So, today I picked up my beloved bike, also known as Molly (as in Mrs M. Lane, which is what it said on the tag when I bought her) from Roll for the Soul. She’s been fitted with a shiny new wheel (I’ve still got the original, should I manage to find a spare BSA hub anywhere). At nearly a century on this earth (since people seem to think she’s at latest 1930s, and probably 1920s), it seemed a shame to change the wheel…
…but this way she will actually be more useful, and keep rolling. And it is quite pretty, that new wheel.
Of course, all this cost money and time. Although it provided an excuse to hit up another of the places I’m going to miss – Full Court Press coffee.
I’ve been wanting to head back there for a while, as I’d not managed to stop in for ages. their location kinda sucks in the ‘popping in’ sense, unless I’m going to work at the BRI. And their hours were deeply frustrating – opening just after I’d go past on my way to work in the morning, and closing just before I’d go past on my way to work before a night.
But they were always lovely when I did make it in, and their coffee is insanely good.
…And they stock Hart’s Bakery’s baked nibbley things, which is another good reason to stop in.
Anyhow, so I picked up my bike and loaded it in the back of the Prius, so I could get back to do more revising (I’m currently (even as I do this) gradually filling an entire letter sized sheet with Hb, HCT, RBC, WBC and Platelet normal ranges). All the stuff I’ve known approximately, because it’s displayed or printed on every report of values from the lab. And knowing it ‘roughly’ has always been ‘good enough’ for picking up the sick folks on a blood gas machine that doesn’t show normal values.
But for the NCLEX I actually need to know the normal ranges.
So I’m learning them, by rote.
Which is ‘painful’
I’ve never been good at learning by rote (or seeing the point of it). However, once I’ve filled a sheet with this stuff I’ll be doing blood salts. I know some of them, too, roughly. But not all of them. And also I need to do some other non-salt things, like ESR (or ‘Sed’ rate).
Also in irritating land, there’s this thing called a PTT or ‘Partial Thromboplastin Time’ – which is 60-70 seconds. There’s a more modern version of the test called the ‘acvitavated Partial Thromboplastin Time’ in which they add an enzyme/activation protein/something like that which gives a shorter time frame – 30-40 seconds. For some reason the revision stuff seems to use these interchangeably, and when people have asked about it on forums (as in, “some sites are listing PTT as 30-40 seconds, and some are listing it as the actual value of 60-70 seconds. Which is it?”) no one bloody answers.
And more irritatingly, the drug that you use to measure it – the normal treatment range is approximately double the normal range. Which means I’ve no idea whether 60 seconds in the exam is considered ‘normal’ or ‘normal treatment range’. And similarly, 120 seconds could ‘normal treatment range’ or ‘vast overdose, give antidote’.
Gaaah.
It’s all fairly angst inducing*.
As is the fun I had finding someone to steam clean Rebecca. It doesn’t seem to be a very ‘in’ thing to do anymore…and a bunch of very unhelpful places that advertised that they do it no longer do, and just told me to go google it. Which is entirely unhelpful when they’re the places that come up when you do ‘google it’.
Still, I’ve found a company that will, and that’s only a mile away. So she shouldn’t get muddy on the way back, before she goes into the shipping container. And hopefully I can get it done the day before she goes into the container.
I’ve also spoken to the DMV and discovered the slight insanity that goes on:
– I can collect and drive the car from the port if I’ve a US driver’s licence and can get her insured.
– I can collect the car on a rented trailer which I can drive to the port on my UK licence, and trailer her home.But:
– I cannot drive the car home from the port on a UK driver’s licence in any shape or form.
– I cannot register the car until I’ve got a US driver’s licence.
– I can’t get a US licence without a social security number, or proof of residence in Washington state.
– I must register the car and get a new licence within 30 days of ‘permanently’ settling in Washington State.
– It can take up to 6 weeks for a Social security number to be allocated.Don’t you love bureaucracy?
