My oldest child, a boy, had autism spectrum disorder. it began to manifest itself at age 18 months and was diagnosed at age 3. Therapists at that time did not trust early age diagnosis because of other diseases masquerading as autism. For our case, a definite diagonsis was decalred at age 3. We had a heartbreaking time of it. We could not afford proper treatment and insurance did not cover "mystery" diseases. Our kid was antisocial and clever. He exhibited two personalities: one when he was in our presence and another when he was beyond our control or knowlege. He strove to keep these two lives separated, but when the two spheres of existance happened to meet, he tried to shrink into nothing like trying to melt into the floor. For example, one time he was with us when we were standing in line at the village hall to vote. Suddently, he dropped to the floor and covered his head. We were puzzled. The problem: He had spied his school teacher in the line next to us. We had never met this treacher, but we happened to say a casual hello to each other. We had another problem with school. He was an odd-ball at school and others began to either shun or tease him. His anger was held until it spilled over the break point and he would explode on someone. Sometimes, it was not the proper object, but another child who was nearby and whom he knew he could best. The second and major problem was the attitude of school personnel. This problem was festering and they never contacted us until it had gotten out of control. One day, he split he lip of a little girl and chipped her tooth. I beleive her parents were threatening legal action against the school, and it was at this point when the school authorities first contacted us. We were hauled in to inform us our son was being thrown out of school. This was the first time the school contacted us, and it was the first time we became aware of the problem. He had just become a 1st grader and was being tossed out. Nothing was ever done about teasing. There is more to this story and parental tears, but I'll wrap it up with the outcome. We moved to a different school system and when he came to live with us again, he entered his freshman year in high school. At graduation, he won the "most improved" student. He's now 45 years old, living away from home, and managing to hold a job to earn barely enough to pay his rent and food. He still has a couple of personal demons to resist, but these affect only him. One demon he has defeated. We are proud of his progress. It is much more than the progonosis of his childhood. It has taken much support tempered with iron will from his parents. On thing I will say is never give up, and do not accept inappropriate behavior. Do not respond to inappropriate behavior, but always be alert and always respond positivetly to appropriate behavior. As an adult, maintain contact and include him in the family circle. Make a point to visit with him on...

First, Alisande I believe if you look on the back of your Medicare EOB you will find the information about APPEALING their denial of coverage. It should be there .... somewhere. Denials are always appealable, usually there are 2 levels of appeal. So, exercise your RIGHT TO APPEAL. Write a letter & explain your situation. If that fails, enlist your chiro to write an appeal for a second review. Medicare doesn't "think". They have guidelines for coverage. A low level clerk of a computer program screens outs targeted types of claims that have traditionally been abused. That system isn't perfect. But if you don't appeal something that is legitimate, or *possibly* legitimate, they have no way of knowing that they've snagged something in error. The error could even be in how the diagnosis &/or treatment was coded on the bill by the chiro's staff. Chiro has its place & can be a helpful adjunct for treatment. But it does have quite a history of "hocus-pocus" & of duping people &/or insurance/Medicare. I am aware that there are those "lonely sorts" who ... truth be known... use a chiro visit as somewhat of a social outlet. Why should Medicare or insurance pay for clearly unnecessary treatments. Preventive chiro generally isn't in the same league as preventative in traditional medicine. I guess we can look forward to more of same as the government inserts itself even further into our healthcare delivery system. Gibby, I don't understand your statement. At.all. Medicare IS & has ALWAYS been a gov't run healthcare system. I want my tax $ spent as wisely as possible. If there is fraud/abuse, weed it out. And of course, they certainly can't afford to cover absolutely everything on the healthcare menu.

