The Recovering Farmer

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Honestly

Forgive my minor little rant here. I am frustrated. Actually I am mad. Because I did not have many meetings planned for this week I have been able to take advantage of having to deal with my mother’s estate. That involves a lot of phone calls. Particularly government agencies. With OAS and CPP and GST and numerous other acronyms that basically stand for; “you pay in and get didly squat back”, you make the calls and hope everything works out.

Quite frankly pulling up to a Timmies drive through these days is almost as painful.

“Hello, my name is blah blah blah. Would you like a breakfast sandwich this morning?”

“I would like a medium black coffee please”

“Could I interest you in a cookie?”

“NO, if I wanted a cookie I would have ordered a cookie. I want an effing medium black coffee.”

So you dial a government agency. It takes approximately 13 minutes to get to the prompt you need. Please press 1 to talk English. Okay. Now you go through a menu of choices. HELP. I get impatient. Hit the wrong button. Start all over. Please give me a person to talk to. Then you finally do get through and wait a minute. . . what country am I talking to? Sorry. Go figure.

Get through to OAS and CPP. Kind, understanding people. Express their condolences. Really helpful in what I need to do. Then I made the mistake of calling GST. Like honestly. CRA includes OAS, CPP, and GST. Why is this complicated? Does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing? That was a rhetorical question.

After a conversation with them that was enough to push me over the edge I hung up on them. The demands, now that I think back, were rather humorous. They needed a copy of the will. EXCUSE ME. Why? You think you might be beneficiary? Not likely. And while you are at it how much money are you actually sending my mother? Gosh, must be close to $43.67 every 3 months. So what do you need?

My apologies. Just got carried away for abit. I hung up on them. Their choice. Keep sending the cheques. At some point they will probably realize that this person has passed on. Cheques are not being cashed. Perhaps it will involve an investigation. I wish them well. Then again it makes me wonder how many cheques are sent out regularly to dead people. Don’t get me going on that. I know. There are some people paid by government that . . . . oh, never mind.

Thank God the weather has turned for this week. Giving me the opportunity to go out and hit some golf balls. It is amazing what a walk does. Sun warming the back. Good company. Hitting the ball well. As one golf partner said the other day, golfing can be good for the soul. It can be. But it is important to let go of the cares of the world just for a while. Enjoy the sun. Enjoy the company. Because as sure as night follows day the snow will soon fly and then we will wish we had taken advantage of nicer weather. In the meantime I will put you on hold. Just for a minute. Hope you enjoy the music. For quicker service please press 12. Make it a good one.

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