A Pleasant Courthouse Experience???
I know that the few people who visit this site every week are here to see me get riled up about people and incidents that quite often aren’t really that important. There’s a reason this site is called Rant-a-Bit, and that’s why I’m paid the big bucks…okay, no bucks.
This week, though, cranky Scott is gone and replaced by somebody who is for once filled with happy thoughts. No, I didn’t get some action this week. (I wish.)
Looking at how I was going to spend the holiday weekend, it would have been easy to predict that I’d be even more angry and sarcastic than usual. I spent one full day cleaning my house; a chore that anybody who has visited will quickly realize that it’s not a favorite activity. Not only did I do the usual scrubbing and vacuuming, but I even found homes for a couple of hundred CD’s and DVD’s.
The reason for this sudden burst of energy? My son’s graduation ceremonies on Sunday, which also included an open house earlier that afternoon. Sure, I was a proud father, but it also meant that I had to spend an extended period with not only my extended family, but my ex-wife, her husband and son, and their extended families. Plus a variety of other people whom I had little in common with.
Somewhat surprisingly, everything went fine. We all got along great, and we were all proud of my goofball kid when he strolled across the Arena stage to grab his diploma. Afterwards, I stopped at the Top Hat and was informed by a handful of local punk rock veterans that Alec’s silly little performance art band was considered a “breath of fresh air”. Nice job, son.
Yet that all went down almost 72 hours ago; certainly that left plenty of time for my mood to go back to normal. But I’ve come across a variety of humorous items that has kept me at the very least chuckling to myself.
One item was in yesterday’s paper. Argus Leader editor Voices Editor Patrick Lalley, a good friend of mine, spent close to 1000 words informing us that it’s our duty to tattle on neighbors who water their lawns on the wrong days. C’mon, Pat. Certainly there are more important issues in the city you like to call “The Best Little City in America”. (Sorry, Pat, but I also cringe with this inevitable Terry Woster-ish description in almost every column you write.)
Then there’s also the case of the Ronald McDonald “guerilla artist”. A few buildings around town have been struck by a graffiti artist who has drawn political cartoons featuring either Bart Simpson or the McDonald’s mascot. Every media outlet is now attempting to play detective, and they all have one suspect – my friend Scott Ehrisman. C’mon, Ehrisman is as big of an attention whore as I am, and us attention whores do what we do for attention and notoriety. Plus, as he told the daily paper, if he did it, “it would be original”. I’m just shocked that the city hasn’t concluded that it’s a sign that gangs are in town, and started a task force to study what can be done to stop these “obscene” cartoons.
As enjoyable as those stories (and a handful of other “news” items that have made me chuckle in recent days) are, I’m here today to actually give some people a bit of credit. Longtime readers may recall my battles with the County Courthouse. Two years ago, I wasted a good part of my day in line for license plates. Last year, it was a four-visit, two-day marathon plagued by overloaded computers and understaffed (and rude) bureaucracy.
This year, I planned on being a bit smarter. All along, I had planned on mailing in my renewals so I could stay as far away from the Courthouse as possible. Of course, that never happened, so I was (almost) mentally ready for another lengthy ordeal.
I showed up at the Courthouse around 9:00 a.m., and despite parking maneuvers that make the Best Buy parking lot look like a model in safety, I was able to find a spot rather quickly. Inside was a huge surprise – the line was close to nonexistent. I had five people in front of me, and 10 of the 12 windows actually were staffed by an employee. I was in and out of the building in less than ten minutes, and it would have been even quicker if there had not been a clem arguing that the poor clerk should ignore the law and not make him return with the needed paperwork that he had neglected to bring with him.
So I’m here today to actually give kudos to not only a governmental agency but the employees of said organization. Despite the lame excuses we’ve heard for years and years (most of them laughable, by the way), it appears that the county has finally taken it upon themselves to clean up their act and actually become consumer-friendly. Yes, it should have always been this way, but I’ll still say “thank you” to whomever it was that transformed what was a nightmarish marathon into a visit less time-consuming than a beer run.
