I might just write a check

Wednesday is ‘social security number’ day when we trundle along to North Pennsylvania street and sit like stunned mullets for a few hours before throwing ourselves on the mercy of someone who is not interested in our problems and does not give a rat’s arse that we are trying to buy a house and desperately need a number.

Still – if it is no worse than the Austrian system – and the system in the US Consulate in Vienna – which are both ghastly - I will not complain.

If things go according to plan (joke!) we will be able to go back on Thursday and get our numbers.

Meanwhile I went to Trader Joe’s and bought some Italian blend coffee. I hope this is better that the stuff we are drinking at the moment.

Oh – and my debit card works. It’s a miracle.

Soon I might write a check to see what that is like. I shall do it at Kroger.

I don't expect to see it again

On the weekend we discovered many more things you cannot do without a social security number. One of these is getting a discount card from Gap. This surprised even me – and cost me $40.

Today we got our debit cards and check books. Of course I could not activate the cards (please enter the last four digits of your social security number…..) but the kind man at the bank helped me out…I think.

What he actually said was ‘I have activated them and they should work’. The important word in this sentence is ‘should’. Being the eternal optimist – albeit a bit faded after the last week – I shall try it at Kroger tomorrow.

I think it’s quaint that the Americans still use checks. Here they are – supposedly the most technologically advanced nation on the planet – and yesterday at Kroger I was standing behind a woman who was paying for her groceries with a check. I haven’t seen that for 20 years.

Incidentally – I lost my Kroger card – but as it did not work at the gas station there is no great problem. I will start again.

In one of the miracles of the ages we found the perfect sofas at the first store we visited. Well…we think they are perfect – but the interior designer who served us is coming to have a look at our house – if we close before Friday. She seems to know what we are trying to do. We shall see.

Our air freight shipment still has not arrived. We were told that it was opened – unpacked entirely – (and no doubt ransacked) on its way through Bratislava. I do not expect to see my camera and a number of items of this ilk again.

All these things are but minor irritations as we embed ourselves in American society.

There are any number of churches we could join….careful consideration is required lest we make the wrong choice. 

We have real coffee!

Well the Jura has arrived so we can have real coffee – but now the challenge is to find some beans that we like. The first batch I have bought is a complete failure.

I tried to make some changes to my AT & T cell phone and was caught with the old social security number thing again. I can’t make changes unless I can give them the last four digits of my social security number – except I don’t have one – but the cunning people at AT & T made up a number when I picked up my phone – but they didn’t tell me what it was.

I am now in the position where I can’t do anything without knowing a number that someone else made up.

We have our social security number appointment on 15 May – and I hope it won’t be too long after this when we have our magic numbers without which doors in the USA do not open.

We are going furniture shopping because (surprise) nothing we bought in Vienna will go with the new house. 

Fortunately all furniture stores have oodles of sad bastard’s chairs and I can rest while pretending to test the comfort levels of each sofa.