Tuesday Rant!

It's Tuesday, and here the promised rant. Remember I mentioned before that we had applied for Food Stamps, and been approved? Well, we got a letter a while back telling us we are entitled to $32.00 per month. You read correctly. $32.00 per month. This is supposedly a supplement. When I asked the lady how we were expected to buy food for two parents and a 15 year old girl with $32.00, I could envision the Prince-nez glasses perching on the end of her up-turned nose as she said:

"Food Stamps are only supposed to be a supplement, sir!"
She actually made the 'sir' sound like a curse.

Okay fine. According to the statement we got we are entitled to $12.00 for September, and the aforementioned $32.00 for October and every month thereafter. Fine. Great. The next hurdle is how do we access the $32.00? (Now that it's December, we're up to $108.00) We had a card when we lived in Dallas County. We tried calling the information from that card. Nothing. We finally get hold of the lady with the snotty attitude again. She tells us ( oh so contritely now)the card we have is just fine, and that there is a computer glitch, and we should be able to access the Food Stamps by the next day. You see she and her assistant were working on the problem until 7PM the night before, until the computers were taken down for the night. Okay I'm an idiot. I buy this one.

I try back the next day. Still no access. I try for a couple more days. No dice. I call the lady again. She gives me more song and dance that they are still having computer problems. After going round and round about this thing for another 2 weeks, she suddenly decides that we do need a new card, after all. We have to go into the Denton County office to get it. I leave a message asking if they could possibly mail the card. She responds to the phone tag, and says she will send the card. That was last Wednesday, As of today's mail, no Food Stamp card. One begins to wonder if she sent the bloody thing via Pony express! Hell, I could have walked to Denton and back ( even with my screwed up back and sciatica) faster than this!

Don't ya just love a bureaucracy!