OT July Chit Chat

[Pegakafarmgirl]

Jeanie,, bless those 2 boys of yours,, I think this is great, they pitch in, when needed,,

Howie,, keep talkin,, I am sure someone is around,, or Sam will listen,,

Speaking of weather,, its nasty thru out the whole US,, we are having our share of it in Iowa,, I usually go outside in the morning, then stay in, in the afternoon..its just yucky weather..

[Howie]

Both cats have taken their turns sitting right between the computer and myself. I make over them and talk to them all day. They are such great companions for me. Even Sam!

[Frog42]

Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

[SalpalSally]

Heat warnings for my neck of the woods this weekend!

[Virginia]

Heat warnings here too Sally!

Howie, why don't you get food stamps. The people that get them say it is a help. I promise you that with just SS you would qualify. I think you could apply over the phone or on line without going anywhere. Every little bit helps.

Well, my computer is so messed up that it is hard for me to come on here and truly enjoy reading. I now have a dark grey or beige background, green print, purple headings and the page numbers are a redish pink. I do not believe I can ever get it fixed. I am pretty sure that I will have to have someone come out. Just hope I have not ruined it.

P.S. Every time I get off my computer and come back on I have to change the language to English. I have gone into settings and it says it is set for United States/English, but it comes up in Spanish.

I am going to read a book and try to cool down - and I don't mean from the weather.

[Howie]

Virginia, I got food stamps once, and it was such a hassle for me to get them, and embarrassing for me to use them in the store, I just dropped them after a month. I'm not starving without them.

[agate]

Howie, I've been getting Food Stamps for years and years. In this state and in WA state as well they no longer hand out stamps that you have to use at the store. In fact here Food Stamps are now called "SNAP benefits" (SNAP = Supplemental Nutrition Program or something like that) and they're deposited directly into my checking account every month.

Once a year there is an eligibility review, and I do have a lot of paperwork to do in a short time, including receipts for out-of-pocket medical expenses, any medical insurance premiums paid, rx copays, etc.

After I turn all of that in (I mail it in after doing the application online), they let me know what my monthly amount will be for a year.

There are case workers who can help you to figure out the paperwork--either over the phone or if you go there in person.

As for those carping people in checkout lines, I've never run into any of them but I understand that others have. Why are they concerning themselves with what you are buying or how you're paying for it?

If they are concerning themselves, I'd let them know that they should tend to their own pea patch and let me tend to mine.

I just don't understand this practice of peering into other people's shopping carts and noticing how they're paying.

It's a privacy issue. I doubt that stores are like this any more but (here I go again, reminiscing) back when there were no supermarkets but instead each grocery store was owned by someone who'd been there for many years, and most of the customers knew all of the employees--the butcher, the checkout people, the owner, the produce person--you'd find some customers who had a tab at that store and sometimes had a quiet discussion at checkout, probably about a past-due bill. The store was kind enough to extend credit to customers they knew and trusted.

That was before credit cards, of course. But you wouldn't have dreamt of trying to overhear that conversation between the customer and the store employee because you knew it was that person's business. Quite possibly the customer had fallen on hard times and was waiting for some funds to come along, and when the money came in, the customer would pay up. In the meantime there had to be an arrangement with the store--usually verbal. No contract needed.

My point is that the transaction at the point of sale is a private one. It's between the customer and the store. Other customers should stay out of it. If someone is using Food Stamps or a personal IOU or Confederate bills to pay the tab, that's between that person and the store.

People who don't have much money have already had to sacrifice a lot of their dignity in many ways. Customers cluck-clucking about the use of Food Stamps don't have to add to the indignity of not having much income.

I'd like to think that one reason they put an end to the actual stamps in little books and replaced them with direct deposit was to cut down on the stigma of getting Food Stamps. Nobody but you knows what goes into your checking account.

I've had a world-class education but the right job wasn't there for me at the right time, and the years spent getting that education would have been far better spent plugging away at a steady job where I'd have accumulated benefits and seniority. MS came along and made it impossible for me to be gainfully employed. Who expected that to happen?

I don't feel obliged to explain that to other customers in a checkout line. Not everyone using the social service system is a deadbeat who just wants a free ride. I know that and most people with any sense know that. I wouldn't even bother to discuss the issue with anyone who raised questions about my use of Food Stamps.

One chilly withering look should do it.

[Howie]

Confederate? Did you say confederate? YEEEEEEEEE HAW, dat's whut I iz!

Yeah, it's called SNAP benefits here too. I just don't want to do it. I gave it a shot, and it's not for me. If things get hard enough, I can always sell Pinky, you know, the car I spent a fortune on building, but never drive.

So what's Howie been doing this afternoon? Going through the 10 million keys I have in my desk drawers. Now I have the keychain I carry when I go anywhere, car, house, garage, and shed keys.

I had some that were duplicates of the ones I carry, and I put them all on a key ring. The rest, I just threw away. My desk drawers look so much better now. Believe it or not, Howie is a neat freak.

SAM, how many times have I told you, wipe your feet when you come out of the litter box!!!

