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Yesterday it was in the 70s, today it's snowing. So this morning I bundled up and headed out, glad that this is the day my food stamps arrive. It was snowing lightly as I pulled out of the driveway, and I hoped the heavier stuff would hold off til I got home; my wiper motor is shot, requiring that I raise the hood and whack it with my cane in order to start the wipers. I lucked out as the snow had stopped by the time I got to the grocery store.
I don't ever fill up a shopping cart, having to limit my purchases to things I can carry easily. If I can, I avoid having to make more than one trip from the parking lot, through the security door, down a set of stairs and to the end of a long hallway to get to my door. Juggling shopping bags, oxygen and a cane takes a bit of work so I have to plan for at least a couple of hours for the task.
The store was busy, unsurprising as folks tend to stock up when the weather looks chancey. When it was my turn at the checkout I put my selections on the counter, the checker scanned them, I presented my card. Then the checker announced that I needed to pay cash because there was nothing on the card. Huh? I asked her to run it again and it came up empty. Wasn't much I could do about it, I had enough cash on me to pay for the bottle of ibuprofen. So, the checker had to 'uncheck' everything, one at a time, and the grumbling in the line behind me was getting louder. Tucking my small purchase into one of my tote bags I headed out and away from the grumbling. And it was now snowing like crazy. So, I started the engine, got out, raised the hood, whacked the wiper motor, closed the hood, got back in, shut the door and came home.
After giving myself a few minutes to vent I called my food stamp technician at social services. When I asked where my stamps were he immediately answered that I "probably hadn't turned in the proper paperwork" -- odd, since he'd been looking at the paperwork I'd turned in when I spoke with him two weeks ago and I reminded him of that. Then he said he was busy working on someone else's case and he'd get to mine in about ten minutes and would call me back to let me know what he found. Two hours later he called and fussed at me about the prescription records I'd been required to submit; apparently, they're now required to record every pill transaction and in my case that would take a while. Never mind that he'd had the info for over two weeks, it was somehow my fault that he hadn't gotten it done. Then he said I hadn't turned in my rental documents; I asked him to look in my file for something that had the name of my apartment complex at the top of the page, and he said "Oh, is THAT it?"
It's now almost 5pm. He just called and said he'd gotten it fixed, that I should have the full account tomorrow morning. Goody. I'll fix a salad for dinner tonight and maybe have some cereal for dessert. Soup would have been warmer, given the weather, so I'm a bit grumpy about that.
It would have been nice if my tech had at least said he was sorry for the screwup. But he would have had to break from the mold of indifference that seems to shape those who work in such positions. Apologies are completely out of character. Fact is, I probably wouldn't have survived the shock if he had apologized.
I'm fine. It won't kill me to delay having my soup for a day or two. I'm inside, protected from the weather, annoyed at the inconvenience and the public embarrassment. But these days I'm privileged to be able to do my bitching over the phone. Others are out there in the snow, huddling in tents in the park; they have to do their groveling in person tomorrow, face to face with paper-shufflers who aren't paid to give a damn.
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