Journal: 05/24/06

Up early for the trip to Salinas this morning and actually made it out of the house on time. Bill’s car made the trip without incident and we were back home, after a stop in Marina at Grocery Outlet and my bank in Monterey, by 11:30 AM. My plan was to take a nap before going into work, but I opted for a couple of beers instead. The day at work didn’t turn out badly because of the morning beers though, but I do plan on an early bedtime tonight. By the time I put in nine hours behind the front desk, I’ll be tuckered out.

Begging from the Government

The trip to Salinas and the Social Security office went well as far as getting through the interview and explaining my needs. I left with a feeling of incompleteness though; I hadn’t really accomplished more than making an appointment two weeks from now. That’s the time when all the applications are filled out and submitted for action.

There didn’t seem to be any problem with the death benefit, I fit all the criteria since Joann and I had been married longer than a year. I guess that if your wife dies before a year of marriage, you’re screwed on the death benefit.

I didn’t qualify for survivor’s benefits though, as I have to either have reached the ripe old age of sixty, or already be disabled myself. Which leads me to another reason to apply for my own disability status. I left with an appointment for June 5 to get together for another interview with yet another person to complete the death benefit and disability applications. Who knows how long it will take after that to see any results?

I knew that Social Security wasn’t going to be a quick fix for my money woes, but I decided that sooner was better in starting the application process. In the short term though, none of these applications will have any affect on the quality of my life, or my ability to purchase beer and cigarettes. It does give me a little more leverage with the bank though, at least they can see me making some effort.

I did stop by my bank on the way home and had a chat with the branch manager. Surprisingly, he actually remembered me and that made things easier. He knew that Joann had been ill for a long time and wasn’t surprised to hear about her death. We discussed options for getting money back into the bank and he said that they wouldn’t cancel the account, so long as I kept him in the loop. I promised to do that and after placing a block on my account so my automatic bill payments would be stopped, I left for home and a couple well earned beers.