Social Security and Other Stuff

I had some questions about retirement so I went to the Social Security Office. The lady who helped me didn't seem to be too competent, perhaps she was, but she certainly didn't come across to me as knowing her stuff.

Anyhow, I made an appointment to go back tomorrow to apply for benefits, but meantime I changed my mind.

Being the responsible person that I am, I felt like the noble thing to do would be to call and cancel the appointment. So I looked up the number of the Social Security Office before I left for work on Wednesday, stuck it in my pocket and tried on my break to call. I was connected to one of those automatic answering services that has a long, long menu and several things to tell you. When I pressed 0 to get past that, the time they said I'd have to wait was longer than the amount of break time I had left.

So I tried again on my lunch. I put the call on speaker phone and was going to wait my turn to get through. I waited for probably 15 minutes before I was cut off. So much for that.

Today when I got home there was a message on my home phone reminding me of my appointment which told me to call their toll free number if I wanted to cancel.

Well, good. This should be easy. I'll let them know I'm not coming.

Naive.

Same scenario. Except this time they asked me for my social security number, my first name. Say it and spell it. They never could understand my first name so they moved on to the last name, then to my mother's maiden name. They couldn't understand the pronunciation of that but managed to figure out the spelling. Anyway, after giving them much more of my time than they deserved, since all I wanted to do was cancel an appointment, I was once again cut off without being connected to a representative.

This is why people don't get excited about government managed health care. If they managed it, can you imagine what a 911 call would be like?


Other Stuff
My dirty clothes are piling up. I think Tesia would let me come and wash at her house, but I have a hard time synchronizing our schedules.

I did go get my washing machine today. Well, I didn't actually get it. I ordered it. It will be delivered next Thursday and installed free. It was on sale for less that I was told it would be. I was told that it would be 10% less by waiting until today, but when I went in to buy it, not only was it 10% less, it was also on sale. And the connector hose they said I'd have to buy when I checked online was not something I had to buy. (The sales girl had told me I wouldn't but I guess I didn't trust her completely since she was so young. So when I saw online that I'd have to also buy connector hoses, I thought she was mistaken.) The man who waited on me today said that the ones they wanted me to buy were stainless steel but the new ones that came with the machine were really all I needed to have for them to install it. (She did tell me they would not do the free installation unless I had new connector hoses.)

Anyway, my brother sent me more money than I need to pay for the washer. The extra would come in handy as I forked over $100 to pay for lawn mower repair yesterday, but he didn't send me the money for that, so I owe him some back.

I am so blessed to have someone who takes such good care of me when an emergency arises.

I asked for next Thursday off because Jeni is having surgery that day and I wanted to keep the kids for her. So I figured I could "kill two birds with one stone" and ask the machine to be delivered that day.

The re-set at work is progressing nicely. When I left today, I was able to turn in that I am 87.5% finished. That means of the 88 panels I had to reset, I have finished 77. The crafts person helped me out some today. She did a couple of the panels. She said she might be able to do a couple more when she comes in tomorrow. If so, I will be left with 12 panels to do tomorrow. (She had previously helped me by doing ten on the rubber stamp side of my first aisle.) Hopefully, cross my fingers, I will be able to get them all done. (I just realized when I was re-adding that, that I didn't figure it right. I only had 85% when I left today. Oh, well. What is right is that if she does two in the morning, I'll have 12 left to do when I get there. I did almost 18 today, so maybe I'll be able to get the 12 done tomorrow, even though I close and will have to stop and straighten.)

I'm off on Saturday, so I really need to finish tomorrow. It's due on Monday. I could actually finish up on Monday after I get my order done, but I know they'd be glad if I had it done by tomorrow when I leave.

We had a stock test today. Thankfully, I didn't miss any, but when I asked the boss how we were doing over all, he said "not good". I'm not sure what that means. I do know if we miss over five, he has to call and explain why to the REGIONAL manager. I think they check somewhere around one hundred items in the whole store. Missing 6 out of 100 is considered "failing".