Monday began with a star filled sky and the promise of a bright and beautiful sunrise. It didn’t disappoint. The sunrise was spectacular. I gave consideration to sticking around a few extra minutes before leaving for work to photograph it but I had other goals in mind for that time. That’s right! Before going in to the office my first stop would be the dreaded Ohio License Bureau to hopefully put closure to the license renewal task.
I’m convinced that anytime you deal with a government ran agency you can bank on a story. After all the trouble I went through last Friday to complete the license renewal task you’d have thought that all the troubles were behind me. Nope! To the contrary! Plan “C” began well, but quickly deteriorated. I was the first person there and at the door by 750AM. I could see tired, hopeless looking employees meandering around inside with the door locked. Not long after, another gentleman approached and began sharing his story of mishap at the license bureau on Friday. We all know that misery loves company, so I was happy to listen. He had the scoop on why the lines were so long. There laminator machine was busted causing an already larger than normal line to back up even more so. Well, that explains it.
To our surprise, the door opened right at 8AM and I was first! To try and get everyone’s mind in the right place, I greeted everyone with a big smile and a resounding “GOOD MORNING – who wants to helps me”? All but one of the employees kept quiet and barely even looked up. Go figure! One woman, however, responded in kind and warmly stated, ”I will!” I liked that. I needed a new driver’s license, new tags for both cars, and a title transfer for the boat. She informed me that she couldn’t address the boat issue and that I’d have to go to Great Western to accomplish that. Oh Boy! That’ll be fun. If you think this bureau branch is a zoo, you ought to see that one. She had me processed and onto getting my picture taken in a matter of minutes. She was good! But that’s where the efficiency began and ended. Happily perched on the picture stool, I smiled graciously for the little old man at the driver’s seat. After snapping a quick pic he asked me to take a seat and wait about a minute and one half for the laminator to process. Cool, or so I thought. It wasn’t long before I noticed he was monkeying around with the laminator. I could see him rolling his eyes and grumbling under his breath. Sadly, he was clueless! He must have power cycled that poor thing four or five times before the older woman that had processed all my paper came over and began assisting. Now she was a great administrator but somehow I doubted she was technically savvy. She wasn’t. I learned, through dipping into their quiet conversation, that they have had this machine replaced/repaired six times in the last month. Now that’s efficiency for you! In the meantime I noticed that every time someone new came to the door an employee had to go to the door and let the patron in. It seems they were having trouble with the door lock too. As the older gentleman who doubles as the state photographer somewhat angrily walked to the door for the second time, I heard him say, “the damn door lock is acting up again”.
Everything about this operation begs for some operational efficiency. Too, I suspect that these state employees are making top dollar and are carrying a benefits package that most of us in the private sector would kill for. Sad! And technology seems to have found a way to avoid this place like the plague. Despite all their troubles, I decided that I wasn’t going to allow this incompetence to smear my day. I sat patiently observing the comedy as it unfolded knowing that I would soon be sharing this story with friends. Once they gave up on their inept troubleshooting abilities they placed a call to the “repair facility”. She must have called ten times, and I heard her murmur, “the phone must not be working.” Now you’ve got to be kidding me!! Big surprise – huh? Suddenly, while she waited on hold, the machine started making a loud noise and out popped a driver’s license – not mine however. It was someone else’s who had given up and left with a promise to return later. Hmmm? Let’s see, If hers popped out, mine had to be on its way, right? Insert the older gentleman again. “Jim”, he exclaimed. I rose to my feet in joy thinking that my license had just popped out. Nope! “Jim”, he said, “we’re gonna need to take your picture again.” OK, sure, I mean hey, I’m used to folks wanting to take my picture with my celebrity status and all! J So, I happily smiled for his camera once again as evidence by the pic from Friday. I thought to myself, come on baby, we’re close to the finish line. Please have it within you to spit out just one more license. And you know what? It did!! Horray! I was on my way to a Monday. Now next to the Funny Bone Comedy Club, this place is the king of comedy!
Shortly after I arrived for work the sky clouded over and took the shine off of an otherwise pretty late summer day. Although, the cloud cover coupled with a cool breeze made my afternoon run a dream. The remainder of the work day went without incident. My evening plans were to meet my friend Mindy for dinner immediately following work. We met at the new Hilliard El Vacquero’s. I arrived a few minutes early so I sat and chatted with Craig the bartender who I met about a month ago. He’s a real character. We chatted about dating, and he offered up his “expert advice” after seeing the movie, “Hitch”. Too funny! Dinner went well. I was home by 830PM to tend to my normal nightly routine. My guitar instructor called and asked if we could move this week’s lesson back to Thursday as he apparently had something come up for Wednesday night. I told him that was fine. After all, Thursday was our original day anyhow. Furthermore, I knew that Wednesday was Mindy’s evening to have prearranged childcare, thus we could potentially make plans accordingly. And just as if the universe was working for me, as soon as I hung up from talking with Josh, she called to ask about further plans. Go figure! Life is good!
