Back to Me

I’m becoming obsessed with documentation, passports, social security cards, Canadian citizenship records for my kids who were both born in the U.S. The rules are changing for international travel and I just want us all to be prepared in the event we need to take an emergency flight to Hawaii or something. Do you need a passport to travel there? I know it’s like… a “state” and everything but you need a passport to travel to Canada now so it appears that nothing’s off limits. Or maybe everything is.

Strangely enough, the United States Social Security Administration website is enforcing some kind of curfew. Late last night I tried to search for the nearest office. I logged onto the site. I entered my zip code in the little box. The site came up with an error message:

We are sorry for the inconvenience, but the Social Security Office Locator is not available at this time. The service is available during the following hours (Eastern time):
Monday: 3:00 AM – 12:00 AM
Tuesday through Friday: 3:00 AM – 2:00 AM
Saturday: 3:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Sunday: 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Holidays: 3:00 AM – 11:00 PM

I don’t think the US government quite “gets” the internet. The internet does not need to take a potty break or a naptime. The internet is not subject to labor laws.

I can understand that the site may need periodic maintenance, but set hours? I think what they’re really doing is telling me to get my butt in bed and that stomps all over my [mumble] [mumble] amendment right to stay up late like an idiot.

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17 Responses to Back to Me

  1. Kimberly says:

    Okay, that is taking bureaucraticness to the nth level! I wonder if there’s a Red Tape Award unbeknownst to us little folk and they’re angling to get it!

  2. Anessa says:

    That is crazy, set hours for a website, I guess they are affraid they will have technical difficulties and then who would fix it after hours, or maybe they just want everyone on their schedule you know to make it all oh so much easier for moms espically since you know you have all the time in the world durring regular business hours. Good Luck

  3. marian says:

    Bureaucracy at its very finest!! Having dealt with U.S. bureaucracy through life and adoption, may I say that I totally believe it?

  4. Karen says:

    I totally think it’s just so that they have an “appearance” of still being in control.

  5. Crissybug says:

    Goodness! I can’t believe that they implemented an “hours of service” for info lookup. That is really ridiculous!

    BTW…no you do not need a passport to go to Hawaii. We went in February. You would only need it if you plan on going to a neighboring island that is not part of the United States.

  6. Carrie says:

    LOL at the government internet site having “working hours”. Too funny.

  7. heather says:

    a potty break! Ha Ha!

  8. allysha says:

    that is awesome!!!! (and Toby could tell you which mumble mumble amendment it was violating and be self-rightously eloquent about it).

    I need to get my passport renewed and passports for the wee ones. You know, for trips to our Italian villa and stuff.

  9. Lisa says:

    Okay, how do you have site hours? Someone has to manually open the site at 3:00am and then close it at midnight? Did our tax dollars go towards some computer program to do this for them? I hope so because I think it is well worth it! (please note sarcasm)

  10. JustRandi says:

    Leave it to the government to make everything just a bit more difficult than it has to be.

    The naptime thing, though – – there’s an idea!

  11. I so agree about the internet – I love it because I can do things at 12:30 at night and not have to worry if anyone else is awake to deal with me. Website hours for a computerized service? What will think of next to make it more difficult to get anything done? So glad I already have my passport…

  12. Farm Wife says:

    I love how the hours are fairly random & subject to change. You’d have to have a degree in statistics to figure that one out.
    Good luck with the passport thing. My cousin is in the process of getting her permanet residency in Canada & is having major passport issues…who knew? Guess I always thought Canada was just our Northern cousin.

  13. Sketchy says:

    I blame the unions…

  14. MyBestInvest says:

    Someone told The Government that a website has to be “hosted.”

    So during the hours they listed, there’s a college student standing at a podium with a stack of menus and those little pagers.

    The Government also has classified ads in local newspapers saying “Servers Wanted” because they heard servers were somehow involved with this silly Internet thing.

  15. JD says:

    What hours on a website. Now that is smart. I should post my hours too.

    Ps You are soooo Tagged!

  16. That is way too funny. I’m seriously going to stay up late and check the website just so I can see the error message myself.

    MyBestInvest: too funny. You get the award for the best comment.

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