bureaucratic BS

Critters, and ID Update. Yay!

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Okay, so let’s end the day with things that don’t involve messy mystery clean up jobs!

Nothing like our critters to make me smile again. :-)

All of them seemed unusually active today.  Maybe spring is in the air?

While walking away from the door to feed the cats, several of the usual friendlier ones already in the area, I caught sight of the Mothman out by the other house, running away hard, in great leaps and bounds though the snow!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Mothman move at anything faster than a barely quick walk before!

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At best, a few of these guys let me pet their backs while they ate, and they didn’t seem to like it that much.  Squishum wouldn’t even allow that.  Even Rolando Moon, who came in later and will usually come right up to me, stayed away.  Only Butterscotch let me touch her, though she was moving around too much to properly pet her.  As I walked out of the yard to go read the electricity meter, she kept running ahead of me a few steps, stopping, running ahead a few more steps, then stopping again.  There was something odd about how she was moving, as if she didn’t like her paws touching the ground.  Then she would stop and chew on the bottom of a paw.  I think she might have had ice and/or snow stuck to her paws or something.  The only other time I’ve seen a cat walk like that was when it accidentally stepped on a piece of tape, and it got stuck. :-D

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Even the blue jays were so active, I could hardly get a photo of them.

Then the deer showed up.

All 5 of them.

Barbecue came first, then Mama and one of the twins, which was very unusual.  The other twin made its way through the spruce grove, instead.  Then they chased Barbecue away from where he was eating.  Hungry Girl made her way in through the trees, too.  Then, for the next while, they kept chasing each other off.  Mama and the twins took over the feeding station for a while, as Hungry Girl and Barbecue hung out in the spruce grove.  Eventually, they would make their way over, and more chasing would happen.  Not the usual short little chases, either, but big leaping chases, out into the garden.

It’s always something else to see a deer at full speed.  They can really move!!

With all that, I did get quite a few pictures.  This one has got to be my favourite!

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What a sassy Mama!

Who know deer could wink? :-D

I also love this one of Hungry Girl.

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Meanwhile, the squirrel is just sitting there, watching all the crazy stuff going on.

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In between all this, I made my trip to the post office and got my marriage certificate (yay!) so after lunch, my younger daughter and I went into town to FINALLY get my driver’s license transferred over, as well as mail off the forms to finally get our health care cards for this province.

I think it still ended up taking an hour to process the driver’s license transfer!  Thankfully, between all the paperwork I had, she was able to get it done.  Because I was able to get my old file number from the last time I had a driver’s license in this province, she was able to look it up – and my old photo came up for her!  She commented on how different I looked.  Especially the glasses. :-D

She did a whole bunch of form filling, taking extra care to make sure all the names and dates were right, I got my photo taken, then she got on the phone to get an override of my old license done.

They put her on hold.

Twice.

That done, she started to input the new information, but had to start over part of it, which meant I had to get my picture taken again.

I commented on how much more difficult all this was from how it used to be. She got a slightly wild look in her eyes as she nodded in agreement.  I added that seemed to get more difficult only recently.  The wild look came back to her eyes as she nodded and said that yes, yes it has!

I feel for the staff that needs to do all this.

Finally, everything was filled out.  My old driver’s license was photocopied, then she blacked out the bar codes.  I got the photocopies along with my original paperwork, after those got copied, too.  I paid for it, which turned out to be $50 ($20 for the license, $30 for a fee!). After that I had to sign something like 5 different forms.  Then, miracle of miracles, I got to sign my new temporary driver’s license!  My permanent one should arrive in the mail within a few weeks.

It’s done!  Finally done!

Then next time I’m back there, it will be after our van is saftied, and I can transfer the insurance and registration.  Which hopefully will be ready to do before the end of this month, so I don’t have to pay cancellation fees.

I’m just to glad it’s all finished now!  The rest of the family still needs to do their IDs, but I’m the primary driver, so it was more of a priority.

What an ordeal!  So glad it’s over!

The Re-Farmer

Marriage Certificate Progress

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I almost forgot!

My telephone tag with Vital Statistics is over.

We finally connected again, today.  It was the same woman I spoke to earlier, and she was so apologetic, because she’d told me my application would be processed after our last talk, where she thought she had asked all the questions she needed.

