The Government & Computers

I probably need to quit commenting about how beautiful our weather is, especially with the Upper Plains having snow – but it's a gorgeous day!! It's just a bit warmer than yesterday, no sweater was necessary to walk outside this morning. We're enjoying the fact that we can still eat lunch on the screened-in back porch.

I put my nose to the proverbial grindstone and worked on a Christmas ornament for a bit over an hour this afternoon. I finally felt my eyes starting to cross and took a break. Yesterday I was working with light yellow and regular yellow thread – today's green was a lot easier on the eyes.

I decided to make my first attempt at getting on the government's health insurance website today. It started out rather well. Once I'd entered my personal information and email information, a message popped up that they had sent me an email with the final steps for setting up my account. I went to my email account and had three emails from them – I skimmed all three, then clicked on the link to activate my account.

That's the point when things started going downhill. My overall impression is that the government and computers do NOT mix! I clicked that link, it went to the website.......and finally, after quite a bit of “page loading” time, I got the message that I hadn't been quick enough clicking on that activation link and would have to start over.

I entered everything again, only to be told that my selected user name was already used by another account – yeah, people, the one I already set up!!! The next user name I tried was already in use. User name #3 – same result.

Understand, I had to go back and start from scratch each time – my name, address, email information, selecting and answering three different security questions (and on the ones utilizing a date, I could not use a comma in the date in my answer). I was at the point of using some colorful language by then. Hubby was concerned I was upset with him about something until I told him what I was attempting. Then he understood.

By the time I got to a message that said I could not sign up on line and would need to call their toll-free number, I knew it was time to throw in the towel. My stress level was rising quickly. I very deliberately closed out the website and did something for a few minutes that didn't require any stress.

I will make sure when I try again that I have the phone handy so I can switch to that method before I'm ready to throw the computer – or the government – out the door! From what I can tell from preliminary information, it will be worth my time and trouble. I think I've found a positive point for being unemployed!

We took a quick trip to Dari Maid for ice cream this afternoon, then we went by the Library and I checked out a couple of books. I'm looking forward to getting into that routine......I've only been back home for 20 years, it's about time I started utilizing the Library!

Except for that one little governmental problem, it was a nice day. At least I have almost three months to deal with them and for us to get on the same page!