DEMOCRACY VOTE -- I.D. CARD SAGA -- PHOTO I.D. GLITCHES

The most important U.S. activity in this coming week is election day, Tuesday, for those going to traditional voting sites -- who haven’t voted early or mailed in their ballots.   Please vote – the future of our democracy matters -- will be impacted. 

Fear-Mongering, U.S. Military Politicization in the name of security.....

Attempts to influence voters with fear-mongering by our President that South American migrants  caravanning from their countries are criminals and terrorists is the latest con he’s foisting on the American people.  Those migrants say they simply want to apply for asylum in the United States just as is permitted by the law here and in many countries in the world (contrary to our leader saying that our country is the only country allowing such in his never-ending mendacious pronouncements).

Our President has blatantly used his governing office to politically hype this situation some say.  He has used our U.S. military forces to promote this position under the guise of being necessary for security by ordering troops to our borders – long before these migrants will ever reach there – as he continues this political exploitation just prior to our election.

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I.D. Card Saga Up Date....

Previously I wrote HERE about my travails at our California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) renewing my driver’s license and applying for a new I.D. Card. 

In 2020 this I.D. Card will be necessary to board airlines in the U.S. for our flights, or both a Driver’s License and a Passport will be required.  Wanting to carry only one card for identification domestically I chose to obtain the I.D. Card which will also be my successfully renewed California Driver’s License.  Also, I can well imagine the I.D. Card may begin to become required by more businesses in the future. 

Some have speculated that the closer we come to 2020 our DMV offices will become busier as more people will want this I.D. Card.  As I reported earlier, residents of other U.S. states should investigate their motor vehicle department’s I.D. Card issuance procedures and recommendations.

Because one of my 3 required identification documents was not initially accepted, I had to return to the DMV office another time with a different document, actually bearing much the same information.   

I repeated some of the previously described time standing in line, alternating waiting, sitting between visits to only 4 different lines this time over a 1 ½ hour period.   Again, there was an instance of conflicting information.  Also, I was instructed I’d need to again complete an application though I had done so on the Internet originally before my first visit to expedite this whole process. 

Seems that application went with the original file which resulted in my receiving only the limited regular California driver’s license – the one I had to wait to receive before I would be allowed to re-apply for the I.D. Card I had wanted in the first place. 

I pressed as to why they couldn’t access my original application made only a week or so earlier (no data changed).    What was the efficiency point of putting it on the Internet in the first place if they couldn’t access it again?  I received an explanation about how this paralleled old-fashioned paper files and once a file was closed out, it was done.  Hm-m-m, I said – I still can’t imagine why you couldn’t just make a copy of the application from the old file! 

Suddenly this very pleasant clerk excused herself, told me to sit down and wait, went to another close-by station and after a short time returned – with a print-out copy of my original application. 

Then it was time to have my photo taken once again -- with my right thumb print for I.D. repeated, also.   Each of times I had to submit my thumb print during this visit the process seemed to be problematic as I had to keep re-submitting it multiple times which the clerks seemed surprised was happening, too.

I was pleased to be having another photo taken as the one appearing on the driver’s license had to be my worst i.d. photo I’ve ever had taken.  I haven’t seen this latest one and can only hope it’s better when my I.D. Card finally arrives within the coming week probably.  I hope the expiration date allows me quite a few years before I have to seek a renewal.  

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Photo I.D. Catastrophes.....

So many of our various identification type cards – credit cards, employer, professionals in many medical settings where I’ve been, driver’s licenses, to name a few – carry our photograph head shots.   I’ve not been too displeased with mine through the years, until recently.   

I speculate on how much my negative reaction to my photo i.d. is due to simple face and hair natural aging changes.     How much can be partly attributed to my different hair style in length while my natural hair color keeps gradually changing, too?    On the other hand, some of the people who take these photographs seem to do a better job than others in capturing a warm, more personable facial expression. 

My first passport pictures years ago were pleasing, including even one taken midlife.   The last photo renewed in more recent years is pretty gruesome in my opinion – snapped before I really had a chance to adopt a smile, or reasonably friendly look on my face.  That woman seemed annoyed that she even had to take the picture.

