Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Trying to keep my brain from exploding when dealing with bureaucrats...

Monday, July 15, 2013
A couple of weeks earlier, I’d stopped by the Admissions office at Cuyahoga Community College, Eastern Campus, to get information about the college for Jack.  I waited in a line and when it was my turn, explained that I was interested in speaking to someone regarding courses and their transferability to Cleveland State for a four year degree.  I was told that I’d have to enroll, go through pre-testing for math and English before I could schedule time with an advisor.
“Well…I’d like to speak to someone basically just to see if this is the place my son should be going to school.  Does he have to enroll and pretest just to ask some questions?” I asked.


“I don’t think you can do a ‘drop-in’ with the advisors so, yes, he’d have to enroll,” she answered.  I found this perplexing, but didn’t see what else I could do at that moment.  I did get the schedule of times they were open to process his enrollment with Monday’s being the only day they were open beyond 5 p.m.

So…I had this evening scheduled to go up there with him and see what we could get done.  I’d called ahead to see what he needed to have to enroll and found out that it was free and a photo ID was all he needed.  When he arrived home from work, I told him about the photo ID, so he ran and changed into shorts and we drove to the campus.  He waited in line for about 10 minutes and was next to be served when I asked him about the photo ID.

“Umm…I don’t have it,” he said.

Completely disbelieving and more than a little irritated, I said, “I told you 5 minutes before we got in the car that it was the only thing you needed…and you didn’t bring it?”

He’d changed his clothes and left it in the pants pocket he’d left behind.  I do stupid things on occasion and tried to remain calm as we raced home to get it and get back before 6 p.m.  We made it with moments to spare and when he again found himself at the window, the clerk handed him an application and said he needed to have it filled out to enroll.

“I was at this window two weeks ago checking on what had to be done to enroll.  Is there some reason you suppose I was not told at that time that we needed to fill out this application?” I asked, getting towards the end of my fuse.

She didn’t know and we went off to fill it out.  When we returned to the line and handed it to her, she informed us that he’d need his Selective Service number to complete the application.

“I called two hours ago and specifically asked what we should bring to complete this process.  I was told a photo ID only.  I’m guessing not too many people memorize their selective service number and would know that off-hand.  Why wasn’t I told to have that ready, too?” I asked…fuse at explosion length.

She could see what was coming and was helpful.  She hadn’t answered the phone or been the person who hadn’t told me about the application…and I knew that.  She directed me to a student computer where we were able to look up his number and complete the process.  I asked more questions about the rest of the process necessary to actually signing up for and taking classes and she was quite helpful.  I drove home though, knowing that I’d have to be on top of whatever Jack did to get signed up and to leave no stones unturned. 

I headed out on the bike at 7 p.m. with about 2 hours of light.  I wanted to ride the Waite Hill course, but knew that I’d have to push since my best time ever was 2:02, which would have me finishing in the dark.  So I pushed.  Hard.  I was spinning down Wilson Mills over the final mile in the low light of the setting sun at 30 mph and pulled into my driveway in 1:56, a full 6 minutes faster than I’d ever ridden the course before.

I’m getting stronger by the day on the bike.  I’ve eliminated the Survival Workout for the time being in an effort to ride whenever possible.  It’s making a difference, though I’m not looking forward to the next several days when I’ll have to be riding in 90-degree weather with what will certainly be high humidity.  If I can handle these conditions, I should be in good shape for Tour Ohio by which time the weather will have hopefully began to cool. 

Bike duration:  One hour and 56 minutes.
Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.
Calories burned during workout:  1675.

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