Ivo Andric Quotes Writer October 9, 1892 - March 13, 1975 Sadness is also a kind of defence. Ivo Andric Between the fear that something would happen and the hope that still it wouldn't, there is much more space than one thinks. On that narrow, hard, bare and dark space a lot of us spend their lives. Ivo Andric One shouldn't be afraid of the humans. Well, I am not afraid of the humans, but of what is inhuman in them. Ivo Andric If people would know how little brain is ruling the world, they would die of fear. Ivo Andric What can and doesn't have to be always, at the end, surrenders to something that has to be. Ivo Andric When I am not desperate, I am worthless. Ivo Andric Lands of great discoveries are also lands of great injustices. Ivo Andric Searching for what I need, and I don't even know precisely what that is, I was going from a man to a man, and I saw that all of them together have less than me who has nothing, and that I left to each of them a bit of that what I don't have and I've been searching for. Ivo Andric There is no rule without revolts and conspiracies, even as there is no property without work and worry. Ivo Andric Bruce Catton Quotes American - Historian October 9, 1899 - August 28, 1978 Sooner or later you must move down an unknown road that leads beyond the range of the imagination, and the only certainty is that the trip has to be made. Bruce Catton Our American heritage is greater than any one of us. It can express itself in very homely truths; in the end it can lift up our eyes beyond the glow in the sunset skies. Bruce Catton I think I was always subconsciously driven by an attempt to restate that faith and to show where it was properly grounded, how it grew out of what a great many young men on both sides felt and believed and were brave enough to do. Bruce Catton Say this for big league baseball - it is beyond any question the greatest conversation piece ever invented in America. Bruce Catton To learn to get along without, to realize that what the world is going to demand of us may be a good deal more important than what we are entitled to demand of it - this is a hard lesson. Bruce Catton And there is the headlight, shining far down the track, glinting off the steel rails that, like all parallel lines, will meet in infinity, which is after all where this train is going. Bruce Catton Early youth is a baffling time. Bruce Catton In this respect early youth is exactly like old age; it is a time of waiting for a big trip to an unknown destination. The chief difference is that youth waits for the morning limited and age waits for the night train. Bruce Catton The present moment is nice but it does not last. Living in it is like waiting in a junction town for the morning limited; the junction may be interesting but some day you will have to leave it and you do not know where the limited will take you. Bruce Catton Lord Hailsham Quotes British - Politician October 9, 1907 - October 12, 2001 The introduction of religious passion into politics is the end of honest politics, and the introduction of politics into religion is the prostitution of true religion. Lord Hailsham A reasonable doubt is nothing more than a doubt for which reasons can be given. The fact that 1 or 2 men out of 12 differ from the others does not establish that their doubts are reasonable. Lord Hailsham The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the right. Lord Hailsham In a confrontation with the politics of power, the soft center has always melted away. Lord Hailsham I regard freedom of expression as the primary right without which one can not have a proper functioning democracy. Lord Hailsham Donald Sinden Quotes English - Actor Born: October 9, 1923 I have a disgracefully sweet tooth. My younger brother and I, all we care about are puddings. You can keep your smoked salmon and caviar. Donald Sinden An actor who knows his business ought to be able to make the London telephone directory sound enthralling. Donald Sinden Being a non-swimmer, I've never been excited by the sea so avoid it on holidays. Donald Sinden Whatever part I'm playing, I always carry with me something that's been used by an illustrious predecessor. I'm a great believer in a touching of hands. I have daggers belonging to Henry Irving and Sarah Siddons. Donald Sinden I grew up in Ditchling. It was an idyllic village at the foot of the South Downs. In those days, the village was full of artists and sculptors. Donald Sinden James Agate, a great critic of the day, advised me that the way to learn your job properly was to learn Shakespeare, so I went to Stratford. It really sorts out the men from the boys. Donald Sinden I've been very fortunate. I've been in theater, films, television, radio, tragedy, comedy, farce - I've been in a musical and in music halls, in pantomime. I was once ringmaster in a circus. Donald Sinden I remember once saying in a television interview that the only things I hadn't been in were the opera and the ballet. Two days later, I got a call from Lord Harewood, of the English National Opera, saying "Would you like to be in 'Ariadne auf Naxos?'" Donald Sinden You come across quite ordinary, nondescript people in daily life, and I don't see why you should be subjected to them on the stage, too. Donald Sinden I need to know who the audience are in any particular play. It's no good forgetting that they're there. Donald Sinden I'm really not livable with when I'm rehearsing because I'm living the character. Donald Sinden Abdullah Ibrahim Quotes South African - Musician Born: October 9, 1934 The biggest problem in South Africa is that we have a disrupted timeline. Historically, politically, spiritually, economically, in people's minds, in people's heads. Abdullah Ibrahim When time and space and change converge, we find place. We arrive in Place when we resolve things. Place is peace of mind and understanding. Place is knowledge of self. Place is resolution. Abdullah Ibrahim People say that slaves were taken from Africa. This is not true: People were taken from Africa, among them healers and priests, and were made into slaves. Abdullah Ibrahim They took away time, and they gave us the clock. Abdullah