I had a command performance at the unemployment office yesterday. Nothing says State Bureaucracy like forcing people who are making the equivalent of minimum wage* drive 60 miles round trip to turn in papers I could easily have emailed. As further proof our government is a lumbering monolith, I had a problem getting my pay this week. The only way to correct the problem is to fax — yes I said fax — my issue to the state office. You cannot email the papers. You cannot talk to someone in person. I was told repeatedly by multiple employees not to mail my documents. No one opens the mail. I can only use 1990s technology and fax my paperwork. SMH. Oh and the issue will be resolved in approximately six weeks. I cannot until the Bernie Bros let those same folks run healthcare.
Anyway, while I was at the office I noticed a guy with a tattoo on the back of his right hand. It was the shift pattern of a five speed manual transmission.
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| Not the actual tattoo |
It looked similar to this. I can only conclude the dude could not remember the shift pattern when his hand covered the shift knob on his 2003 Civic?
I’ve seen some strange tattoos, but this one was new to me.
A manual transmission has been jokingly referred as a “millennial anti-theft device”. Perhaps the tattoo was just a permanent “lock code” or “password” for a former car thief.
* thank you taxpayers and former employers.
Having to deal with government offices sometimes, I notice only a certain ethnicity holds these jobs that greatly affect my life. Needless to say, I am not the ethnicity that deserves good service. In all fairness, there are exceptions.
ReplyDeleteThe founding fathers considered having the government in charge of food distribution. Can you imagine the fiasco equivalent to the PO bring food in a timely manner?
Bernie just cannot win, cannot. Please!
I know how to use a shift, but only if I have a picture of the shift pattern. However, a little sketch works. Yes, when I occasionally drove a shift, I just could not remember the shift, but I had the clutch work down pat, even on a hill.
Do your kids know how to drive a stick? The usually negative characteristics that the Boomer generation describes the younger generations as having (not knowing cursive, not being able to drive a stick, everyone getting a participation trophy) is due to the parent's and society that raised them. How can you blame the generation itself?
ReplyDeleteOops! Sorry, should have put those Qs under "Ask Hoosierboy". LOL!
Hey DeeCee
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point. I haven’t thought of it that way.
Specifically, one of my three kids can drive a stick. He is the only one who wanted to learn. Mostly, I had an automatic transmission when the kids learned to drive so a stick wasn’t available.
True confession even by the later 1070s, most cars had an automatic, so many of my generation can’t shift gears either.
My first car was a Chevy pickup with a “ three on the tree”, so I had to learn. (dad had already taught me anyway).