Gave me the window to call back west, there are three hours behind us. I talk to Wallace for close to an hour. He's feeling the pinch of living on a fixed income. Lois has the name of his daughter who couldn't give me directions to her own house. I personally think Wallace should be making preparations to move here. Lois said she knew somebody at the INS. Yes, but does she know how to get to his office?
[Author's note: Wallace is a retired drywall contractor who got shoved around by the tax department when he was younger. Turns out it was kind of his fault. He invented a product called V-bex, a new type of drywall bead, but has had repeated problems with the patent. You know, patent papers are very irregular with all kinds of blanks were there shouldn't be. Wallace says he's going to see a politician about it soon.
[Author's note 2024: this post is redacted from a calendar entry. Turns out I have a "hosptial birth certificate" rather than the official version. It is no big deal unless some bureaucrat decides to make it so.]
It turns out Lois knows no such person, or if she does she has no influence with him. (Later, turns out she has a chronic inferiority complex and lies about most things.) There's a note here I also had a problem with my passport. Although all parts of the application were complete and valid, my identity was not in question, all the proper support documents were given and everything that was required was submitted, the passport agent was a raving maniac. He demanded to know, among other things, my blood type, work history, high school marks, driving abstract, and whether or not I had any Boy Scout proficiency badges and if so which ones.
[Author's note 2024: here is picture of the guitarist from "The Clash", a band I never much followed. I've listened to "Should I Stay or Should I Go Now" and their version of "I Fought the Law" is commendable. My interest is that the front man, Strummer (duh) had the same heart condition I did at around the same time and age. He died in 2002, his condition was undiagnosed. He was born to British bureaucrats who "did not excel at parenting" and shunted him off to boarding school. Mind you, the number of success stories who report this manner of "deprived" upbringing is a big part of what makes me skeptical that it could possibly be as bad as they say.]
