Bureaucracy

Today I went to the courthouse to talk to someone at the State Veteran’s Affairs Office. Once that was done I registered to vote. And finally I went in to the DMV Office to renew my Drivers License.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? I didn’t need to take any test on driving or even an eye test. I just had to give them $23.00 and they gave me a temp license, the real one to be mailed to me later. This was the point where things took a turn for the worst, or at least the weird.

Between the license I got on entering the state back in 1994 and now I had had cataract surgery on what was essentially my bad eye. After the surgery the visual acuity in that eye had gone from 20/80 to 20/30. This is not an unusual occurrence as cataract surgery is just replacing your clouded lens with a nice clear plastic one. So quite often your vision improves. Mine did.

In any case I asked the logical question of what do I have to do to get the corrective lens requirement removed from my license. The response to the quire was somewhat disproportionate to the question. I suppose I must be the first person to ever ask. The obvious answer would be: "We will give you another eye test and if you pass it we will take the restriction off the license. This was not what they finally came up with. It took them 15 minutes and 3 phone calls to decided that I will have to go back to the doctor who did the surgery and get him to write a letter stating what surgery he did, when and where he did it and what my vision was after it was done. They also required a statement that I no longer needed to wear glasses of any kind.

I told them that the cataract surgery was done in Seattle and I didn’t remember the name of the doctor who did it, and I pointed out that I still have to wear reading glasses as my near vision is still pretty bad. They didn’t care, they had their rules (that I think they had made up on the spot) and they were sticking to them.

About this time I realized that my blood pressure was about to boil over so I turned around and walked away. The young man that I had been trying to deal with would not accept my leaving as he was not finished showing me who was boss. After yelling at me to stop he sprinted to the end of the counter and ran to catch up with me. This is not a very difficult task, catching up with me, as I use a cane and don’t hobble very fast. Once I realized he was coming after me I stopped and he put his hand on my shoulder and turned me around. I think at this point he realized that I was in some distress and that he had screwed up.

I told him that I had a bad heart and was leaving to forestall another heart attack and that by putting his hands on me he had committed assault. He turned white (quite a feat considering he was African American) and decided to back up a few steps. I told him I was within my rights to take my cane and beat him with it, and that I would do so but for the fact that I would fall over without it to lean on. I then suggested that he get back behind his counter and I left.

I guess I will just hope I don’t get stopped by any policeman who notices that I’m not wearing glasses.

Uncle Dave