Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Friday, October 30
Ol’ Sparrow received not one, but two compliments on his Veterans Service Office (VSO) website today…I am not making that up…It’s hardly Site of the Year, but both veterans found useful information on there which is nice to hear.
One of the compliments came from a vet who called to inform me the VA had downgraded his PTSD rating from 50% to 305 and he was wondering what his options were…Hell, I don’t know, I thought to myself…You can’t tell a client that, tho, so I told him I would look into it, because while I have come across vets who’ve been downgraded, this is the first one who wants to do something about it.
There was also an email from the gal at the state office asking for the VSO reports for July, August and September…This is not only the report I generate, but the one the accounting department generates detailing my salary and benefits so the state can provide reimbursement…Good gravy, they are running behind at the state office, hardly the first time because they’ve asked me for past reports before.
The only problem was I could only find September’s report. (They slide a copy of the final report under my door). Usually, I am able to find all of them and I found all of this year’s reports except for July and August, go figure…I emailed Stacey in accounting and asked if she kept copies of the final reports and she said yes and emailed them to me and I was able to send them along…She also wondered what the deal was…I told her those zanies at the office probably lost them because it’s not likely three consecutive reports got lost in the mail.
My 1500 appointment turned out to be rather poignant…Seth’s a good kid, a working man who wanted to sign up for VA medical so he could start getting treated for his depression…Like some, he came in and sat down and immediately started confiding in me, like I was his shrink and while I’m hardly clinically trained, I can keep my yap shut and listen and did just that for several minutes…When Seth was done, I told him his depression was like me waking up every five minutes to use the can: something to be treated…Seth said no one had ever told him that before, which made him feel good…I added he wasn’t to blame and he wasn’t alone, either, giving him both my personal mobile number and the number to the VA crisis line and then he started talking some more and the next anybody knows the waterworks are starting, not the first time that’s happened in the VSO either.
I’ll tell you what, depression is not easy. It’s not easy having it or living with someone who has it and it’s one reason – though not the only reason – why my marriage is over…After we filled out the VA medical application and he was ready to leave I asked if he could use a hug and he said yeah, he could.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log:
1800 Thursday until 0130 Friday
1800 Friday until 2130 Friday
11.0 hours for the day and 35.5 hours for the week, the former a not-too-bad total, the latter almost has me weeping…Yours truly slept really well tho Thursday night, with the cat, as is her adorable new wont, coming in and standing post on my back from the time I first stirred until ol’ Sparrow actually decides to favor the world with his presence.
The Diary of a Nobody is a novel. All elements are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Anything else is a coincidence.
It was inspired by the 19th-century British novel of the same name.
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