Is June bugging you yet? (June mini-rants)

The BBQ Pit
161

As a friend of mine reminded me earlier today, I should know better than to think anything in my life would go right.

Wednesday morning I flew to Chicago to get certified copies of the court order for my name change, so I could get a certified copy of my birth certificate to send to the passport office to replace the one I had submitted with my passport application, which they claimed did not include both of my parents’ full names. Amazingly enough, I had no problem with this, and accomplished my mission in less than two hours. In anticipation of possible problems, however, I had booked my return flight for Friday afternoon. I had arranged to crash with a friend Wednesday and Thursday nights.

I called my friend to let her know to pick me up at the CTA station near her house. When I get there I head over to where she would be picking me up. En route, however, I managed to trip and took a header, landing directly on my hands and face. In addition to breaking my glasses my hands hurt like hell. Fortunately there happened to be two police officers who saw me fall and helped me get vertical, literally lifting me up so I could get my (semi-functional) legs under me. They asked if they should call an ambulance, but just then my friend arrived, so I had them help me and my bags to her car.

I figured I had just badly scraped my hands, so we proceeded to her place and did basic first aid. As the day progressed it became apparent that my right hand was more damaged than it first appeared; my fingers hurt to move. I was reluctant to go to the ER, however, not being sure how my out of state insurance would work out. We alternated icing and heating my hand, and that seemed to help.

This morning, after a night’s sleep in my own bed with a mildly disgruntled cat, my hand still hurt enough that I made an afternoon appointment with the local urgent care clinic. X-rays showed there were no broken bones, and I was advised to treat with heat and come back, or see my own doctor, if there were still problems after two weeks.

I’m already scheduled to see my PCP for a checkup in a few weeks. I also have an appointment for a massage on Tuesday. Oh, and the certified copy of my BC (which I confirmed does have the supposedly missing info) was mailed to the passport office this morning.

162

Ugh, UPS, I don’t ask a whole lot of my package tracking, but I do expect it to not blatantly lie to me on easily verifiable facts. It’s 8PM, you’re not going to deliver it between 2-6PM today. The last event was it leaving a depot halfway across the country, and I know it’s going to have to traverse a couple of local depots before it’s out for delivery after it gets to my area. Just update it to ‘delivery date unknown’ or something like that.

163

Another fucking mass shooting near me. The third in as many years. The first directly affected my husband who had to do crisis response. The second killed our cousin’s cousin.

This one took place earlier today at a water park and they have the shooter barricaded near a park a few miles from my house. He shot ten people including an eight year old. He’s now barricaded near a park I was just at today with my boss, her daughter and my family.

I found this out when my CEO texted me. She is a former police officer so she hears everything. She said the guy was barricaded with SWAT in a manufactured home community in my town. I live in a manufactured home community.

Based on the local PD advising us to stay away from a certain area we are a few miles away from, I don’t think it’s us, but Jesus.

This shooting happened six miles away from us at a local park. You know how easily we could have taken Wee Weasel there? I’m nauseated just thinking about it.

164

Good grief. I’d say you’ve earned your fun trip 10 times over by now. May your hand heal without any further drama and your passport arrive in good time.

165

There are no words.

166

YW… but if I may, just one more suggestion?

The next time… make it an ‘event party’. An event party is one where all the guests show up, get taught the basics about something, and then spend the party doing the event together (for example… painting on canvass). In this event, everyone shows up to create a huge amount of dumplings/vareniki/pierogi!

Everyone agrees to bring $x for supplies, a crimper, and a cooler. The assembly line is 1-2 people making the dough (and adding back in the left over dough bits cut by the crimpers), the person who separates the farmers cheese into small uniform bits, the person who puts the uncooked dumplings/vareniki/pierogi in the frying pan to cook for the night’s meal, and the person who distributes the rest into the coolers to take home.
( and uses the wax paper trick! )

Now, you’re going to be frying up a lot to feed that many for the nights meal… perhaps 10-12 each? May I suggest a large bowl in the center of the meal table and tongs? The freshly cooked dumplings/vareniki/pierogi go from the pan to the bowl. Also, one person is needed to open the wine and to make sure the glasses are refilled.

Make it an event… a celebration of life! The added bonus is that everyone gets to bring home enough dumplings/vareniki/pierogi so that no one has to cook for the rest of the week.

< just an idea, not trying to cause trouble >

167

This world has a sickness. I’m sure you’ll get lip service ‘thoughts and prayers’ from the same people celebrating the ruling on bump stocks too.

:cry:

168

PS- Heads Up!

169

One way or another. :slightly_smiling_face:

170

I used to do that with friends to make ravioli. We’d get half a dozen of us together, make a variety of fillings, then stuff, roll and cut hundreds of them, all while drinking good wine and having lots of laughs. After, we’d have a great dinner all together with more wine, then divvy up the spoils. It was wonderful fun!

I’d do it again if my goal had been to make a bunch of varenikis. But my rant really had to do with ending up in a time crunch over making a dish I didn’t really want to make in the first place, and then matters made worse by the computer failures I suffered earlier in the week.

Compared with what @Spice_Weasel suffered, my gripe was small potatoes. (Or maybe small varenikis.) So depressing and scary on so many levels for her.

Thanks all the same for the detailed suggestion. It’s a good one. :slight_smile:

171

My husband has been mad about politics all day.

I think I’ll get over this eventually but it’s been an emotional day. We watched the original Inside Out and both cried buckets of tears, that movie is rather gut-wrenching. Then I laid down and snuggled with my kid.

