Sunday, September 11, 2022

9/11 and Covd

 9/11/2022 14:46 Covid

Last Tuesday, I woke up feeling miserable.  My brain was throbbing, coughing, fatigue and aches and the rest of the symptoms that would make anyone guess, they got it.  I heard the expression a couple of weeks after people were getting hit with Omnicom, it’s not a matter of IF you get it, it’s a matter of WHEN.  I thought I beat it.  I take care of myself.  I eat well and run and workout.  I play baseball.  But it caught me.  I made an appointment at the local Rite Aid and took a test.  The results came back Thursday morning as positive. I took a rapid test which looked inconclusive.  Wednesday and Thursday I was feeling better and thought, I beat this.  Friday, I woke up feeling sicker.  Yesterday, I woke up feeling horrible, as if I had a hold cold, but without the mucus and in the shower, I noticed my sense of smell was gone.  We played our first in a series of three in the playoffs and lost.  We were down a few players, but next weekend we will play a double-header and that will be it for the season unless we win those games.  I feel better today.  Still no smell.  I heard this thing kicks ass for two weeks.  So, I am resting and reading, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana which came from Strand as part of a fiction Book of the month club.  I am enjoying it, the characters are in a series of train wrecks which constantly pop up.  

Received a text from my publisher and they are scheduling interviews and promo pieces.  I need to jump on marketing my book now that it’s out for a year.  It’s time.  Worked on Part II of Bones. 

It has been raining all day.  A stark difference to that day twenty-one years ago.  May those souls rest.

Thank you for reading this  

Monday, September 5, 2022

Installing Ring and Immigration frustration, Part 2

September 5, 2022

19:53

 

It’s Labor Day.  I was drilling holes in our home trying to find a way I get the Ring wires up from the basement where’s there’s plug set up high and the mystery is getting the damn wires up and through the wall to where the doorbell will be.  Let me explain. This house is solid.  Concrete. It’s not blowing over.  I may need to hire an electrician.  If you live in an older home and thinking of Ring, try the wireless.  In my opinion, it will be less hassle and less money in the long run, but you need to charge the batteries.  I ran earlier.  More than four miles, but my right knee is acting up.  A lot of walking and I had a shitty time in the humidity.  There was minimal traffic due to the holiday.  Passed a few dog walkers who scowled when I said good morning.  The attorney called Meli from Mexico.  Here’s the scoop, one of my clients works and lives in CDMX and reached out to a friend who is an attorney. The attorney thought Meli was in Mexico and a Mexican.  She said Meli needs to submit her birth certificate with a stamp.  The good news, we found that we could request the police records on-line, avoiding the trips back to the Mexican Embassy in San Jose.  No handwritten letters.  The bad news, all of September is booked, and she scheduled an opening on October 3rd and now she needs to get a birth cert with a stamp.  Always something.  The attorney told her on Friday, we should have the police record this week, this Friday the latest.  Now that is out.  We’re back to waiting for October which will come fast.  I waited for August to breeze by since she had her interview on the 23rd.  I thought about flying down to visit her, but that would be a waste since there is a possibility, she will fly back with me next month.  I can look back on this and say, I should have hired an immigration attorney.  If I did, we may be together at this time.  The normal process is two years for a spousal visa, and yet this is not normal.  She lived in Chile and Mexico.  More paperwork. More bureaucratic bullshit.  She went to the post office and sent for her birth certificate with a stamp.  It will take two weeks from the Costa Rican government.  I need to be patient.  We need to be patient.  I’ve been patient.  We’ve been patient.

  

Thank you for reading this.

Installing Ring and Immigration frustration, Part 1

 8/27/2022 21:40

Today, I installed a new Ring doorbell, clipped some wires, and tried to kick start the thing, but it’s not functioning.  I need to buy another device in hopes I get the thing working before my wife joins me.  How is that going?   Thank you for asking.  The interview we waited for was this past Tuesday.  Last week, the staff at the US Embassy reviewed her paperwork and it was all in order.  The week before that, Meli had her medical, up to date vaccinations, a check of some vitals and she passes and had to pay out of her pocket for it.  Each trip (3) my wife makes to San Jose can take up to five hours.  She had spent nights there.  Last week the interview took place and the only thing holding the visa from being approved it her police records from Chile and Mexico.  She now has Chile.  I asked her to spend the night and go to the Mexican Embassy the next day and explain the situation.  They recommended she return this Monday and wait in cue and once at the window, explain to the embassy rep that she is from Tilaran which is five hours away.  They will make an appointment on Tuesday.  That would be two nights in San Jose.  She would have to go back the next day and write two handwritten letters which will be sent DHL to the police records in Mexico City where a friend will have to pick them up and mail it back to the embassy in San Jose CR.  What happened to email?  The internet?  Chile sent her police records by PDF in a few hours.  I know what would happen with Mexico.  On the first two attempts, they will apologize and explain they lost the letters, or they misplaced the filing, and she would need to start the process again.  Go back to San Jose for the third attempt, since three times is a charm, and let’s face it, it will be a new year.  I know it.  The whole concept it too vague.  But the US Embassy promised, hey get us the certs from these countries and we will send your visa in two days!  On Monday, she’s speaking to a friend in Mexico City who will work on this request.  I asked Meli to speak to another friend whose husband is an attorney and maybe he can assist with these records.  I reached out the local congresswoman’s office who called me back mixed up thinking I was calling about my wife working at the US Embassy, nope, not me.  I reached out to an immigration attorney who explained she does not need the national police, but the state police record will be sufficient.  And other friends and clients have offered suggestions, do you know an attorney? So, for now, we are ignoring the Mexican Embassy since that will not work. 

Thank you for reading this.

London Calling

  January 28, 2024 Flying to London tonight for our sales meeting.   First time traveling out of the country for the job.   First time in ...