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Monday began with a star filled sky and the promise of a bright and beautiful sunrise. It didn’t disappoint. The sunrise was spectacular. I gave consideration to sticking around a few extra minutes before leaving for work to photograph it but I had other goals in mind for that time. That’s right! Before going in to the office my first stop would be the dreaded Ohio License Bureau to hopefully put closure to the license renewal task.
I’m convinced that anytime you deal with a government ran agency you can bank on a story. After all the trouble I went through last Friday to complete the license renewal task you’d have thought that all the troubles were behind me. Nope! To the contrary! Plan “C” began well, but quickly deteriorated. I was the first person there and at the door by 750AM. I could see tired, hopeless looking employees meandering around inside with the door locked. Not long after, another gentleman approached and began sharing his story of mishap at the license bureau on Friday. We all know that misery loves company, so I was happy to listen. He had the scoop on why the lines were so long. There laminator machine was busted causing an already larger than normal line to back up even more so. Well, that explains it.
To our surprise, the door opened right at 8AM and I was first! To try and get everyone’s mind in the right place, I greeted everyone with a big smile and a resounding “GOOD MORNING – who wants to helps me”? All but one of the employees kept quiet and barely even looked up. Go figure! One woman, however, responded in kind and warmly stated, ”I will!” I liked that. I needed a new driver’s license, new tags for both cars, and a title transfer for the boat. She informed me that she couldn’t address the boat issue and that I’d have to go to Great Western to accomplish that. Oh Boy! That’ll be fun. If you think this bureau branch is a zoo, you ought to see that one. She had me processed and onto getting my picture taken in a matter of minutes. She was good! But that’s where the efficiency began and ended. Happily perched on the picture stool, I smiled graciously for the little old man at the driver’s seat. After snapping a quick pic he asked me to take a seat and wait about a minute and one half for the laminator to process. Cool, or so I thought. It wasn’t long before I noticed he was monkeying around with the laminator. I could see him rolling his eyes and grumbling under his breath. Sadly, he was clueless! He must have power cycled that poor thing four or five times before the older woman that had processed all my paper came over and began assisting. Now she was a great administrator but somehow I doubted she was technically savvy. She wasn’t. I learned, through dipping into their quiet conversation, that they have had this machine replaced/repaired six times in the last month. Now that’s efficiency for you! In the meantime I noticed that every time someone new came to the door an employee had to go to the door and let the patron in. It seems they were having trouble with the door lock too. As the older gentleman who doubles as the state photographer somewhat angrily walked to the door for the second time, I heard him say, “the damn door lock is acting up again”.
Everything about this operation begs for some operational efficiency. Too, I suspect that these state employees are making top dollar and are carrying a benefits package that most of us in the private sector would kill for. Sad! And technology seems to have found a way to avoid this place like the plague. Despite all their troubles, I decided that I wasn’t going to allow this incompetence to smear my day. I sat patiently observing the comedy as it unfolded knowing that I would soon be sharing this story with friends. Once they gave up on their inept troubleshooting abilities they placed a call to the “repair facility”. She must have called ten times, and I heard her murmur, “the phone must not be working.” Now you’ve got to be kidding me!! Big surprise – huh? Suddenly, while she waited on hold, the machine started making a loud noise and out popped a driver’s license – not mine however. It was someone else’s who had given up and left with a promise to return later. Hmmm? Let’s see, If hers popped out, mine had to be on its way, right? Insert the older gentleman again. “Jim”, he exclaimed. I rose to my feet in joy thinking that my license had just popped out. Nope! “Jim”, he said, “we’re gonna need to take your picture again.” OK, sure, I mean hey, I’m used to folks wanting to take my picture with my celebrity status and all! J So, I happily smiled for his camera once again as evidence by the pic from Friday. I thought to myself, come on baby, we’re close to the finish line. Please have it within you to spit out just one more license. And you know what? It did!! Horray! I was on my way to a Monday. Now next to the Funny Bone Comedy Club, this place is the king of comedy!
Shortly after I arrived for work the sky clouded over and took the shine off of an otherwise pretty late summer day. Although, the cloud cover coupled with a cool breeze made my afternoon run a dream. The remainder of the work day went without incident. My evening plans were to meet my friend Mindy for dinner immediately following work. We met at the new Hilliard El Vacquero’s. I arrived a few minutes early so I sat and chatted with Craig the bartender who I met about a month ago. He’s a real character. We chatted about dating, and he offered up his “expert advice” after seeing the movie, “Hitch”. Too funny! Dinner went well. I was home by 830PM to tend to my normal nightly routine. My guitar instructor called and asked if we could move this week’s lesson back to Thursday as he apparently had something come up for Wednesday night. I told him that was fine. After all, Thursday was our original day anyhow. Furthermore, I knew that Wednesday was Mindy’s evening to have prearranged childcare, thus we could potentially make plans accordingly. And just as if the universe was working for me, as soon as I hung up from talking with Josh, she called to ask about further plans. Go figure! Life is good!
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