DMV- who had more fun than us?
Today was Bruce's evaluation for PT for his 2014 allowance. We drew the first PT he had at this Outpatient Clinic. There are no wrong choices here and we have worked with all of them. But it was nice to have her back and see what she thinks after four years. Of course we saw her often and she checked in, but nothing like hands on. Bruce will be working on independent transfers and stairs.
It is obvious to all of us that Bruce has no interest in walking. Truly in our small house, it is really safer he not walk, but he does want to get to his office - 4 steps and start and do some work down there. No, he will not be independent doing stairs, but it would be nice if I could help him down there (no TV) and let him just enjoy his books, computer and maybe write again. Still any tune-up is good, especially this time of year.
Kira continues to hang in there. She is a very strong little girl. Has good and bad days, but the positive here is that we are so low key and quiet. If she is short of breath and insists on following me, I just sit a bit with her until she falls asleep-her breathing eases with sleep-then slide her off onto the couch and she will sleep for a good bit.
I took the day off from work and since the weather was perfect, we planned to do DMV after therapy. In cleaning out the house I found a lot of old license plates I wanted to return. But more important was the Handicap Placard. Bruce's license and Handicap Placard expired April 30. With everything going on here, we did not have time until today. And Officer, if you want to write a ticket to the little old lady loading a WC and a 200lb man in and out of her truck, go for it. And in the meantime, could you help me load the WC? LOL
Connecticut changed its Handicap Placard laws starting January this year. Apparently the Lifetime stickers doubled in two years, so now everyone with a Lifetime has to re-apply and renewal is in six years. I spoke with a lot of you here. And Connecticut was the exception. All of you I spoke with had to renew the Placards within a certain amount of time.
So this works with the renewal of your license. Obviously Bruce could not renew his license, so he had to go to a CT photo ID, then have his Doctor sign the Handicap form and he is good to go for six years.
Now lets break this down. Brand new policy, started January 2014. All new forms - designed, printed and distributed. And not really five months into the new program - the forms are not complete! How does this happen? In addition to surrendering his license, two forms of ID, SS card, filled out application and $22.50 he needs two envelopes mailed to him to assure his residence!
Now this is for the gold star ID. I asked three times what that meant. Finally a supervisor was called over and another program is going into effect in 2018 that requires proof of residence. Well, I will deal with that in 2018 or whenever this has to be done again - LOL.
In the meantime, the monitor telling one what number is being served where, goes down. The paging system is probably good, except there are at least 47 screaming toddlers in the building. The woman next to us is at least 70 and 3 ft tall. The self-serve camera ain't going to work for her. Her son is trying and they miss their call. Son goes to our desk and the employee apparently needs to talk over the screaming toddlers and the paging system to announce to the room that the lady and her son missed their number! I did not move from the window for her to call the next number, so really what did it matter? Little Dolly in one booth waited on two license renewals - simpliest thing there is - in 40 minutes. What is her job? Looking good? Apparently I annoyed our employee by not moving aside so she could make more of a spectical of the poor little old lady and her son, so then starts shouting "the man in the WC was late and now I am messed up and have this other issue". OMG!
I will probably respond to all of this with the State at some point. At least an in-service in customer service is in order. And there was a very helpful employee who was kind of triaging all of us, on her break mind you. Oh and the Information officer at the back door, stepped out of his booth and pocketed his ID. Apparently he needed an off the clock break. Are you kidding me? There were people waiting for at least an hour before Bruce and I sat down and we got off easy with only an hour and a half.
But on a personal level. And Jamie, I thank you here because Bruce usually does very well in crowds, like the casino. But then, Bruce is concentrating on Bruce things. Sitting and watching all of this really took its toll on him. The sensory input and no filter of being able to do his own thing, go off to a quiet place or the room. He had a sandwich when we got home and went down for a nap for two hours! Even tonight he was still "off" and went to bed early. Still, again without advice from here I might not have understood what was going on. Debbie
9 Comments
Recommended Comments