Tuesday, April 9, 2019

H is for Hip, Hip Hooray!

#AtoZChallenge 2019 Tenth Anniversary blogging from A to Z challenge letterHip, Hip Hooray!

I Had a victory today!



It didn't start out as a battle. It all started as a bit of bureaucracy to work through. I needed a Social Security statement to do my mother's taxes and I couldn't find it. I tried online to get one but couldn't, of course, because her account closed when she died. I ran around in circles, for a while, (actually walked in circles while I was on hold several times for an hour), before I finally figured out that I had to go to a SSA office to do what needed to be done. My sister kindly went to the SSA office for me and got the necessary paperwork. A few more confusing times while I completed her taxes, but I finally waded through the bureaucracy to completion.

Completion, that is, for my mother, but not for me. Soon after my difficulties with my mother's SSA documents, I had some problems of my own. Ward and I were doing another look at our finances and looking into the best time to retire. This included examination of our SS benefits, but when I tried to log into my online account to get a statement, I got locked out--multiple times on multiple days. This included doing what was advised by two different phone calls to SSA for help. Finally, they said there was nothing to do except visit an office. Which I did. I waited about an hour in the crowded room for my turn during which the clerk at the office gave me a paper with instructions to fix things when I got home. And guess what? They didn't work.

Well, today was the day that I finally had a couple of hours to be on hold, so I called SSA again. And it was so simple. Eric, my helper, just canceled my old account and I set up a new one. And it worked!! I am one Happy person.

Hip, hip hooray!
I had a victory today!