Today I have defeated the windmill and saved a fair maidens honor. I am Lord of La Mancha!
Ok not so dramatic but a real life family tale of celebration, defeat & finally triumph.....
It has been a tough year financially nothing new. We do Ok but barely. I'm disabled & my wife works very hard.
A car needed parts & tax bill car insurance all conspired. There were no presents under our humble tree in a family of 4. I was planning on a Amazon spree when I got paid the day after christmas but other than stocking stuffers we had nothing for them.
My oldest daughter had been working at Walmart as a 1st job and is now at Target. She has had a very hard time in school due to social anxiety. What better way to fight the problem than working retail eh?. Very proud of her.
I picked her up early as she had a crying spell at work. Turned out she had hoped for a bigger paycheck to help with presents and her paycheck just wan't what she had hoped for. And she didn't want to tell me (I found out later) she had broken her laptop and she really depends on it for her friends and gaming.
I told her she had recieved a check in the mail. No notice or reasoning but there it was a goverment check-for almost 1K!. We figured since she had been at Walmart and not gone over the mandatory filing amount they issued a refund-2 days before Christmas yay!.
My daughter went way overboard & got everybody presents & replaced her broken laptop. I told her not to go nuts but frankly it was such a wonderful thing to do-the family really needed it. And I was beyond proud of her & the generous nature / character she showed.
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Of course you know what happens next & I should have guessed. We get a notice from SSDI stating they made a mistake & overpaid us the same amount as the check they sent and would you like to pay that back cash or credit. And a $50.00 medical co-pay that was to be waived had not been another $50.00. It made zero sense but I figured we were screwed and the $ would have to be paid. My daughters tax refund would probably cover it.
I called the doctors 1st-it was just a mistake-Yay!
Then getting through to SSDI was a bit harder but nothing like calling medicaire. I had a thoughtful intelligent person who sounded like she had heard the issue before so I probably wasn't the only family that had an error. I explained what had happened. And then on hold......
I owed nothing. I had not made any error & could not have known the problem. But it was a government agency I'm not used to rational decisions or competent staffing.
Damned glad & probably lucky. But my daughters generosity is no longer tainted and I have saved our family a huge repayment.
I am soooo happy & of course-being a proud Dad aint too bad at all.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Going for Chinese as a Family the 30th....31st is my B-day. Have a lot to celebrate for sure.
Thanks all...
Serpentine belt broke - but a brave cabbie made it out to our remote house and will get a large tip for making it. Another 6" of snow today and 11 below. I 
cabbies!!
YOU ARE A WONDERFUL DAD. I wish mine were still with us - he passed in 1989. He was a lot like you. You have an amazing daughter, as well.
