I reckon you folks don’t know this but Cupcake was laboring under the delusion that I was never going to see my elusive 20’X28′ greenhouse and “other valuable considerations”. I took that bet and it appears she may have to do dishes for the rest of her life. If this Order doesn’t produce a grant of Mandamus with the potential for sanctions, I’m gonna come down with a bad chronic case of dishpan hands directly in about 35 days. The suspense is killing me.  

I’m gonna let them gomers in Seattle know up front (because it appears they have assigned a minder to read my blatherings) that when this comes back down and we have to actually sign on the dotted line, I’m going to invoke Karnas v. Derwinski and insist on the older M 28 regulations versus the newer M28 R version. This little ploy will cost them 3 years of propane rather than the 3 months they steadfastly refused to increase on. The reason is buried way down in Chapter 9. The new M 28 R says you have to prove you can financially sustain your IILP after it’s up and running X months or years. The old M 28 says no such hooey. It says they’ll supply whatever you need to make it a huge success. If I keep that greenhouse cooking at 75° all winter, I could blow a huge sum on propane annually. The cost difference to VA would be up in the five digits if I turn it into a hothouse.  As we say in VAland, Karnas is a bitch.

Our old friend  Karnas v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 308, 313 (1991) ( reversed on other grounds) and replaced by  Kuzma v. Principi, 341 F.3d 1327, 1328-29 (Fed. Cir. 2003) taught us that the rules when you start this poker game will remain the same. If you change them, the version most beneficial to the Vet will be employed-not the other way around. In any case, the Vet gets to choose whichever version he prefers. Some folks are contraries and work against themselves but that’s a story for another day.

The ILPmobile Hi Ho Hi Ho, it’s off to bars we go

I began my oddysey the day Bruce Almighty called from Georgia and asked if I’d put in for ILP or was just going to shuck, jive and write about it on asknod.   May 11th, 2011 was the day I showed up at the VR&E Corral. That set the time clock for which manual to employ. The newer, more restrictive M 28 R (forbidding riding lawnmowers and other mobility devices you can drive to the VFW bar on) was revised the day before my birthday (April Fools) in 2014. VA recognizes May 11th, 2011 as the date of “request for grant” but then – they don’t even call an ILP greenhouse an “entitlement” such as how Phil Cushman had to explain to the Fed Circus what entitlement really was. That VA brain fart of remodeling Phil’s VISTA Medical records blossomed into Due Process as we now know it.

Once the fat lady (VLJ) sings greenhouse or woodworking shop (or ______ ________), that’s all she wrote, ladies and gentlemen. That greenhouse has now become an entitlement due and owing-let no Bozo rend it asunder.  St. Margaret of the Holy Order Of the Sisters of Indiana Ave. NW has now asked for the particulars of the “shrinkage”from Dr. Shulkin. The good doctor will be granted 30 days and 29 nights in which to unravel this Gordian knot and explain who will walk the plank. The odds at Bally’s Reno Sports Book has Emerald Downs’ first claiming race this winter with VRE Officer 9/4 in the pole position.  A Sanction is running at 2/1  in gate #3. Wimbledon Getaway is going off at 80-1.

18-938 Order -30 days 3-1-18

As usual, this will be fun to watch. Be on the lookout for post hoc rationalizations and misconstrual of what 20 X 28 means in VA math using 38 CFR §4.25 addition. Hell, that might not be too far from the truth come to think of it. Remember, these VA folks  just invent it as they go. We may eventually find out what the meaning of “is” is.

And here are the Solze Notices we all have to file when something comes up. VA’s timing is abominable.

Solze #1 

Solze #2