Life In The Fast Lane

So far I've had an opportunity to interface with government at local, state and federal levels in the past two days.

First, the IRS sent me a little note explaining that the information I sent off proving my grandsons lived with me during the 2008/2009 school year was not sufficient, so they were disallowing them as dependents, and yeah by the way since you didn't send the information we didn't ask for for Christopher, we're disallowing him, too. Please remit payment for $4700 within fifteen days to avoid penalties.

So I called them to find out just what they needed. We got the requirements worked out, which necessitated a visit to the local school (that's where the local government figures in).

The school wanted to know, among other things, where the boys' mother was. "What the hell difference does that make?!?" I asked, having gone round the flagpole for several minutes with them at this point. "You don't have to swear at me" was the huffy reply.

"No," I explained, "We're not steering the conversation away from what's being said because you don't like the way it's being said. Back to the subject." Finally I got it dragged out of them that since I wasn't asking them to make anything up, lie in court, or do anything that would otherwise be illegal, immoral, unethical or fattening they could make a copy of the ALREADY EXISTING RECORD that had all the information I needed as long as it was given to their dad, my son. Which is all I wanted in the first place.

Finally, since we were out anyway, we went to the DMV (here's where the state government makes it's appearance) to get Eldest Son an ID card and get my driver's license renewed. Just as we were getting settled in their computer system went down. Fortunately it only took a half hour or so for the problem to be resolved, so that was actually the least painful transaction that took place.

I hate dealing with government on any level. Even when I was with the government I hated dealing with them.

On another note, I have not had internet at the Refuge since Sunday and my cohabitants failed to let me know about it until Wednesday night. I put the trouble call in Thursday morning, the tech showed up today at the scheduled time (wonders never cease) and determined my 5 year old cable modem was the problem. The phone guy had told me it might be an issue the day before, so I went out Thursday evening and got one. We put it on today and the Refuge is now back online!

It's been a fun couple of days. Now I have a motorcycle to take apart.