rolanni | I'm from the Goverment, Chapters 12 and 13

Chapter 12

Nicked from the Friends of Liad list:

"...I suppose a little background would help. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks are a bit of a sore subject with me. I'd been over at the Locks earlier in the quarter, back at the beginning of April, taking photos of the picturesque landscape surrounding this prominent local landmark. I’d even left my subject and returned with more film just to try to get the right shot. Being new to photography, I made careful notes of my camera's settings.

Within a half an hour of my returning home I found myself confronted by two uniformed Seattle Police officers, both of which had their hands casually resting on their sidearms. (This is definitely not something you want to see at the door of your home.) I was sincerely surprised and alarmed to learn they were looking for me!"

Full story here
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OK that was aggravating enough, and close to home to boot, since

kinzel had a close encounter with a New Hampshire policeman last year while we were waiting for Mozart's plane to land. Turns out it's illegal to take pictures inside the Manchester Airport -- note lack of signs stating so. But anyway.

Chapter 13

The day with its errands beckoned, also the possibility of cash in the post office box (a possibility which was, alas, not realized). Among the errands was a stop at the Waterville Post Office, which is aggressively advertising the fact that it is now issuing passports. As it happens, we are in need of passports, so we presented ourselves to the nameless and irritable lady in charge of making this experience as unpleasant as possible. She produced applications, and an instruction form. She then proceeded to tell us exactly what was on the instruction form, including the fact that in order to complete the application, we would need to surrender our original birth certificates to her to be sent away and held by Some Gummint Agency for six weeks. The birth certificates, she said, will be returned with our passports.

Uh, no.

Now, I realize I'm making a Fuss about nothing. After all, thousands of people have passports and must have gone through this process perfectly smoothly, surrendered their bedrock identification and placidly lived their lives for six weeks, never needing or missing it. But -- let's just say that my experience of government efficiency has been less than happy. And there's no way I'm letting them have the only copy of my birth certificate.

So, I guess I'm making some long-distance phone calls this afternoon, to see how to get duplicate birth certificates.

Argh.