Passport Pasts

I must renew my passport.

My old passport expired a while ago after ten years of life.

I’m surprised a passport is valid for ten whole years–especially when compared to a drivers license which is valid for only four years.

 

 

A lot can change in ten years.

 

Just looking at my old passport photo, I notice a full, healthy head of hair.  In the ten years since, my hairline has receded faster than the Polar Ice Caps!

Forget about the MS Solumedrol infusion—give me an IV of Rogaine.  Stat!

 

My hairline isn’t the only thing that has changed in ten years.  I’ve gone from being pretty darn normal physically—to being a stand-in for “Ironman II” with all my walking equipment and lurching gait.

 

It started with obtaining my disabled parking placard in 2004 and has snowballed from there.

In 2005, it was my lovely foot brace.

I picked up a wheelchair in 2006 for “shits & giggles.”

Hand controls for my car in 2007.

And I began walking hand-in-hand with my cane beginning in 2008.

I lost my job in 2009 and began my disability later that same year.

 

Oh well, what are you gonna do?  Quite a decade indeed.  The thing I need to worry about now is getting this damn passport application completed and mailed off.

 

Do you realize you need to submit a two-inch by two-inch photo?

Do you realize how difficult it is to cram a head the size of a weather balloon into a two-inch by two-inch photo?

 

(My “fivehead” measures an area of 24 square inches by itself!)

 

 

Doesn’t the State Department know my head is bigger than a watermelon?

 

My head shows up on Google Earth!

 

What’s in store for me & my new passport in the next ten years?

 

I’m not a great Swami prognosticator with a crystal ball and the ability to predict the future.

I tend not to give it a thought as I just try to think about today.

You see, today is the only day I know I have.

I’ll worry about tomorrow–tomorrow.

How about you?  Do you look in the past?—Do you look in the future?

If you can look in the future, can you get tonight’s lottery numbers for me?  I have a new passport and I’m dying to use it!