Ibrahim Don McCullin Quotes British - Photographer Born: October 9, 1935 When I take a black-and-white portrait, it's not particularly meant to please you. It's meant to talk to you; it's meant to shame you. It's meant to scream out at you, and it has a message. Don McCullin I love photography. I love the imagery. I love what I do. Don McCullin I started out on photography accidentally. A policeman came to a stop at the end of my street, and a guy knifed him at the end of my street. That's how I became a photographer. I photographed the gangs that I went to school with. Don McCullin I think media has lost its way. We must recognize that the proprietors of these organizations have put on a form of censorship. Basically, they're more interested in celebrity, narcissism, rich people, good-looking people, and successful sportsmen. Don McCullin I've always thought photography is not so much of an art form but a way of communicating and passing on information. Don McCullin I've spent most of my life embracing violence in wars and revolutions. Even a famine is a form of violence. Because I photograph people in peril, people in pain, people being executed in front of me, I find it very difficult to get my head around the art narrative of photography. Don McCullin Photography belongs to a fraternity of its own. I was young and enthusiastic and wanted to take good pictures to show the other photographers. That, and the professional pride of convincing an editor that I was the man to go somewhere, were the most important things to me. Don McCullin I have more of a relationship with the subject than I do with my camera equipment. To me, camera equipment is like a tin of shoe polish and a brush - I use that as a tool, but my basic camera is my emotion and my eyes. It's not anything to do with the wonderful cameras I use. Don McCullin I've seen my own blood and broken a few bones. I've been hit, which isn't an entirely bad thing, as at least you have a glimpse of the suffering endured by the people you are photographing. And in a sense, crumbling empires and war have been with me all my life. Don McCullin Many people send me letters in England saying, 'I want to be a war photographer,' and I say, go out into the community that you live in. There's wars going on out there; you don't have to go halfway around the world on an airplane where there are bombs and shells. There are social wars that are worthwhile. Don McCullin I know where I'm coming from; I know what I bring and what I take. I take more than I bring; I bring hope, but I give nothing. That's not the role I'm proud of. Don McCullin Most of the people I know, their marriages went down the drain, like mine - something I am not proud of. Don McCullin I was dyslexic and uneducated and left school at 14. I grew up in Finsbury Park, which was a pretty bad place where you had to fight and be beaten. It was just a constant roundabout of violence. Don McCullin There's nothing I don't know about war. The stench of it. But I say that without any pride. War is a terrible thing. My hope is that you'll get that through looking at one of my pictures. Don McCullin I have a dark room, and I still process film, but digital photography can be a totally lying kind of experience; you can move anything you want... the whole thing can't be trusted, really. Don McCullin Many people misunderstand me - I'm quite happy to be called a photographer. All of a sudden, the art world has caught up with photography, and they are trying to hijack us. Don McCullin I have a store full of thousands and thousands of images in my brain. I've got this terrible feeling I'm like some abattoir boss: I know death; I know the cut pieces of the human body. Don McCullin I grew up as a boy with aggression. Don McCullin In my photography, I always lean towards the underprivileged because that's where I came from. When I went to the wars, I attempted to go and stand by those who were being trodden on. By that, I mean people like the Palestinians. When I go to India, I see really the poorest people, and I tend to be drawn to them. Don McCullin I've fallen in love with the classical world of imagery, and what I'd like to do now over the last bit of my life is to photograph some nudes. Don McCullin America has never taken me to its heart. I've always been an outsider. Don McCullin I couldn't possibly have any regrets, because I've been very lucky, I've been celebrated, and I've survived. I couldn't have one single regret. That would be absurd. Don McCullin I treat my life as though I am on a tightrope. Don McCullin Every street in London has a camera, and if you ever travel up the M4, it feels as if George Orwell should be your chauffeur. Don McCullin I'm from England, and like every other great empire who stole bits of the world, there is a price to pay. And I was born in 1935. So, since I've been conscious of the world, I've either been in, or been on the periphery of, a war zone. Don McCullin Brian Blessed Quotes English - Actor Born: October 9, 1936 My parents taught me honesty, truth, compassion, kindness and how to care for people. Also, they encouraged me to take risks, to boldly go. They taught me that the greatest danger in life is not taking the adventure. Brian Blessed You can't call it an adventure unless it's tinged with danger. The greatest danger in life, though, is not taking the adventure at all. To have the objective of a life of ease is death. I think we've all got to go after our own Everest. Brian Blessed I love Scotland - I was made an honorary Wallace after my work on 'Braveheart,' you know. If I have two or three days off, I love nothing more than driving up there and climbing around Glencoe. Brian Blessed I have marvelous dreams! I meet Buddha, I meet Jesus, I meet Mohammed. I constantly dream of space, stars and planets: we are the children of stardust. Brian Blessed My dream is to own a Hockney - I'm a Yorkshireman, and his vibrant colours are a good example of how the north-country people are vibrant and colourful. Brian Blessed When I was a child, I wanted to... go into space! To go to Mars. I wanted to explore and explore and explore. I wanted to go to the Lost World