I just got off the phone, after a 25 minute wait on hold, with the Fed. Government office that manages the retired employees and their spouses monthly payments. I need to get a breakdown of how much my Mom receives each month. They send that figure out once a year and you never see that number again until the tax forms arrive in the following year!

Well, I was prepared for a long wait but was surprised at how alert and spot on the person was at the other end of the call! I will confess that I said I WAS my Mother rather than her representative. I learned that lesson a long time ago.

The government has tons of web sites you can dig through to get information such as I needed but unless you go to that site several times a year, I can never remember where and what each department is/was. Often times you need an already established PIN number, which of course, I can never find.

Anyway, all in all it took only 4 minutes to get the information I needed. I did have that nasty wait at the beginning....... I had a comfortable chair.

I hope there is a government program offered with this healthcare reform progress and here's hoping we will have good people running it....and THEY HAVE LOTS OF PHONE LINES AND PEOPLE TO ANSWER THE CALLS!