Wednesday, January 04, 2006

the judge did all the driving

Texas certified birth certificates are now just digitized versions of the original. At least that's whatCounty Building Stained Glass I found out today. They are but ugly pixels of a scan, printed on fancy paper that tries to emulate the crisp engraved weightiness of a new dollar bill. It looks very strange. All this elaborate paper just for a crummy copy of something originally typed in Courier on an IBM Selectric. And then, the new copy wasn't even embossed by hand. I wish I had the original back, but it's now on its way to Washington or whereever they process passport applications. Also, these new certified copies cost $24.00 each. I think I purchased about 3 or 4 copies of the ones for the same price when I requested some from the county, just before The Judge started kindergarten. Ahhh, progress.

I found this out because yesterday, I let the judge do all the driving. Originally, we were going to the Remcon post office to submit her passport application, but we went to the one on Boeing by the airport instead. I think the bigger, newer post office was a good choice—lot of workers, a special person for the applications, and lots of parking.

But after turning over the application, my checks, and her birth certificate, I realized that was the only copy I had. We needed a replacement. So, after lunch, we drove to town and into the county building's parking garage. She drove to the top level, which was outsideCounty Building Murals :: Blind Justice, and there I took pictures of the downtown area. Afterwards, we went to the 3rd floor to look at the murals, then we went down to the first floor. Before I opened the door to the County Clerk's office, I told her, “Watch out, we are about to enter Beaurocracyland...home of the worker who never gets laid-off.” Actually, it was a slow day, the workers were courteous and efficient. The only thing exciting to see was the older (mid-40's) Hispanic couple getting their marriage license. I swear both the man and woman were over six feet tall. But she did look pretty in an ivory two-piece outfit and he in a nice dark suit.

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