When my new driver’s license renewal photo taken a couple weeks ago was received, I was horrified.  Fortunately, that card has been voided, to be replaced by the new I.D. Card.   Surely, the new photo on that card can only be better!  

What has been your experience or reaction to i.d. photos on any cards you carry? 

STRANGE DIMENSIONS -- UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES

Unusual experiences surface in the strange dimension created by our current President – one where we’re expected to believe all his utterances just because he says so – despite the fact that so many of his pronouncements have been proven to be blatantly false. 

I continue to reasonably expect our President’s and his administrative team’s transparency to rule out financial conflicts of interest compromising their ethical and moral loyalty to our constitutional democratic republic form of government.  

So many mysterious meetings between and among our current government’s administration with Russian officials -- some trained to spy -- lawyers, bankers that these leaders somehow forget to mention until reminded later by documents revealed by others.   We are left to make our own inferences based on the gradually emerging facts.    

I have great difficulty extending trust for the unknown to those who have hidden their actions, lied by omission, even given statements contradicting themselves and others -- who continue to be less than honest and straight forward to cite just a few betrayals of the American people's confidence in whose interest they are governing.   We are entitled to full disclosure. 

MORE UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES…..   

Three times in the past decade I had some unusual experiences I’d never had before.  The first one occurred a few years after my husband’s death.   I did have some second thoughts as I pondered a couple of the incidents, but concluded there must be some other explanation than their being a connection to him.    

Something caused me to awaken in the wee hours one morning.  The slightly opened master bathroom door was just as I always leave it, allowing the night light to filter into my bedroom.  I was startled to see a man’s shadowed figure standing bedside at my feet.   I could not clearly distinguish the facial features in the few seconds before the figure vanished as I began to rise up in bed.   I soon went back to sleep and forgot about the experience in the days to come.

A few years later, I was again awakened in early morning hours to clearly see the brightly lit face of a young woman with long blond hair studying me intently.   Her head was bedside mine, slightly higher, tilted to one side as she looked downward straight into my eyes for only a few seconds and then she was gone.  Again, the figure seemed very real, but I did not recognize her.   I eventually ceased thinking about that face. 

The last instance occurred only a few years ago when I again awoke in morning hours to briefly see the shape of a man standing-height with unclear facial features at the head of the opposite darkened side of my bed.    That person too, seemed real before he disappeared. 

Those experiences have seemed strange to me, having never had such before.   Recently when they happened to come to mind I wondered if others ever saw such figures.  I did make a cursory exploratory internet search to discover various explanations.   I found these intriguing. 

One is from well-known scientist Stephen Hawking discussing the possibility of Shadow People:   

"We would feel them because gravity would spread through the extra dimensions from shadow branes that we cannot see. There could be shadow galaxies, shadow stars and even shadow people." 

Another explanation comes from some Psychics who suggest these “shadow people” are often family who care about us and want to check on our welfare.   Based on that view, the first male figure could have been my father of whom I have no conscious memory of his face other than pictures I’ve seen. 

The female face must have gotten a wrong address ‘cause she didn’t look like anyone I ever knew.   The last male figure could have been that father figure or my husband, though I couldn’t discern the face. 

I was not in a dream or hallucinatory state, had not taken any medications or other drugs -- these experiences were not figments of my imagination -- but our sensory perceptions can present us with sights we do not always understand. 

Have you ever had such experiences and what are your thoughts, whether or not you have?  

   

HOLIDAY DELIGHTS

Enjoyed some special time with my son this past holiday season.   He surprised me taking a flight here, since I chose to stay put in sunny Southern California.   Resolution of some of those pesky problems that occur with my home ownership benefited from his attention -- such as addressing drippy faucets, assisting with security screen door selections, back patio refurbishing, performing digital guru functions breathing new life into my old computers.  Delightful phone/text/Face Time conversations, videos, from the rest of our small family highlighted holiday time.

