Passport Perdition

My thoughts today first and foremost today are with my little sister who’s going under the knife (or whatever they use nowadays) to fix her spinal injury. A distant second would be the dilemma of my own idiocy at losing my passport five days before I’ll need it to leave the country for a few days. I returned home early yesterday because I may have the best boss in the Western World. He knew how concerned I was and sent me home a couple hours early so I could search the house for the third and fourth time (see below for how the search started).

At this point I can guess that at some point in the past year I accidentally threw the passport away – like I said – idiotic. You’ll note I’m late posting today; that would be a result of spending the morning rushing around accumulating documents to get an emergency passport issued. In the true spirit of American entrepreneurship – there are people out there ready to capitalize on garden variety morons such as myself.

I contacted the web site Google recommended and for the investment of all the money I saved with my airline ticket coup they promised me a new passport in time to travel. Since the IT folks at work overnight increased security everything took four times as long. A couple frantic phone calls to the agency and some rushed photos had me standing in front the passport agency at the Worcester post office. I then journeyed across Worcester with a sealed envelope which UPS promises to have in Chicago tonight and I’m supposed to get the new passport by Friday.

I Should Teach Buddy This
Yesterday's "Treasure" Came from the Other End Though

I thought I’d seen the last of the pot roast that Buddy absconded with on Monday night but as soon as I opened the door yesterday to start my search the all too familiar odor that assaulted my senses put a lie to that belief. Either the richness of the pot roast or the sheer amount he consumed conspired to severely impact Buddy’s digestive system and liquefied treasure awaited me – a more complete ending for the day would be hard to imagine. Buddy looked properly stricken by his deposits which at least were confined to the basement although artistically distributed. I still don’t think this will dissuade him from another counter climbing adventure should the opportunity ever present itself.

My Wife (L) With Some High School Buddies Yesterday

My wife tried to supervise the passport search from Panama with limited success. She’s always the one who finds the things I lose – usually because she’s the one who “tidied up” the item I’m looking for. She commiserated with my predicament as well as marshalling family and friends to add some tropical prayers for my sister’s surgery. She ran into some high school classmates she hadn’t seen in forty years yesterday and found out there’ll be a high school reunion a few days after I return from Panama – so at least one silver lining for the past couple days. I’m not saying I would not have relished the opportunity – well maybe I am.

At this point I’m going to focus on sending positive thoughts towards my little sister. She’s in Boston at the same time at the Patriots’ victory parade wends through the snow snarled streets in her vicinity; so maybe some other silver linings – all that joy has to help. I’m going to wait and do my taxes after I return from Panama – not in any mood to tempt fate at this point.