Am I Losing My Mind?

[HaarFager]

I looked and looked, but couldn't find the "Clown World" forum, so please move this to the appropriate place.  Thank you.

Here's the scoop:

I am a disabled U.S. Army veteran and have been going to my local V.A. hospital for 14 straight years now.  It is almost a 100 mile round trip for me, so I am allowed to get travel pay compensation.  I have to fill out a form to apply for travel pay for every visit I drive to.  They are so screwed up at the V.A. right now that they are six months behind in paying me my travel pay.  (A side issue is that they are "unintentionally making errors" and failing to pay for some of my visits.  I caught them out on it and they went back and paid me for those they "accidentally missed.")  Recently, they started using a new form for travel pay and it's a step back from the efficiency of the old form and method.  A couple visits back I used the new form.  Apparently, I didn't fill out my complete mailing address.  So they mailed the form back to me with a cover letter stating, in a hand-written line, that all they needed was my complete mailing address before they could pay me.  Can anybody see where I'm going with this?

That's right.  They used my complete mailing address to send the travel pay form back to me because they needed my complete mailing address before they could pay me.

So, is it me going crazy or just the rest of the world out there?  Can I get an opinion on this, please?  You don't have to be a medical professional, either, I'll accept your opinion.

On a different note, When do those flights to Mars start?

[727Sky]

Never be surprised to see a governmental body screw up the most obvious and simple thing. Kinda like driving in Asia where you expect everyone is trying to kill you so when you arrive "undead" you are pleasantly surprised !!

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Nope, you're not going crazy. Having to deal with the largest bureaucratic bloated gov't agency next to Homeland Security in the world is their version of quality service. Wait until they automate routine services with AI. Good luck trying to speak with a rational thinking human. 

[Ninurta]

On a different note, When do those flights to Mars start?

The flights to Mars start next Tuesday. All we need is a Form 6250 filled out completely in triplicate (all 53 pages, please), seven separate forms of ID, and of course your complete mailing address to send the travel itinerary to. If we receive an incomplete Form 6250, or if your mailing address is incomplete on the form, we will use your incomplete mailing address to mail the incomplete form back to you for corrections. Zip+4 counts. No, we cannot tell you where to obtain a Form 6250. To do so would violate the Bureaucratic Creed. Thank you.

You are describing the same battle every person on Earth (outside of a few of those living in the Amazon Basin - others, even deep within the Amazon Basin, have had to deal with it, too) has had at one time or another with the modern miracle of "bureaucracy". It's irritating as hell, and I am certain that the bureaucrats just sit back and laugh... and laugh... and laugh...

... and then they wonder why people have lost faith in government!

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[HaarFager]

You are describing the same battle every person on Earth .... has had at one time or another with the modern miracle of "bureaucracy".

I mainly posted it for the chuckles it would bring.  It's just so ridiculous.

[Ninurta]

You are describing the same battle every person on Earth .... has had at one time or another with the modern miracle of "bureaucracy".

I mainly posted it for the chuckles it would bring.  It's just so ridiculous.

Bureaucracies are why I live in a hermit shack in the woods, and take pot-shots at anything I see creeping up the roadway!

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[HaarFager]

Bureaucracies are why I live in a hermit shack in the woods, and take pot-shots at anything I see creeping up the roadway!

You ought to publish a book about your experiences and then I can buy it and learn how to upgrade my life as well.  Kind of like "On Walden's Pond" for the 21st Century.

[Ninurta]

Bureaucracies are why I live in a hermit shack in the woods, and take pot-shots at anything I see creeping up the roadway!

You ought to publish a book about your experiences and then I can buy it and learn how to upgrade my life as well.  Kind of like "On Walden's Pond" for the 21st Century.

LOL! It'd be a short book! :

Step 1 - find a place in the woods.

Step 2 - Live there.

Step 3 - If you see something moving, shoot it. If it has 4 legs, skin it and eat it. if it only has two legs, drop it into the deepest hole in the ground you can find, and leave it there.

THE END

Now, there ARE some nuances involved. For example, location, location, location. It has to be far enough into the woods that random strangers don't trip over your doorstep, but close enough to civilization that Walmart can find it to air-drop grocery deliveries.  That keeps you from having to venture forth into civilization, where you run a high risk of running into...

... Bureaucrats.

Also, you have to deal with satellite providers for phone service and internet, if you really have to have those things. The alternative is to pay out thousands of dollars to have hard lines ran way back into the deep, dark scary woods where you live (remember what happened to Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel there?). Another alternative, which I have used before, is to find a service that can provide high speed wireless and phone service through something like 4G or 5G. That had the advantage of no wires coming into the house that could be cut by attackers to prevent emergency communications with the outside world, but it had the disadvantage of having to be too damned close to civilization to get a signal.,

Wireless options that don't involve satellites are a no-go at this station. The mountains are too high, the valleys too deep, to allow signals to enter without coming from almost straight overhead. The sun only hits here between about 10 AM and 3 PM - all else is more or less twilight, just brighter or darker twilight. We had a local council to discuss the possibility of having extra sunshine piped in, but decided it would be cost prohibitive.

Life is full of trade-offs!

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