Mostly, while my son was here, we indulged ourselves with lots of laughs, good conversation and food fare at a variety of area dinner restaurants as I didn't do any cooking.  Lunch a couple days involved the requisite visit to favored In 'N Out Burger whenever my children visit.  My son kindly sent gloating snapshots to his envious east coast sister who had specifically instructed she didn't want him sending her any such photos.  Timing of follow-up on a medical issue I've been tracking, coincidentally allowed him to be present and meet with my doctor, too.   Especially when you’re a widow of my age, I think it's good when a parent's children and doctor can meet one another, especially under ordinary circumstances.  

Prior to my son's visit I had been disheartened as had thought my fairly new clothes dryer seemed suddenly to not function as I tried to restart it several times when I discovered the towels were still damp.   Had never been unable to re-start it before.   Also a new dishwasher purchased earlier in the year had covered dishes with a black film that could only be removed with some abrasive scrubbing but serviceman couldn't come until after the holidays.   Additionally, one commode wasn't refilling after flushing due to tank mechanism malfunction.    I certainly was glad to not be hostessing a family gathering, I must confess.  

The dryer became a non-issue, I discovered to my chagrin, when my son suggested maybe I simply had not held-in the start button long enough -- exactly!  I'd never made that faux pas before.

Oh, did I mention Christmas my ancient, in digital world terms, laptop and net book had both crashed, independent of each other, though previously scheduled posts did continue to publish.

Following my son's departure, my dishwasher presented the first service man, middle-aged, a perplexing problem.  He left with one of my Corning Ware dishes smeared with a resistant-to-cleaning black film after reporting, "In my forty years I've never seen this problem before."   I'd received no feedback by the end of the week, so I phoned my longtime independent appliance store. No answers were forthcoming but we made arrangements for another service person to investigate the problem the first of the next week.

I decided I no longer needed to preserve all the blackened dishes I'd saved from the two earlier dishwasher actions, since service people had that one dish to examine. Over the next several days, 'cause I work best in spurts and don't welcome standing at a sink for long periods of time, I soaked several sink-filled batches of dishes, then scrubbed them clean.  This week in preparation for the new serviceman,  I accumulated a few new soiled dishes, intentionally dirtied a few more, to put a minimum number as guinea pigs into the dishwasher cause if they didn't get cleaned properly I wanted as few as possible to scrub.

The new much younger serviceman arrived with my still soiled Corning Ware 1 1/2 quart cooking dish noting, "In all my years working I've never seen this problem before."  Deja vu!   We discussed various issues, then he simply started the dishwasher.   He recommended I run sink water until it's hot before turning on my dishwasher.  Given our drought concerns I'll be capturing this early run of cold water to pour over a fern outside my front door that I have to water by hand anyway.

Periodically, as the dishwasher proceeded through its cycles the serviceman checked the water temperature as he had done earlier with the sink water faucet.  Temps were all fine.  He left after an hour with the dishwasher still completing it's long wash cycle, then sanitizing.   Later, job completed, I held my breath when I opened the door.  Voila!  Perfecto! The dishes, glasses and utensils sparkling clean as they should be.  So...I still don't know the source of the black film.  No, it wasn't mold.  I just hope it never returns.

The sometimes circus-like, and more worrisome serious aspects associated with the preparations for the incoming new U.S. government administration has been  hard to ignore.  During this time avoiding the continuing flamboyant, braggadocia -- a true example of the ugly American --  has been almost impossible.   I continue to be repelled by a leader who flaunts reasonable expectations he follow ethical and moral practices demonstrating his clear lack of conflicts of interest with his businesses, refuses to release his income taxes with a meaningless excuse and now presumes to say the American people don't care -- basically, he's saying, "Trust me" -- but he's a snake-oil salesman I am likely to least trust.   Also,  his mendacity, his proclivity toward pettiness, grudge-holding and retaliation against anyone disagreeing or critiquing him -- just to name a few troublesome character traits are repugnant. The thought this person represents me to the rest of the world is embarrassing to say the least.

All that said, I will continue to support our democratic republic and oppose all that is threatening.  I look forward to the future.