Backtracking Just A Bit

Before I get into the Department of Labor (DOL) crap, let me back up just a little bit. When we first got to the shelter my kids were still in school. Ty and Zach went to elementary schools in Rocky Point and Dolly went to Head Start in Port Jefferson. When I met with the case manager the day after we arrived I asked him – it was a man for the first week and then a woman replaced him – about school for the kids. Were they supposed to go to the same schools? Were there buses to transport them? Did I have to drive them? I had loads of questions.

He told me that since we were in a shelter the boys could go to the schools they were already in and that the County would arrange buses for them, I could ride in a cab with them that the County would pay for, I could drive them until buses were arranged and I would be reimbursed, or I could simply transfer them to the local school. I chose to drive them and get reimbursed for my gas usage until buses could be arranged.

I wasn’t going to transfer them with two-and-a-half weeks of school left, and I wasn’t going to sit with them in a cab. I’d have to ride all the way out to the schools and back in the morning and then do it again in the afternoons. The ride was almost an hour each way so I thought it was a lot of wasted time; time that I could have spent running errands or doing whatever I needed to do if I was in my own vehicle. Since Dolly was in Head Start and it was elective on my part they wouldn’t provide a bus for her. I’d have to drive her to school so driving the boys was my best option. It seemed that way, anyway. I was told it would take a couple of days for the bus arrangement so I had to keep track of my mileage in the meantime.

We arrived at the shelter on a Wednesday afternoon and I had to meet with the case manager on Thursday. I drove the kids to school in the morning, drove all the way back, and met with the case manager for almost two hours. I had about an hour left afterward before I had to head back out to pick up the boys and get Dolly on the rebound. It was a lot of driving but I had to do it. I was getting really ticked off at the government for forcing me into the situation.

What aggravated me even more was that the bus arrangements took a week to be put in place and I was running out of money for gas. Once the buses were in place I stopped taking Dolly to school altogether. She only had a week left by then and it wasn’t worth me using all my remaining funds to get her to and from the school. My cash case wasn’t open yet so I had no other option; she stayed with me during the day while the boys were at school.

The buses, by the way, picked up the boys at 7:15 every morning and didn’t bring them back until our dinner hour began at 5:00. They had to be in school by 8:30 and 9:00 – two different schools – and were finished by 2:30 and 3:00 so the extra-long rides didn’t make any of us happy. It was worse for Zach because he was dropped off early and had to wait in the school office for class to begin, and had to be pulled early from his last class because Ty’s school ended earlier and Zach had to get on the same bus to come home. It was confusing for everyone.

While the boys were at school Dolly and I had to find something to do during the day. I could not sit in that shelter all day long with nothing to do. The one good thing about where we’d been placed was that my best friend, Joe, lived only eight minutes away. He was out of work on disability after surgery so I’d take Dolly there and use his computer to do my housing logs. She’d play, I’d do what I had to do, and then we’d hang out with Joe until it was time to return to the shelter to meet the boys’ bus.

Then my DOL appointment day arrived. The first DOL appointment is scheduled at the local DSS office rather than at the DOL so I knew it was going to be a long day. I had to take Dolly with me and I knew she wouldn’t be happy. That meeting was so aggravating I was ready to smack someone. It was nothing but bullshit on top of bullshit that just turned into more bullshit the next day. When I tell you all about it you’ll understand why.

Until next time…peace to all.