It’s been a week of paperwork, forking out some cash, and getting certified to do things. Following my hunting adventure last weekend, I decided to go ahead and buy a hunting license. I somehow thought this would expensive and somewhat difficult, but at $25 and just a little application with a flash of my drivers license, and I was good to go. So watch out creatures of Texas, I am now licensed to kill you. Kill is a strong word, though. While that will be the end result, I prefer to use the terms “harvest” or “take” since these words clearly infer that I’m terminating their lives not only for sport, but for meat. High quality, great tasting, wild caught meat, the way nature intended.
While I’ve had some small architectural side jobs keeping me afloat since getting laid off, I always told myself if I did get laid off and was hurting financially that I’d take up pedicabbing. I’m not exactly hurting financially since I live a very frugal lifestyle and had a decent savings account built up, but I was ready to give it a try. I think more than the monetary rewards of the profession, ever since I moved to Austin and started riding a bike everywhere, I’ve viewed the job as a great way to get a hard workout, meet new people, and be part of the downtown vibe that makes Austin what it is. After finally getting all the require documents from DPS ( a criminal history report and certified driving record,I met with Capital Pedicab last night to finalize some paper work. After passing the written exam abd throwing down some dough, I received my Chaffeur’s Permit from the City of Austin. I am now legal to haul your butt around downtown via a human powered taxi. Training starts Thursday, steady work thereafter. I look forward to the adventures to come through this new endeavour.
Finally, I submitted my application for a passport today. It was a lot of money and a lot of paperwork and you actually have to schedule an appointment to get in these days, but it went through. Hopefully in five weeks I’ll be free to move about the world.
It’s really astounding how much of our lives are on paper and are regulated by little pieces of plastic we carry around in our wallets. Whatever happened to just doing things the old fashioned way? I suppose liability is a nice thing to have since we are all human and prone to error, but sometimes the systems put in place to protect against the carelessness of a few really sucks for the majority of people who do the right thing.
That’s it til next week, site work still in progress. Thanks for reading.