It then got sent to someone else for the final processing, and that person asked her…

Did I want a marriage certificate, or marriage registration card.

Now, the form gave two choice.  The large size suitable for framing, or the small card, like our birth certificates.  I’d checked off the small card.

It turns out, that’s just a registration card which, as I noticed in the image on the website, has only the pre-marriage names, not post marriage names.

The certificate (which would be the larger, framing size) would have our names before and after the marriage on them.

Which is what I need.

It’s a good thing I’d told her why I was needing the certificate, and the problem with my birth certificate name not matching any of my current ID.

For all the hassle this is, the folks at Vital Statistics are awesome.

This being Monday, I might get my marriage certificate by the end of the week.  Then, finally, I’ll be able to change my driver’s license and get my health care card!

Next thing on the list; get the van safetied, so I can transfer the registration and insurance.

I might actually get all this done before the end of the month!  Only a month longer than it’s supposed to be done by, but late is better than never!

The Re-Farmer

 

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?

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Before I get into the bureaucratic battle of the day, I will start with the pleasant things.

Critters.

Mama and the twins came out first, today, but at one point, we had all 5 deer hanging around.

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Then Mama and the twins chased off Hungry Girl and Barbecue, who hung out in the spruces for a while.  Barbecue tried to come back, but one of the twins chased him off.  Then Mama and the twins left, and Hungry Girl and Barbecue had a chance to eat.

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I had to include this one.  It looks like he’s shouting!

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Mama and the twins hadn’t gone far, though, and hung out in the garden area for a while.  When the twins started to come back, it was Hungry Girl’s turn to chase them off.  Back and forth it went, until they were done eating.  Then the birds got their turn!

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The grosbeaks really like the black oil seeds.  There aren’t as many in the deer feed, and we didn’t get one of the big sacks of just that type of birdseed this time around, so we’re seeing less of them, already.

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Quite the drama! :-D

That redpoll looks like it’s trying to figure out just what those crazy deer are doing!

In the middle of all this, I finally got a call back from Vital Statistics.  We’ve been playing telephone tag for a while.  The main question she had for me involved our address, of all things.  I included both our postal address and our physical address.  She went with just the PO Box. Then there was all the confirming of names and spellings; my husband’s name became the issue, because she wanted to put in his first name, as it is on his birth certificate, but that’s not the name he uses, nor is it what he would have put on the form when we got married, nor anywhere else.  Then there is the whole “birth name” and “name before marriage” part.  I told her about the problems I was having because of the names, so she ended up deciding to drop my husband’s first name completely.  That done, she said she would finish processing it today, and it’d be done!  Yay!

Then I got a phone call on my cell phone.  Yeah.  It was my old doctor’s office, once again calling the wrong number.  At least it rang, this time, though she couldn’t hear me and I had to call back on the land line.

Turns out that they can’t do debit Visa, after all.

They also don’t take electronic transfers.

So I’m going to have to find a check.  *sigh*

My younger daughter and I went into town again, to pick up some things we forgot yesterday.  We took the opportunity to play Pokemon Go, and it was actually warm enough that we walked over to a couple of gyms.  One of them is right along the lakeside that, in the summer, you can walk to rather easily, but in the winter, there is no path.  When we walked over, though, we would see a trampled path in the snow from the other players that have made their way to it, too.  With things half melted, it was a little rough and hard on the ankles, but we managed not to slip and twist anything. :-D

Among our errands, she picked up some birthday beer for her sister; a splurge on some Innis and Gunn.  Not sure how I ended up with daughters who like beer.  I could never acquire a taste for it, myself.  Same with wine.  Maybe it’s because I got traumatized by the cheap swill I drank back when I was a teen pretending to be cool at bush parties. LOL

When I got home, there was a message waiting for me.  From Vital Statistics.  She wanted me to call back.

Telephone tag it is, once again!

So the two things I thought were finally done…

Aren’t.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Un. Be. Lievable.

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Wow.

Just.

Wow.

Today, I finally was able to go into town to begin transferring my driver’s license, and our van, to our new province.

I’ve done this before.  Several times.  I even went back to the same company I’d dealt with before, when we were last living in the area.

