said my neighbour.


Sigh. I'm sure they mean well. Sure, I could get someone to do things for me, but would defeat the object. A powered jigsaw may seem an unlikely disability aid, but then again, so is an electric hand mixer, or an arm to lean on. 


I can't use a hand saw, but then again, I never could. Couldn't cut a straight line by hand in a million years :)


Power tools that most people use as a quick and convenient aid also allow me independence, and that's the real point. Anything that releases me from dependence on others is a big plus.


Mind you, it's not been without it's problems. When you have a soft hearted Bear and power tools, a week rarely goes past without someone wanting to borrow them. Someone borrowed my rather expensive powered wood plane a few weeks ago. A couple of weeks later when asked to give it back, they refused, claiming it was theirs and they'd always had it. 


A couple of days later they got rather drunk, and told one of my kids "Well, it's not like HE is ever going to need it any more, is it?" 


Y'know, it's just not worth arguing and getting stressed out with people like that. Life's too short. As you can imagine though, the good hearted souls that got to hear about that quietly disconnected from them. It's lonely in the wilderness. Neighbours certainly won't lend them anything. 


I'm really disturbed by the attitude though. I read in horror about "The Sun" Shop a Benefit Cheat phone line. The Department For Work and Pensions has run one for years. Their officially released figure show that 97.4%  of all complaints to their benefits fraud line are unjustified - but they say they have talk to everyone accused.


When you consider that a lot of people with disabilities have mental health issues, by that I mean their disability is mental health,  and those with physical problems have clinical depression, how to goodness do the 97.4% innocent cope with that?


Mr. S, does a little gardening. Mrs B. struggles to the corner shop. Maybe one or the other went on holiday. We are a weird nation. We celebrate Olympic Paraolympians, then report them because they acheive. Sick.

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Oops! :) Quick update. Had a visitor a few mins ago. "Read your blog. You know it was a different make and model, he said he'd told you". Uhuh. So, how, I asked, unless he had the two, side by side, does he know it's a different make and model? And what make and model is it? And no he didn't. 


"What?" How does he know it's different? I said. Unless he'd used the two? 


Exit stage left one totally perplexed visitor. Bit's may be borked dear reader, nothing wrong with my mind. Bless you.