If we can organise some mail arriving in the US, at our sublet, then I think I should be able to take the WA driving test, and should be able to get a licence, in which case I should be able to arrange insurance and drive the car home from the port. Otherwise we have the completely ridiculous situation of me having to trailer the car home, but I can still drive the towing vehicle.
‘cos that makes total sense.
I suspect I’m going to experience more byzantine twists in the whole getting to America thing, before we get there.
I’m sure that’ll be super fun.
Exam’s monday, so I best get back to the grindstone of attempting to wedge numbers in my incredibly number resistant brain.
* Although I’ve been doing Yoga, which I’m really enjoying, although it’s largely proven to me that I’m hideously inflexible now. As in I’m about as bendy as a plank. But it’s helping to ccalm me a little.
Progress, at least in some areas was originally published on Mostly lemon based
The order of operations when moving is absolutely batshit. As is the idea that you can trailer the car but not drive her on a UK license (honestly, if we’re at all unsure of your driving abilities, wouldn’t it be better NOT to be using a trailer?).
Proof of residence requirements are honestly ridiculous, especially since driver license requirements are harder than other proofs of residence, like for library. Drives me bonkers. Bigger fixation on proof-of-residence is one of the post 9/11 things, and Washington has actually balked at that more than other states, but our extensions are running out and…ugh. C’mon, guys! Let’s make things even harder for recent arrivals and homeless people! YAY! Hell, the way the rules are written, it’s harder just for people who rent, unless they’re directly managing their utilities (which of course they aren’t in lots of situations), and therefore MUCH harder for subletters (they even explicitly won’t accept rental/lease agreements).
The best bet is the hook up paperwork for utilities… assuming you’re handling them, which you probably aren’t, as a subletter. *headdesk* It might be worth seeing if the actual renter holds the utilities, and if they’d be willing to transfer them.
I mean, good lord. It’s actually easier to get this figured out if you live on a boat. I don’t suppose you could rent one of those and make a month-long moorage contract with the marina?
I… do not like these rules. As you may have guessed.
Yeah, I did laugh in a kind of slightly-manic-that’s-insanity way when I realised that the upshot of the answers from the DMV was that I could trailer it, but couldn’t drive it home. I mean, I know my UK licence is adorned with all the things (up to 7.5 ton lorry), but I’m not sure it’s the wisest choice.
We’re actually, I suppose, letting, not sub-letting. Because we’re letting a house belonging to some friends-of-family while they’re away. So getting utilities in our name probably isn’t going to happen – it’d be a bit of an ask, really.
I think, from my reading of it, if I can get my bank to send me some letters, and a bank and credit card statement at the new address – then go to the DMV and fill in a form – then wait for them to send me a form – then let me send back the form – and they schedule an appointment – at which I take back the bank statements again, and lots of proof of ID, then I can get a licence.
Or, of course, in the meantime my SSN might have turned up, at which point, I can just get a damn licence. Because once I’ve got that magic key, lots of other things open up.
But it is insane. I mean, it’s insane here too. Everything’s dependent on some other arcane object that if you don’t have it, you’re screwed. Of course, if you have the underlying document, and the time, or are really good at social engineering, then suddenly you can get anything else. It’s just knowing which one is the key.
And I given the hoops we’ve had to jump through I have no-clue… absolutely no clue how people who are refugees, or homeless, or are just not reasonably financially privileged manage this. I mean, we’re not rich, but we’ve enough money to throw at this problem that it’s become surmountable. But 8 years ago, this moving process would have been an insurmountable problem for us.
…I remember when a friend moved to the UK and actually found it impossible to get a functional bank account. Despite having an address, and a job, the only account they could get had no payment card, no cheques… you couldn’t set up reoccurring payments, you couldn’t do anything online. Pretty much everything had to be done with cash. Renting a house would have been impossible.
The disconnect between the modern world’s need for interconnectedness and the ability to actually connect things if you’ve not got one basic thing, is always astonishing.
