We survived running errands
Aug. 1st, 2017 04:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengrAbout 11 Fay texted me to let me know she was ready to head out for our monthly Winco run.
I met her a few minutes later and we walked over to Albertson's so she could get something to eat. Only it turned out that her food stamp account was empty. I bought the stuff for her and used my card just to see if *mine* was ok. It was.
So we went back to my apartment to sit in the air conditioning while she tried to straighten things out.
I had her check online first thing. Still zero balance. So I suggested that she call the aging and Disability office which are the folks that handle our food stamp certification.
They said they'd resubmit the info and to check again in an hour. So we watched an episode of Buffy, and one of Soap.
When she checked again the money was there.
Meanwhile, I'd been checking where we could buy the new Hop passes for the bus. Turned out that we can recharge them at the 7-11 on the corner. But to buy them we had to go elsewhere. Found a Safeway a few stops past the Winco.
So we just rode the bus past Winco and hit the Safeway. Took a few minutes to get the cards and put some money on them.
Turns out that it's $3 to buy the cards, and then a seperate operation to put the initial cash on them.
Still wasn't that bad. I fronted Fay the money for the card and an initial $10 on it.
What Fay and I had been doing was buying monthly passes ($28 because we qualify as disabled). We didn't always use $28 worth of rides, but iot was better than dealing with tickets.
The way the HOP card works is that you "tap" it on a terminal by the bus driver, and it validates your fare.
The first time you use it on a day, you get charged a regular fare (in our case an "Honored Citizen" fare). Next next time you get on a bus that day, the system check. If you are still within the 2.5 hours a regular fare is good for, it lets the driver know you are ok to board.
If you are past the expiration time of the first fare, it charges you again and upgrades you to a day pass. This saves you money if you take more than two trips that day.
It also keeps track of how much you've paid the current month. And once it hits the cost of a monthly pass, you ride for free for the rest of the month, just as if you'd bought a monthly pass.
For me, since I don't always ride the bus that much during a month, I can just put on enough for a monthly pass, and if I don't use that much, I'll still have the leftover and be able to just "top up" the card to the cost of a pass when my pension comes in at the end of the month.
This month, I'll top it up when my SS comes in in a few days.
You can also register the card online so that if it gets lost or stolen, you don't lose the money on it.
It says you can top it up online, but I haven't checked that out yet.
I met her a few minutes later and we walked over to Albertson's so she could get something to eat. Only it turned out that her food stamp account was empty. I bought the stuff for her and used my card just to see if *mine* was ok. It was.
So we went back to my apartment to sit in the air conditioning while she tried to straighten things out.
I had her check online first thing. Still zero balance. So I suggested that she call the aging and Disability office which are the folks that handle our food stamp certification.
They said they'd resubmit the info and to check again in an hour. So we watched an episode of Buffy, and one of Soap.
When she checked again the money was there.
Meanwhile, I'd been checking where we could buy the new Hop passes for the bus. Turned out that we can recharge them at the 7-11 on the corner. But to buy them we had to go elsewhere. Found a Safeway a few stops past the Winco.
So we just rode the bus past Winco and hit the Safeway. Took a few minutes to get the cards and put some money on them.
Turns out that it's $3 to buy the cards, and then a seperate operation to put the initial cash on them.
Still wasn't that bad. I fronted Fay the money for the card and an initial $10 on it.
What Fay and I had been doing was buying monthly passes ($28 because we qualify as disabled). We didn't always use $28 worth of rides, but iot was better than dealing with tickets.
The way the HOP card works is that you "tap" it on a terminal by the bus driver, and it validates your fare.
The first time you use it on a day, you get charged a regular fare (in our case an "Honored Citizen" fare). Next next time you get on a bus that day, the system check. If you are still within the 2.5 hours a regular fare is good for, it lets the driver know you are ok to board.
If you are past the expiration time of the first fare, it charges you again and upgrades you to a day pass. This saves you money if you take more than two trips that day.
It also keeps track of how much you've paid the current month. And once it hits the cost of a monthly pass, you ride for free for the rest of the month, just as if you'd bought a monthly pass.
For me, since I don't always ride the bus that much during a month, I can just put on enough for a monthly pass, and if I don't use that much, I'll still have the leftover and be able to just "top up" the card to the cost of a pass when my pension comes in at the end of the month.
This month, I'll top it up when my SS comes in in a few days.
You can also register the card online so that if it gets lost or stolen, you don't lose the money on it.
It says you can top it up online, but I haven't checked that out yet.
