“Remoted” Day 313 (Saturday)

The Saturday morning entertainment was superior today with a trip to the local AAA office for passport photos with the required non-smiling, serious expression. I guess the security teams need people to have the same weary, pissed off look worn in the long lines for security and customs. There are no travel plans on the horizon, but my current passport, which actually has a nice smiling photo and used only once in the past ten years, expires in a couple months. Since once missing out on a short-notice opportunity to go to Costa Rica due to an expired passport, I now make sure to always have a valid one. Plus, it needs to be renewed to get the new mandatory Real-ID License when my driver’s license expires.

Productive visit to the AAA office.

Many great services beside roadside services are available to AAA members, and after three years of being a member, I am finally tapping some of them. My Basic Level AAA membership meant it was $10 for passport photos. The service agent helping me seemed apologetic when telling me the price, but I already knew it from visiting the website, and I also knew it would cost $15 for the same 2” x 2” photos at Walgreens. The clerk accidentally printed the photos twice, so there is a bonus set. The extra mug shots could come in handy for a Halloween project.

While at the AAA office, I also scored a leftover 2019 road atlas on sale for $3.50. When I was in Tennessee, my State Farm agent gave an atlas each year with the auto insurance renewal. Stupidly thinking this would be a perpetual thing, during a cleanout I threw the atlas into the recycling, and consequently, haven’t had one since around 2012.

I’ve really missed having an atlas with full- and two-page layouts, in a similar way to missing reading encyclopedias for fun. Google and GPS navigation are great, but tiny screens with limited views are not the same as large paper and seeing the big picture with all the routes and learning which run parallel to which. Back before GPS, I was really good at navigating roadways, but now I’m lucky if I can find my way out of my own street.

The excitement of new photos for the passport renewal plus a new atlas were tempered a bit by one small disappointment. Turns out, my local AAA office no longer provides passport forms, despite the official website and the rep I spoke to on the phone saying offices have them available. With no easy access to a printer, I can’t just print them from the Department of State website. The rep I dealt with at the office said people were getting paperwork, not using it right away, and when they finally did, the form had changed and theirs was rejected. I get that. At my last passport renewal, the photos, which are supposed to be done within six months of the renewal paperwork, sat on the desk for so long that my hair style and color had changed dramatically several times and I ended up having them redone.

It looks like a trip to the Passport Office at the Post Office is needed to get the forms. Unfortunately, any time I’ve been in the local Post Office in the past four years, the passport counter hasn't been open, so I didn’t even bother going there today. At least I have something to look forward to.