Thirteen + years, and the place looks exactly the same! :-D

The van will have to wait.  I was kinda expecting that, since one of the requirements to transfer the registration is a provincial license, so I have to do that, first.  I also confirmed that it is now required to have the vehicle safetied, first.  We’ve had a lot of work done on the van before coming out here, but I know there are still little things that would prevent it from passing safety, but I don’t know what this province requires anymore.  So I will have to talk nice to my cousin again. :-/

I needed several pieces of ID for the driver’s license.

Birth certificate?  Check.

Medical card? Not in yet.  So I would need mail, such as a bank statement or utility bill, with our new address on it.

Utility bill with our address on it.  Half check.  Our electric bill has our box number on it, but not our “street” number (the driveway marker number).  Our service address, which is basically the coordinates for the location of the main quarter section of the farm, was not enough.

Bank letter.  Just across the street is the bank I’ve had an account at for several decades.  After we moved, I didn’t bother closing the account, because they said it could only be done in person.  Kinda hard to do when living in another province, and when we did come to visit, it just wasn’t a priority.  However, as modern technology and online banking improved, it became irrelevant.  So I walked across the street and asked for something I could give the public insurance company to open an account for me.  It’s good I did, because changing my info online apparently didn’t take.  They still had our out of province address in there.  So that got updated (the electric bill came in handy again, confirming our postal address) and a letter was printed off, signed and stamped for me.

Back across the street I went, and we continued.

Bank letter identifying my physical address. Check.

Then a glitch happened.

By the time we were done, I had three people trying to help me out, giving me different options and providing me with a form I might need.

The problem?

My married name does not match the name on my birth certificate.

Seriously.

A birth certificate is supposed to have my BIRTH information on it.  That’s whole point of it.  It’s as if they now expect women who change their name after marriage to apply for a new birth certificate with the name change.  Which is ridiculous.

They agreed.

At one point, I turned to my younger daughter who had come with me and told her, “don’t change your name!”

To which one of the women helping enthusiastically concurred.

I didn’t even completely change my name.  I hyphenated (now people can spell my name wrong in TWO languages! :-D ).  So my birth name is still part of my married name.  But because the birth certificate doesn’t match the name I use everywhere else, they knew that if they proceeded with opening the account, they would get a letter back about it; and if it took too long to fix, the partially set up account would just get cancelled.

Now, if I also had my marriage certificate, they could have included that, but I don’t.  I mean, I have it.  I just haven’t seen it in 25 years.  It’s in one of those boxes that got dragged around, move after move.  After move.  After move.  For 14 of my 18 moves, to be exact.

So my choices are;

  1. find my marriage certificate
  2. contact vital statistics and have them send me a copy of my marriage certificate
  3. get someone to fill out a form, vouching for my identity.  It has to be someone who’s known me for at least 2 yrs, and among a long list of acceptable persons, including MLAs, MPs, judges, police officers, Chiefs, a lawyer and…

… a postmaster.

Now, the postmaster would be an easy one.  This is the town I grew up in, after all, and while the original owner of the store that was also the postmaster died some years ago, it’s still in the family, and the person who runs it now has known me for decades.

Except.

She’s not the post master.  I believe it’s her daughter who is.

Now, her daughter also knew me, but considering she wouldn’t have seen me since probably 2004, she may be too young to actually remember me.

It doesn’t have to be someone in this province, but getting someone from another province to do it would take weeks.

Which means I can’t transfer my driver’s license until all this gets straightened out.

At least it will be better for my husband and daughters; especially once our medical cards come in.  My daughters will still need to get a letter from a bank.  One will only need to update her banking information, since she’s not bothering to close her own account to open a new one, locally.  My older daughter, however, had an account with a credit union, and they don’t have a branch out here.  So she’ll have to open a new account locally.

For which she will need some kind of ID with our current address on it.

Un. Be. Lievable.

The ladies at the company were very apologetic, even though they had no control over the situation.  They certainly understood what a problem it is.

At one point, I commented that I have NEVER had this problem before.  Ever.  When did this start? I asked.  Basically since 9/11, I was told.

*sigh*

We were living in this province when 9/11 happened.  We’ve moved 3 times in between then and our current move, including our initial move out of this province.   It still has never been an issue until now.

Meanwhile, we’re supposed to have all this done within 3 months of moving.

That’s not going to happen.

The Re-Farmer