Today is the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It’s two years after what is now being called the greatest natural disaster to ever hit the U.S.
While Winnie and I were among the lucky ones, August 29, 2005 was still traumatic. In fact, I can honestly state it’s taken this long for me to personally sort things out and take stock of how our lives have changed these past two years.
Winnie and I purchased a new set of wheels yesterday. After several months of discussion we finally decided to try something different than the two-car family routine. We bought ourselves a 50cc Moped.
The Friday before going on vacation, June 29, I read a column in our local “Potomac News” that irked me more than normal. I read the Potomac News every day on my morning bus commute, and I can only state how shocked I am at the tone of local editorials and Letters to The Editor (LTE). “Hateful” and “bigoted” are two words that come to mind in my daily readings. “Willful ignorance” is a term I frequently think of. But columnist Ken Concannon, who pretends he is a “fair and balanced writer”, really annoys me.
Even against the background of ignorance, hatefulness, and bigotry, Mr. Concannon’s column of June 29 “Some commentary on Nazis and socialism” got me angry.
Our vacation trip continues with visiting family in New England.
Aunt Terry was vacationing in Cape Cod until noon Thursday. It was only a planned 3 and a half hour trip from Mom’s house, so we weren’t in a rush to get there. We made good time driving until we got off the freeway in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 15 miles from Aunt Terry. After that, we still made good time driving except we were driving around in circles.
Winnie and I successfully completed a week’s worth of traveling, visiting family, and sight seeing. We returned home late Saturday evening, July 7, after a 13 hour trip from Massachusetts. It was a really nice week, but also more tiring than I expected. It’s taken until now for me to feel rested again, ready to get back into the old routine.
Or perhaps, it’s really that I haven’t wanted to get back into the old routine again…
Ron Charest announces a vacation trip to the Northeastern US to visit with family. It would be the first time his wife Weifang would be meeting the family.
As many of our frequent visitors (visitors => More Than Two) may remember, back in December and January I posted about a problem with our local DMV. It seemed that the various DMV officials were making stuff up in increasingly new and original ways, to prevent Winnie from obtaining her driver’s license (and by default, proof of Virginia residency). My breaking point was when, on our fifth trip over a period of 7 weeks, they denied her license on basis that she could not prove how she made the jump from her maiden name “Wei Fang Li” to married name “Wei Fang Li Charest.”
Once again, our own Jonah Goldberg, the greatest living writer of all time, has presented us with a column of striking insight concerning the urgent need for privatizing our public schools.
Yesterday morning I did contact my financial adviser and discussed Sunday morning’s incident with the home nurse. Our agent became noticeably upset over my description of the event, and promised to pass the information to the medical agency. She asked some questions, and apologized several times for what happened. She promised the incident would be taken care of.
The DMV Wars are Over!
Well, it’s over. After seven trips to the local DMV office, two letters to the Governor of Virginia, one letter to the DMV Commissioner, and three phone calls to the DMV office of Identification Review Service, Winnie has a driver’s license good for five years, in her married name, and with our current address.
Once again I’m left wondering: Why was that so difficult?
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