Tip for the Day

          Do not schedule your passport renewal appointment right before your orthopedic appointment for a cortisone injection in your knee.
          This may be an irrelevant piece of advice for most or you, but for those to whom it applies, let me explain.  The proximity of the regional post office where I could renew my passport is a stone"s throw (so to speak--not that I throw stones) from my doctor.  Efficiency dictated that I make these appointments back to back.  (I habitually think shortest-route, best-organized-procedures).
          I pulled into to the post office parking lot to discover that whatever architect had laid out exterior plans had placed the parking lot approximately a half-marathon's length from the front door.  This may have been a San Diego idea to promote physical fitness with a vigorous walk, but if your fitness is already on the demise, it constitutes punishment.
          Then I discovered that having an appointment in no way guarantees that you will be seen at your scheduled time.  I know the federal government is not rolling in dough these days (in spite of my tax bill and the hefty fee they were charging me to renew my passport), but it seems a chair or two would have been a worthy investment, given their frequent and, probably predictable, delays.  Maybe having us stand is designed to give us the illusion that the wait will be a short one.  On the other hand, if standing on a concrete floor for a length of time produces any kind of discomfort, it has quite the opposite effect:  minutes seem like hours.
          I will spare you a description of the pain in my left knee..  Unfortunately, by the time I was in front of the camera for a photo for my passport, the closest I could come to a smile was an agonized grimace.
          The result was a picture in which I closely resembled an angry terrorist.  This is not going to be good when I next try to get through security at the airport.  I'm rethinking all trips abroad.