in South America - I was heartbroken to discover there were no dinosaurs; I still don't accept it. Brian Blessed I'm a fully trained cosmonaut and have completed 800 hours training, which has made me the No. 1 civilian reserve ready to visit the International Space Station. I am determined to go up, and I want to explore the Moon, Mars and beyond! Brian Blessed People talk about the difference between radio acting, TV acting and stage acting, but I think it's all the same. For instance, when I played Vultan in 'Flash Gordon,' I put as much energy into it as I would with 'King Lear' - it's all part of the same thing. Brian Blessed Life is a re-discovery. Brian Blessed My brother Alan - who was seven years younger than me - died from leukemia when he was 52. He never knew a day's good health - I wish I could have given him some of my good health. But he was always so cheerful and sweet. Brian Blessed I had to leave school at 14 because my father got injured in the mines and I had to support my family. I was an undertaker's assistant, then a plasterer, before doing my military service in the RAF. All the while, I was doing amateur dramatics and dreaming of getting a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Brian Blessed There will be no funeral! Before I get too old and ill, I'll go to South America and live among the Pemon people and meditate. When the time is right, they can throw my body into the volcano. Brian Blessed I fed my yak on my spare Cadbury chocolate 21,0000ft up Everest. It was a blonde, very sweet female yak. I made it my pet after that. Brian Blessed My father was a coal hewer from Goldthorpe, a coal-mining village in South Yorkshire. He played for the Yorkshire second team as an opening fast bowler - to me he was a gorgeously heroic man. He helped form a union and closed down the Barnsley seam because it was seeping gas, and saved many, many lives. Brian Blessed My parents were so proud when I got a scholarship to go to theatre school - it was unheard of that a coal-miner's son should go to drama school. Brian Blessed The household I grew up in... was rather like an Ovaltine advert. There was a huge fire, a kettle on the fire, the oven with the bread being baked every day, and there was the radio; it was very magical to hear all these wonderful programmes. Brian Blessed I've completed half of my space training at Space City in Moscow. I love adventure, and I've been training in a centrifuge and MiG Fighter with a view to going into space and being a spokesman for space exploration! Brian Blessed I've become quite a serious explorer: I've been to Everest three times; I'm the oldest man to reach the North Pole; and I've just been to the lost world of Venezuela. Brian Blessed When I was 11, I played the part of Rumpelstiltskin, and my teacher told me I would make a great actor. Brian Blessed I wasn't good at examinations, but I went to a very good secondary school - Bolton-on-Dearne - with wonderful teachers, who taught me drama and encouraged me in every way. Brian Blessed John Pilger Quotes Australian - Journalist Born: October 9, 1939 Official truths are often powerful illusions. John Pilger Vietnam was as much a laboratory experiment as a war. John Pilger I grew up in Sydney in a very political household, where we were all for the underdog. John Pilger The censorship is such on television in the U.S. that films like mine don't stand a chance. John Pilger Classic nineteenth century European imperialists believed they were literally on a mission. I don't believe that the imperialists these days have that same sense of public service. They are simply pirates. John Pilger We have an extreme rightwing government in this country, although it's called the Labour government. John Pilger It's very clear that the Bush Administration is out of control. It contains some truly dangerous people. John Pilger I'm absolutely convinced of that. Israel is the representative of the United States in that part of the world. Its policies are so integrated with American policies that they use the same language. John Pilger Orwell is almost our litmus test. Some of his satirical writing looks like reality these days. John Pilger Not all the Americans in Iraq are those who torture and murder, or course they're not, I don't know how many are doing it, I know it is systematic throughout the United States military I think that's been revealed. John Pilger

@Mel Damron - so based upon your comment, I’m a difficult customer just because I wanted my shower pan to be built in accordance with the terms of the contract (which required that the work complied with applicable codes???!!??) I actually made this post in order to confirm whether the work had been done correctly or not BEFORE I discussed anything with the subcontractor. Not sure why a customer is labeled as difficult just because I wanted my shower pan to be installed correctly so it would pass an upcoming inspection (and drain correctly when used). Funny - considering that pros on Houzz + pros on John Bridge Tile Forum all told me that I needed to stop the work immediately because the subcontractor failed to install a pre slope before installing the pvc liner. Also, when my GC returned from out of town, he completely agreed that the sub contractor had failed to install the shower pan correctly. FYI - I am on great terms with my GC - and have engaged him for upcoming renovations for my kitchen, laundry room, powder room, wine room, staircase, plus adding a covered deck + new patio + firepit in my back yard. I also just gave him a car last weekend for his son. My mom passed away unexpectedly, and my sisters decided that I could do whatever I wanted with her car since I had given it to her for a birthday gift a few years earlier. My two daughters both have cars, and none of my nieces/nephews needed a car. I knew that my GC was looking fir a car for his son - and since he has taken care of me - and does great work - I asked him if he wanted it. It’s not a big deal - but between that and all of the new work he’s doing for me, it doesn’t seem like he would refer to me as a “difficult“ customer. Not sure why you felt the need to insult me.