My husband has countless cousins with little kids in the area who go to that place all the time and statistically we were all really lucky that none of us were there. From what I recall, my boss had suggested we meet at the splash pad yesterday and I expressed reservations because my son doesn’t like to get splashed, so we settled on the other park. And we left that park at 5:15pm. The first 911 call from the splash pad came in at 5:10pm.

We could have been there, if she had pushed back a little, if I had decided it was a good time to push my son to try something new. If I had said, “What the hell, let’s try it.” If things had gone just a little bit differently that day, my family likely would have been shot.

Also, according to the news the police have reason to believe he might have been planning a second attack when they found him.

The thing about stuff like this is there’s nothing you can do. There’s no way as an individual you can prevent random acts of violence. You just have to keep living your life and hope you or your loved ones aren’t next. And write your representatives of course.

172

Thanks. I’ve been looking forward to going to Glasgow since the opportunity first presented itself, and when I mentioned my plans to one of my doctors she recommended flying on IcelandAir and taking advantage of their layover policy. I’m kicking myself for not applying for my passport last year, which would have given me more than enough time to deal with the unexpected delays. But I had been assured that it wouldn’t take that long, since I supposedly had all the needed documents.

173

Yeah, everybody get a passport (or get your passport renewed).

You never know when an amazing opportunity might come up … a friend just got an invitation to show a short film of his at a film festival in Europe. I know him well, and I’m betting his first thought was “Hope I can find my passport… yikes, when does it expire? Or did it already?”

174

My thought is that states that offer short form birth certificates end that practice if they aren’t good enough to obtain passports (or apparently prove your eligibility to be President, :roll_eyes:). That’d fix one problem right there.

175

I’m sure you realize that ruminating on this unspeakable event and what could have happened isn’t good for your mental health.

Unfortunately I am thinking that the only way national policy is going to be changed is if multiple members of the conservative establishment personally lose one or more of their own loved ones to this type of senseless violence. I think it’s the only way they’ll realize that no matter how cosseted they are in other respects, going about one’s business in public spaces is something ALL of us do, and we all deserve to be free of this type of threat.

I see something similar to this happening now in our state legislature - very slowly they’ve come around to considering making medical marijuana legal, ONLY because some of the conservative members of the legislature personally know people with cancer diagnoses, etc. who are benefitting from it when no other legal option helped.

176

What’s annoying about this is that the birth certificate I sent to the passport office is the same one I had used to get both my Real ID and my TSA PreCheck. No one has ever questioned its authenticity before. Also, as long as I was at the records office I got certified copies of my late wife’s birth certificate and our marriage certificate, which for some reason were not in my files. Just in case.

177

I had to go through some similar shenanigans to get my passport too, though all I had to do was get my certificate shipped from my birth state. We did it months in advance so no drama. I had to do it to go to Mexico and now I have my passport any time I need it.

I never owned one until my mid 40s because I never went anywhere outside the country. I’m glad I have one now.

178

All I know is that for a passport you must submit a birth certificate that includes both parents’ full names on it, and short forms usually don’t have those. So that’s likely where the problem occurred. No idea about the rest.

I didn’t bother to get a Real ID from NC because my license came up for renewal during the pandemic and there was no way I was going through that goatrope. Already had a passport, which is good enough for travel. I do recall that when I went to get my first NC driver’s license 20-ish years ago, they wanted a whole lot of extra info from me even though I had a perfectly valid VA license. For some reason something with my full middle name on it was required - nothing with initials.

I hope your ordeal is over and your passport comes soon!

179

YES!

That so rings a bell. I had a copy of my birth certificate for most of my life but they needed the expanded version. I went to the web site of the county I was born in and they had a way for me to order a copy be shipped to me after proving my identity. But it was the long form version I needed.

180

I absolutely hate having to call my cable internet provider, but aside from the obvious frustration it’s not for the reason you might think. It’s because it just brings out the worst side of me. I’m acutely aware of the old adage that one’s character is judged by how you treat those who can do nothing for you. I like to think that I live by that maxim; I am kind to waiters just trying to eke out a living even if they or the restaurant screws something up; I am kind to beggars; I am kind to cats and dogs.

But I cannot be kind in the face of the abject stupidity of this cable company’s CSRs. Look, when I tell you that your fucking servers are down, do not ask me for my name and email address. Do not tell me to “try a different device” when I’ve already told you that my Thunderbird email client, two different browsers, yet another browser on my laptop, and my phone, all simultaneously cannot access email.

With no offense intended to recent immigrants just starting to learn our language, but when this abject stupidity is combined with an Indian accent so thick that I literally have a very hard time understanding what this person is even saying – not that this information would have any value anyway – then I just lose it. I can’t help myself. It’s not this person’s fault that their employer has such utter contempt for its customers, but they’re the face of it, and their customers (like me) are only human. And those of us who are analytical by nature with backgrounds in technology can be driven beyond the bounds of rational behaviour by a “customer service representative” with less actual ability to assist with a technical problem than a common house cat.

I was told that someone from the technical team would call me back within 24 hours to discuss the problem. Meanwhile it appears that technicians with the ability to distinguish the difference between their ass and a hole in the ground have actually been addressing the problem, which went from no access to servers to intermittent access and might now actually be fixed. I’m about 99% certain that the “callback to address the problem” will never happen.

Bell recently installed fiber in this neighbourhood and, except for all the disruptive changes it would incur, I am so sorely tempted to switch my services over to Bell and take advantage of their discounted two-year deal. But I do have a nice bonus if I stay put. The cable ISP is so incredibly fucking incompetent that they’re not able to cap my cable modem at the speed I’m actually paying for, so I’m getting flat-out maximum speed that’s as fast as the modem can go, which is about five times faster than what I’m paying for!