It was a big day on hold yesterday. Texas says they’ll get you your ID within three weeks after a name change. Three weeks passed on Wednesday for my wife. Yesterday, we looked at the tracker. The ID was allegedly mailed out on October 28th.
And so, a ranking of governmental agencies our household interacted with yesterday:
4. USPS
We’re pretty sure they lost my wife’s ID. They tried to blame it on the DMV but we’re pretty sure they lost my wife’s ID. Wonder what else they lose. (Funding. They lose funding. And yes I too have had great experiences with the postal service everywhere that is not Austin. Must be a regional thing.)
3. SSA
The Social Security Administration has my wife’s passport (that or USPS does, in which case we’re really screwed) since she’s changing her name there too. On her third attempt at waiting out the hold before having to go to another appointment (she’s a social worker), she got through to the SSA at the federal level. Upon transfer to the local level, though, no such luck. Eventually, she gave up as we decided to not work on changing her name back to her maiden name on an upcoming plane ticket (more on that later).
Dishonorable Mention: Gyu-Kaku on East 5th
Not technically a governmental agency (but let’s talk about those PPP loans), but Stu had a rough time with these guys yesterday involving an Uber Eats order, so he asked me to add it to any disgruntlement list assembled within this seven-day window.
2. The Texas DMV Equivalent
I forget what their name is. DLS? DPS? Who knows. Anyway, on our third call we got through after lying to the robot and waiting for 35 minutes (we have to wait another 15 days before they’ll print a new ID, but the original ID hasn’t gotten returned to them in the mail, further damning the postal service and I mean damned in the they’re-going-to-Hell way). Guy was pretty nice. Think I was less angry than most. Because…
1. TSA
Of all the people! We’re supposed to get on a plane in nine days (we’ve heard of the study saying it’s safe, we’re coming from a county with only a 4.2% positive test rate, neither of us is in an extremely high-risk position activity-wise and neither is the wee bit of family we’re visiting). According to the very kind, helpful person on the TSA end of the phone, my wife can get on the plane with 1) Her temporary, paper ID; 2) Her old, corner-cut-off ID; 3) A pay stub; 4) A pat down; 5) A big ol’ search of the bags; and 6) Our marriage license. So, disaster averted (we think).
But USPS (in Austin) still stinks.