This week, though, cranky Scott is gone and replaced by somebody who is for once filled with happy thoughts. No, I didn’t get some action this week. (I wish.)
Looking at how I was going to spend the holiday weekend, it would have been easy to predict that I’d be even more angry and sarcastic than usual. I spent one full day cleaning my house; a chore that anybody who has visited will quickly realize that it’s not a favorite activity. Not only did I do the usual scrubbing and vacuuming, but I even found homes for a couple of hundred CD’s and DVD’s.
The reason for this sudden burst of energy? My son’s graduation ceremonies on Sunday, which also included an open house earlier that afternoon. Sure, I was a proud father, but it also meant that I had to spend an extended period with not only my extended family, but my ex-wife, her husband and son, and their extended families. Plus a variety of other people whom I had little in common with.
Somewhat surprisingly, everything went fine. We all got along great, and we were all proud of my goofball kid when he strolled across the Arena stage to grab his diploma. Afterwards, I stopped at the Top Hat and was informed by a handful of local punk rock veterans that Alec’s silly little performance art band was considered a “breath of fresh air”. Nice job, son.
Yet that all went down almost 72 hours ago; certainly that left plenty of time for my mood to go back to normal. But I’ve come across a variety of humorous items that has kept me at the very least chuckling to myself.
One item was in yesterday’s paper. Argus Leader editor Voices Editor Patrick Lalley, a good friend of mine, spent close to 1000 words informing us that it’s our duty to tattle on neighbors who water their lawns on the wrong days. C’mon, Pat. Certainly there are more important issues in the city you like to call “The Best Little City in America”. (Sorry, Pat, but I also cringe with this inevitable Terry Woster-ish description in almost every column you write.)
Then there’s also the case of the Ronald McDonald “guerilla artist”. A few buildings around town have been struck by a graffiti artist who has drawn political cartoons featuring either Bart Simpson or the McDonald’s mascot. Every media outlet is now attempting to play detective, and they all have one suspect – my friend Scott Ehrisman. C’mon, Ehrisman is as big of an attention whore as I am, and us attention whores do what we do for attention and notoriety. Plus, as he told the daily paper, if he did it, “it would be original”. I’m just shocked that the city hasn’t concluded that it’s a sign that gangs are in town, and started a task force to study what can be done to stop these “obscene” cartoons.
As enjoyable as those stories (and a handful of other “news” items that have made me chuckle in recent days) are, I’m here today to actually give some people a bit of credit. Longtime readers may recall my battles with the County Courthouse. Two years ago, I wasted a good part of my day in line for license plates. Last year, it was a four-visit, two-day marathon plagued by overloaded computers and understaffed (and rude) bureaucracy.
This year, I planned on being a bit smarter. All along, I had planned on mailing in my renewals so I could stay as far away from the Courthouse as possible. Of course, that never happened, so I was (almost) mentally ready for another lengthy ordeal.
I showed up at the Courthouse around 9:00 a.m., and despite parking maneuvers that make the Best Buy parking lot look like a model in safety, I was able to find a spot rather quickly. Inside was a huge surprise – the line was close to nonexistent. I had five people in front of me, and 10 of the 12 windows actually were staffed by an employee. I was in and out of the building in less than ten minutes, and it would have been even quicker if there had not been a clem arguing that the poor clerk should ignore the law and not make him return with the needed paperwork that he had neglected to bring with him.
So I’m here today to actually give kudos to not only a governmental agency but the employees of said organization. Despite the lame excuses we’ve heard for years and years (most of them laughable, by the way), it appears that the county has finally taken it upon themselves to clean up their act and actually become consumer-friendly. Yes, it should have always been this way, but I’ll still say “thank you” to whomever it was that transformed what was a nightmarish marathon into a visit less time-consuming than a beer run.
Comments
But guess what? I'm not f'ckin tellin'
DL
Scott, I really wish you would at least redesign your cyberspace so it's dark lettering against a light background. It would be so much easier to read.