This is not a statement about the current administration but rather about some events I have been subjected to in the last several months.
Finally, my passport arrived and several days ago I received my birth certificate from the State of Pennsylvania. This certificate will now be acceptable to the State of California. I find it strange that the birth certificate that California didn't like was the one I used to get my original passport some 30 years ago. I am now ready to spend a day at the DMV so I can get a Real ID. I found my DD214 in my filing system so now I can get placed on the Real ID that I was a veteran.
The new passport appears to have some security features built into the pages that didn't exist in the last one I had. I will update you once I get the Real ID. I guess next you will have to get the Real Voter ID.
In another misadventure I had to purchase a replacement printer, and I found a nice Canon Unit for under $70. I don't do a lot of printing and actually the scanner function is of greater use to me as was the case to scan documents to get the passport and birth certificate.
So, I get the printer home and upon opening the box is a sheet of paper entitled Installation and Set Up instructions. I looked at that document and it says go to this website for easy set up.
I did that and two hours later the easy set-up was accomplished. It was not easy! I had my laptop sitting right next to the printer and followed the tutorial to the letter and it would not connect wirelessly. Essentially the set-up is a two-step process where 1st you have to have the printer find the router and connect to the router and the 2nd part is to install the print drivers on your computer.
So, following the steps exactly there would be a consistent failure to connect to the router. With a two second "noodling" I realized I was never asked the password for the router. No wonder it was always failing. Finally, I discovered an arcane set of buttons that pushing them brought up a menu on the printer screen called manual setup where it asked for the password. This was not clear that this what was needed to be done.
Once the printer found the router then connecting my other computers was a breeze and no more problems. Easy was hard.
Still looking for a kind soul to dig into their garage junk pile and dig out that old Heathkit monobander to pass on to me.
Another recent activity is two visits to the US Navy Seabee Museum located in Port Hueneme, CA (about 12 miles from my QTH). What a hoot to see the 83-year Seabee history complete with CAT D7 Bull Dozers (like John Wayne used in the movie The Fighting Seabees) and an MRAP vehicle. There was even a model of a wind powered washing machine built by the Seabees.
One of the best displays was an oil painting of the front blade of a D7 where the words painted on the blade Can Do (Seabee Motto) were lined through and painted alongside was the word "Done"! I got the rare opportunity to see "Done" 1st hand!
The CAT D7 was a unique bulldozer as it used a cable system to raise and lower the blade whereas today's dozers use hydraulics. A second of thought said that was smart as replacing the cables and pulleys was much faster in the field versus replacing the hydraulic system. Some of the most creative people I ever met were in the Seabees.
BTW every Seabee Battalion had a Collins ham station for phone patching back home through a gateway station at Port Hueneme. I knew a couple of Seabees whose whole enlistment was spent doing phone patching from places like Okinawa, Antarctica and Diego Garcia.
Them that know can make it go.
73's
Pete N6QW