[agate]

Ad seen on Craigslist from your area, Howie:

WANTED: Desirable new home for two adorable cats. Current human is turning into a nutcase who has impossibly high standards about our paws. Situation intolerable. Somebody please rescue us. Our dietary preferences must be observed. Contact Sam at [cellphone number omitted].

[Howie]

Oh no, I knew Sam was hanging out around the computer lately! Darn cat!!!

[Virginia]

That was good Agate! Guess the cats are gonna look for a new home. Maybe they are going to find one without people who wear thongs and want to live under the sea.

I like your news updates!!!

[SuzE-Q]

Agate,

Do you do your own grocery shopping?

[agate]

Yes and no. I "shop" but it's by phone or online these days--ever since I moved here about 7 years ago. Before that a helper took me to a supermarket once a week or occasionally went for me.

Luckily one of the major supermarket chains offers online shopping with home delivery. Here it's Safeway. In WA state both Safeway and Albertson's had online shopping. I understand that Peapod is available in many states, and now there's InstaCart.

These deliveries can be costly, and in the last year I've been using a service that has been available in this city for over 30 years. It's run by volunteers. I am called every week for the order, and a couple of days later the order is delivered. The fee is 10% of the total cost of that day's groceries.

They will buy up to 40 lbs. at a time, and they usually call me if they have a problem finding something. They also will get me a roll of quarters if I ask.

They're very nice and do a good job.

All I have to do is check the things over and put them away.

[SuzE-Q]

I thought it was probably something like that, a kind of online ordering with delivery.

10% fee doesn't seem too bad a charge either, quite reasonable, if you're happy with the quality and service you receive for it.

So much more convenient!

[Catdancer]

We used the government food program for a couple of years when we were first married....sort of. This was back in the days when they distributed actual foodstuffs -- flour, sugar, dried eggs, processed cheese, cornmeal, dried beans, etc. You'd have to go to a site, show your identification, stand in line, have folks with you to help carry the stuff....then go home and figure out how to turn the commodities into dinner. This was after you'd spent the day working at your minimum wage job at $1.85/ hour.

I say we "sort of" used this system, because we didn't know that we as college students were eligible for it....and we might have been too proud to enroll in it had we been.

Instead, we had a Menomonee Indian friend. Here in Wisconsin, then and now, Native Americans can hunt and fish on their tribal lands without restrictions. Al had a very good job, union supported, in a local factory.

At every opportunity --every weekend, every day off, -- he would leave the city where we lived, return go the reservation, hunt, fish, process the meat, then hand it out to his people on the reservation. The old, the sick, the unemployed, the underemployed, the unwed moms with a houseful of kids.

Native Americans are a proud people. They would not accept his charity. They insisted on paying him with whatever they had: those commodities they'd gotten, plus dried cranberries, herbs, venison jerky, sometimes dried fish....

Which would end up unannounced on our back porch, with a note, something like ..."...hope you can use this....". "This" sustained us for nearest two years. I learned how to bake bread from Al's wife, Helen. The recipe started out..." take five pounds of flour....remove any insects or dark spots. Add two generous handfuls of sugar.... ". I still have the recipe. I learned how to make pizza crusts from the bread dough, tomato sauce from the tomatoes we grew in our neighborhood community garden. Exchanged our Swiss chard and kale for mozzarella cheese, to make pizza. Learned how to make cornbread with the corn bread, and fry bread with the flour (diligent require yeast). Learned how to reconstitute dried eggs into something that, with enough other ingredients from our garden could be turned into a meal.

As Virginia said, the SNAP program these days is a snap compared to that. Most of the annual documentation required is what you need for taxes anyway, and you're issued a debit card to pay for your purchases. You can shop at a regular grocery store (no more humiliating standing in line to be handed stuff by a disapproving social worker), you can buy actual food in a wide variety. And indeed who cares what others have in their grocery carts, anyway??? I never notice...unless, say, there are bags and cans of cat food being unloaded, and I might laugh and comment about the bags and cans in our cart....

Anyway. These days, through a set of fortuitous circumstances, I don't have to worry about what I spend for groceries, or what ends up in my cart. Going grocery shopping is a real joy for me...I spend as much time looking at the food possibilities as I do actual shopping. I'm able to indulge in the steak, or salmon, or special deli. But it hasn't been so long ago that that wasn't possible....

So I encourage anyone to take advantage of SNAP if you're eligible. The hassle is worth it. You can get quite a lot through the program, and then use your own money for those little luxuries that you now can't afford...

I do a lot of large item shopping through the internet. No reason to drag around bags of catfood when the same bags, at the same price, can land on my doorstep with no delivery charge, thanks to Amazon or petsmart. Once every couple of months I'll shop at Amazon pantry --the grocery area of Amazon and stock up on basics, again delivery free after $50. Right now I send Tom Cat with a list I've prepared from the weekly grocery ads available on line. When I'm able, we go together and indulge. I tease him that I have as much fun grocery shopping as he has at the hardware store. :)