We
made attempt number one to begin the process of Chris receiving her social
security retirement benefits. Well, not
Medicare yet. She has to wait a little
while longer for that “blessing.” We went
to the “.gov” website and made it to the screens where they ask random
questions about credit accounts you may or may not have had back 30 or 40 years
ago. Well, OK, so maybe it was 10 or 20
years ago. Either way, we apparently
gave the wrong answer to one of the questions.
A screen appeared informing us that we were summarily locked out of the
system for 24 hours. Yep. We have been put in Social Security Time Out
for a whole day. Well, I certainly feel
admonished.
The
screen indicated that we could next call the social security hotline and talk
to an agent about the situation. Aaand …
that would be after first waiting on hold for 58 minutes (we timed it). Chris
continued washing clothes and cleaning the kitchen. I dove back into work on the computer. When the guy finally answered I called out
for Chris to hurry in so she could talk to the guy. First he said, “It sounds like I am on
speaker phone where you are. Do I have
permission to speak about these things so that others can hear?” Interesting request. Never heard that one before. Chris assured his it would be fine. It was “just her husband.” He got all her pertinent information, and then
asked what she was trying to do. Chris
gave him the short version, and he asked specifically about what error the
screen had flashed at us. Fortunately I still
had it up on the computer, so we could read it to him. “Ah, that’s what I was afraid of.” Not what we wanted to hear. Seems with that code there was nothing he
could do to help us. The account was
completely locked down. We were truly in
Time Out. Worse, even. We were suspended. We were grounded. He told Chris that her only other option was
to go to the local social security office and they could unlock everything and
give her the code she needed to set up her “Mysocialsecurity” account. Wonderful.
The office is in League City. And
when I had to go there (Yep, I had one of
those dreaded codes as well), it involved a wait of at least an hour (Enough that Chris had exhausted all the shopping
options in the area). Sigh. Guess we can wait until this afternoon and
try again on line. Or be forced to drive
into Texas. Aaaarrrgh.
Psalms
105:4 says, “Look to the Lord and his
strength; seek his face always.”
Father,
help us have the patience to get through this process … again. Amen.
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