This post contains a personal story, and is not relevant to caving.
It is only a continuation of a post I made last week about my 2 1/2 year old daughter's passport problems. 7 days have passed and the State Department still has not posted her so-called "official proof of application" on their web-site. https://passportstatus.state.gov/opss/OPSS_Status_d.asp Continental Airlines gave us a credit for the 2 tickets, and after a whole lot of haggling, I convinced them to not charge us a cancellation fee. The family took Omnibuses Mexicanos out of Houston to Monterrey. ( they had no paperwork problems. ) Their bus ride was 15 hours each way, so they only got to spend a few hours relaxing with the family. My in-law's family ( about 100 people ) were camping out in a private park at the base of the Sierra Madres just south of the town of Santiago. They were having a unique quincenera, for my niece's 15th birthday party. She got this idea from me after she saw my family and friends having fun camping out in east Texas at our outdoor wedding. [ Ironically, I have only been camping 2 or 3 times since getting married 5 years ago. ] Anyways, here is what went wrong, I was unable to get off work early on Friday to pick up the family and take them to the bus station before their trip, so they drove there and left our van. I picked it up and made the unfortunate decision to leave it at Houston's Metro Park-n-Ride lot which was just down the street. Thieves busted out the passenger side window ( along with 2 other cars ). and left glass pieces every where. Then a rain-storm came and soaked all of the stuff inside which was about $ 100 worth of baby items. ( either something scared off the theives, or they just didn't find anything the needed. I am not sure they touched anything, but they may have searched a diaper bag. They never opened the doors, which is weird. [ Maybe it was storm damage? But that seems the less likely. ] http://www.bloghouston.net/item/1064 I ended up missing a 1/2 day of work on a day that I really didn't need to be missing work. All the auto glass shops were closed, so tomorrow I will have to deal with that on a 2nd day where I don't need to be missing work. I could say I feel like an idiot, but at the time, I was trying to stay focused on my priorities which were work related things that had to get done by Monday. [ I probably made less money, than it will cost to fix the window. ] In hindsight, I should have taken off work early on Friday, and gone home and taken care of family related stuff. I am missing a whole lot of work lately because of that. I feel like Steve Martin in the movie "Parenthood," yet I only have one 2 year old. It seems like everyday there is a new home-related issue, that causes me to miss work. Today it is ants in the house and they seem to have come out of nowhere like some kind of invasion. [ Is this due to the rain? ] And to top that off, my step-dad had complications from an early morning surgery and returned to the hospital for an over-nighter. In summary, hopefully in a few days we will get the "proof of application" for the passport, and the family can begin planning their next trip to Monterrey by plane, and hopefully Continental will honor the credits. And hopefully by Christmas, my daughter will have a real passport and she will be able to pass airport customs without any problems. And last but not least, I hope someday in my lifetime, I will find time to go caving again. David Locklear --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
