It amazes me the things we do with our time. I should re-phrase that - it doesn't amaze me, more likely depresses me or at least calls into question whether or not we're making the most of our lives. It makes me laugh too.
We've spent the best part of two weeks having the screaming ab dabs over the matter of my US work permit. Finally it seemed all the paperwork was ready so it was just a simple matter of paying the bill, a mere $3192.80. The quickest way was obviously with a credit card. So I filled out a special payment form they sent me, printed it out and signed it ready to scan and email back to them.
The new laptop wouldn't recognise the scanner because I hadn't loaded in the software. I couldn't find the CD that came with it but I didn't think this was a problem because I thought I could download the drivers - I was beginning to feel like a middle-aged person masquerading as a new-age hipster - 'No prob, I'll just go on the internet...'
It took ages. I had to turn the scanner upside down to try and find the model number and then I found it on top of the lid, nestling discretely in the middle of a little Canon logo. At one point I considered going into the barn and searching through the pile of empty boxes in search of the one it came in. But then I remembered we'd taken all the empty boxes to the recycling centre in an attempt to organise our chaotic existence.
Eventually I found the appropriate drivers but they didn't work. Amy was downstairs, wandering around the garden talking on the phone. She told me later that she purposely avoided the area under my window because she was expecting the scanner to hurtle through it in a shower of broken glass.
I had to get my old laptop out. I couldn't find the mains cable so I had to take the mains cable from the new laptop because the batteries on the old one are so feeble they aren't even strong enough to start the poor old thing up. Then I had to unplug the scanner from the new laptop and plug it into the old one but I couldn't remember which was the scanner usb and which was the printer. And of course all the various cables got tangled up and that made it worse.
The old laptop took ten minutes to fire up so that gave me time to sort out the granny knot of cables, not that I really felt like it.
Having successfully scanned everything front of credit card, back of credit card, form with card details (which of course I forgot to sign before scanning it so I had to do it again). Did I say successfully??? that's a fucking laugh - I kept losing the saved scans and forgetting where I put them because I was in a hurry, which in itself means everything takes twice as long.

But I finally managed it all and now I'm wondering if I'm actually going to get my work permit in time because we've just found out that someone in an office in the US mailed the signed forms when they should have sent them Fed Ex because no one told them exactly what to do.
And I'm thinking this is the modern world, this is progress, this is the space age that I saw in Dan Dare in the Eagle comic when I was a kid. And I'm thinking it's not all it was cracked up to be. It's crap.