Happy Friday! Here’s a Sun that may be more, or at least different, than you bargained for.
☀️Expiration Dates
Today’s issue will be a little different, even unexpected.
I’ve expected to be out of town right now and for a couple Fridays, the usual posting days for this little e-paper. The school my kids attend has had a two-week trip to the UK and France on the calendar for half a year, departing yesterday, and I am one of the chaperones. As the Sun’s current Top Contributor/Managing Editor/Opinion Columnist/IT Guy/Ombudsman I had been aiming to have a couple issues scheduled to send. But I did not have time to prep anything. Yet here we are, me writing and you reading. You might ask then, how am I posting? It’s because I am still here, in Marysville, and not in London, like the rest of the group.
On Wednesday morning when I began to collect the items on my packing list, I went to our family’s “Important Papers” folder to get my passport. The last time I used the passport was in 2018 on our school’s first international trip, but I checked it a few months ago to make sure it hadn’t expired. It turns out, I had checked the wrong passport, and had misread the expiration date. That passport had holes punched in the cover (which I had failed to really consider) and the expiration date was printed as “26 JUL/JUI 10” which I took to mean, July 10, 2026, but in international date format meant July 26, 2010. Digging around some more I found a small pocket in the back of the folder with another passport (that I hadn’t noticed previously), which did look more familiar and which did not have any punched holes, and on which the expiration date year was printed in four digits, easy to comprehend: 2021.
So it was about 11:15am the day before departure and I had no passport. I started to feel sick to my stomach, and a little paralyzed.
My wife immediately started searching online for what I could do. We headed toward a Passport Office in Granite Falls, I called the office of one of our State Representatives for other ideas, and then called the National Passport Information Center. The NPIC told me there were no appointments available within the next 14 days. The Granite Falls office gave me the proper form and took my passport picture but said I would need to go to the Seattle Passport Agency for such an expedited (read: IMMEDIATE!) request. It was the Seattle office that had no appointments.
I drove to Seattle anyway to see if I could plead my way in. Their office closes at 3:00pm, and by the time I parked (and paid) it was 2:30pm. The map showed I still had a 10 minute walk, and when I arrived the security guards told me that I was in the previous passport building and gave me the correct address. That was another ten minute walk, almost entirely uphill. I arrived at 2:50pm, and those security guards told me that without an appointment it was slim to ZERO that I would be able to persuade their supervisor to let me in, and besides, it was too late in the day. I’d have to come back at 8:00am the next morning. They also suggested that I seek a Senator’s help, and since the Senators’ offices didn’t close until 5:00pm, I still had time. So I walked to a different building and filled out a form requesting aid.
Now I had a 90 minute drive home due to rush hour and multiple accidents on the freeway. I felt awful the entire drive. I’d learned that it was basically impossible that I’d be able to be able to go on the trip, and I’d spent the entire afternoon walking around downtown Seattle testing my already tenuous lower back. I kept calling the National Passport Center, hoping that perhaps someone had canceled their appointment, and wait times were over an hour. I stayed up late packing anyway, just in case.
Our trip’s organizer was super gracious with me, and said she’d be praying. Family and church family also prayed. It seemed like we’d need a miracle, or many.
I got up early Thursday morning and tried the Passport Center again. I took a shower while on hold, and then got through to a person. I explained my plight. The passport “specialist” said there was an opening at 10:30am that morning! As she began taking my information, she noticed that someone else had taken the slot, and there were no more available times for the day. I asked about Friday; maybe I could change my flight ticket and join our group late. She said there was nothing for Friday either. I began to thank her for all her attempts, and as I was about to hang up she said, “Wait! Wait! Don’t hang up yet!” An 8:00am appointment for Friday opened up. Amazing!
So I went to that appointment and have a passport pick-up time scheduled for 2:00pm today. As I said, the group left yesterday, so I’ll have to catch up. There are no seats on tonight’s flight, but I’ve got a confirmed seat for Sunday. By the time I arrive at Heathrow (Monday morning) the group will already be in Edinburgh, Scotland, so I’ve booked a train to take me the final five hours to meet them. All this, of course, is Lord willing.
As you’ll understand, I didn’t have my expected time to write and schedule something for the Sun, but between trips to Seattle today I thought I’d share the story. I’m extremely thankful for those who prayed and gave encouragement and for the opportunity to go at all, even late. I do understand that I’ll be a byword for international trips and travelers for years to come, which is part of the reason I wrote it out, both as thanks to the Lord and as a tale for you to try to avoid. You really want to read the expiration dates more carefully.
☀️First Week of July
City Fireworks - Tuesday, July 4, at Ebey Waterfront Park. See the event page here.
Jennings Park Cleanup - Saturday, July 8, 9:00am-12:00pm
Seattle Cascades Drum and Bugle Corps - part of the Northwest Youth Music Association. Saturday, July 8, 7:00pm at Marysville-Pilchuck HS Stadium. See this page for more info and to purchase tickets.
☀️Friday Fun
You’ll want to sing what you see in the image for full effect:
Want more? Bet your face paint can’t do this.
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