Do not get too excited…

I say this because, until we get to the condo, any photo I upload, that you can see, is by the grace of God.

I have told you that the internet, here, especially, is used, in the wifi mode, by everyone, and then some. So, to have enough wireless signal to upload a post, plus, photos, is almost impossible. When we get to the condo, however, Ivan will have techy stuff all over the condo, bouncing wifi from here to there, and back again. This house is too big to do all of that. It would be very costly for us to help with that right now.

I believe I wrote about my Social Security benefits being stopped, by me, (duh), in a prior post. In April, I went to the office in Davenport, and had them stop my benefit checks, because I was sure we had enough money, and wanted to save that money for when we were a bit older. So they did, indeed, stop the checks. (Hind sight being 20/20, this was later discovered to be a very bad idea).

After we got here, however, bought the condo, started remodeling, etc., the money, from my retirement, went quickly. So, I contacted the United States Embassy, here in Mexico City, (ugh!), to ask for their assistance, restarting my payments. After multiple back, and forth, emails, I got an appointment with someone who would help me. (If you remember, we stood outside, at 7:30am, with about a zillion other people, in order to go to my 9:00am appointment). The lady I spoke with did not think it would require much more information in order to restart the checks. Wrong!

Well, they still have not restarted them, five months later. I have received a couple of letters, via my sister in law, Mayra, in Bettendorf, from the Chicago office, (thank God), saying that if I wanted to continue with my cancellation of benefits, I would need to contact them within thirty days, or, repay them the money I had already received. If I did not repay the money, or contact them within thirty days, they would consider the withdrawal of my request voided. (That is how I read it.)

This is the gist of the letter I received from the Chicago office. What do you think?

So, hopefully, if I do not contact them, or repay the money, I am thinking they will restart my checks. Then, we will truly be living the dream. I will keep you posted. Let me know what you think this letter says.