Monday, February 11, 2008

Headline: virus travels through family, family prepares to travel

The two really aren't related.


"Make three days worth of sub plans," Husband said, and he wasn't kidding.
Amigo was sick first. Sore throat, then minor cold, then complaints of ear pain.
Husband was next. Sore throat, then major cough and congestion, followed by active bronchitis.
My sore throat started Saturday. I hit the preventive medicine immediately: oranges with lunch, lots of fluids, vaporizer, nap, and a glass of airborne for a bedtime snack. I slept much of the day Sunday, and spent my waking moments drinking fluids and sitting by the vaporizer.

And while I sat in my rocking chair next to the vaporizer, we searched through our file of Important Files to see if we have what we need to apply for passports. We're pretty darn close. I have everything I need, Amigo does, and Husband might -- if his birth certificate copy is sufficient. We're not sure it is. His copy isn't notarized, is a tiny photocopy that's hard to read, and might not be official enough. I guess that's the next step: find out if it's sufficient, and if not, procure an official copy. La Petite has a current passport. If she decides to come along (which she might not, given her need to make hay while the sun shines, er, earn money while she's not in classes), she's ready.
Friends of ours had a close call last year. They followed all the advice and applied for their passports in plenty of time according to the Powers That Be, and had a near panic as the trip neared and they had no passports. Just in time for their trip, the administration put a temporary hold on the need for passports to Mexico and Canada. Ah, relief! With that in mind, we're applying this month. If we travel at all (it's not a sure thing), it'll be in late June. If the overworked staff can't get our passports to us on time, we may need to postpone this trip for another year. We'd like to have a chance at actually getting them in time.
That's another stretch of logic. If too many folks think like us and apply well in advance, won't that jam up the works just as badly as large numbers of people applying on time? If the new laws didn't result in an adjustment in staffing to recognize the increased workload....let's not discuss that possibility. It's much too likely.

Labels: , ,

Digg! Stumble It! add to kirtsy

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah we share that sentiment about whether to apply early with similar leaps in logic.
Fingers crossed

2/11/2008 4:01 PM  
Blogger Flea said...

I've never had a passport, but our pastor, this weekend, asked the congregation to either get or renew passports asap. He strongly emphasizes mission trips and wants people ready to go. I thought it was an odd request, but I didn't know it took so long to get a passport.

2/11/2008 10:44 PM  
Blogger Club 166 said...

I'm glad I renewed mine almost two years ago, right before all of the big delays started.

I've heard too many horror stories.

Joe

2/13/2008 9:34 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Smile!

Search & Win

About 1 in 5 child deaths is due to injury. CDC Vital Signs www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

Creative 

Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

Copyright, 2003-2008 by OkayByMe. All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval without written permission from Daisy, the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. In other words, stealing is bad, and if you take what doesn't belong to you, it's YOUR karma and my lawyers you might deal with.