Renewing my Driver's License
I
want to emphasize that this is NOT a guide to renewing your driver's
license, but simply an account of how I did it. Everything may change
tomorrow.
I stopped in Auto Depot on the airport highway about
2:30 pm and went to the SERTRACEN office. I found 6 people waiting and
two nice young ladies with laptop computers processing applications. I
asked about a 'jubilado' line, but they were processing applications so
fast that when they called me I elected to wait my turn. When the young
lady asked for my 'pensionado' card, I told her I didn't have one and
gave her my cedula. This kicked off a brief conversation about how long
I'd been in Panama, if my wife was Panamanian, and how many children we
had, typical stuff and something I hope never disappears from
Panamanian society.
I was in that section no more than 15
minutes. I then moved to the other office and presented my documents
and paid $40.00. I waited about 10 minutes before being called to
verify the information in the database. They took my picture and I
signed my name electronically. Then followed 5 minutes or so waiting
for my eye test, the part I had been dreading. I passed easily without
glasses, because they do not test each eye individually so my useless
left eye made no difference. Another 10 minutes and I passed my hearing
test with no problems, and 10 minutes later I had my shiny new digital
driver's license in hand. Everyone was polite and professional and the
whole process took less than an hour. I'm thinking maybe the entire
business of running the government should be contracted out to
SERTRACEN.
Possible Carjacking Attempt
Thursday
evening our friends from Cerro Azul and another couple were driving
towards town on the Corredor Sur near Don Bosco with no traffic close
by when a loud 'crack', accompanied by a hole in the windshield of
their Toyota FJ Cruiser shocked them. The driver, seeing no source or
cause for the damage, wisely decided not to stop. We don't know for
sure that robbery was the motive, but the tactic of breaking a
windshield to get a vehicle to stop, then robbing the passengers and
taking the vehicle, is not a new one to Panama. If you experience a
similar incident and it doesn't disable the vehicle, keep driving. If
you are travelling a four lane highway at night, keep to the left lane
as much as possible and drive at or slightly over the speed limit to
make it more difficult for would-be carjackers to hit your car with a
stone.
Old Movies
I've
recently been downloading old public domain movies from the internet.
Some of the more interesting titles I've found so far are Farewell to
Arms (1932, Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper), Topper Returns (1941, Roland
Young and Joan Blondell), 5 Alfred Hitchcock movies, McClintock with
John Wayne, and many others. There are lots of the Bowery Boys, 3
Stooges, and many cartoons. There are literally thousands of movies
available to download or view directly, and while some are in obscure
formats that only seem to play on my computer, many can be burned to
DVD with a bit of manipulation.
This link,
http://www.archive.org/ takes you to the home page. From there click on
'Moving Images' or use this link http://www.archive.org/details/movies
to get to the Movies home page. From there click on 'Movies'. There are
also lots of PD books and audio recordings. Enjoy!
Since I'm on
the subject of movies, I've been wondering for some time if there is
any interest locally in organizing a DVD exchange club. I'm a bit fuzzy
on details, but willing to listen to suggestions. In the meantime, if
you have some good condition DVD movies you would be interested in
exchanging, selling, renting, or giving away, send me a list of what
you've got and I'll start working on a database.
Review: Panama in a Book
I
found this on one of the Yahoo newsgroups. It's a free digital book
about Panama, so I went to the website,
(http://www.panama-inabook.com/) filled in the questionaire and
downloaded it. Or at least I tried to. The website informed me I needed
a plugin, so I clicked on the 'Install Missing Plugin' box and got an
error message, "Unknown Plugin (application x/dnl). Strongly suspecting
that this is one of those abominable Microsoft-specific websites, I
fired up VMWare and Windows 2K Pro. First, I attempted to install the
missing plugin in Firefox, since I use Internet Explorer only when no
other option will work. It didn't work. So, with great reluctance, I
allowed IE to access the internet. This time, I wasn't even asked if I
wanted to download the plugin, it just started automatically. Not good!
Even so, since I run Windows inside a virtual manager under Linux, it
couldn't do any permanent damage to my system, so when finally
presented with a permission menu, I allowed the install to go ahead.
Then, (only one of the reasons I hate Microsoft Crapware), I had to
reboot. I spent several minutes looking for the downloaded program,
finally realizing that I had to go back online (with Internet Explorer)
to read the book,though it can be downloaded. The 17 or so of 190 pages
I was able to see before it locked up my browser were nicely done,
though I haven't verified the accuracy of the information. I tried
several times to read the book, but each time, after a couple dozen
page turns, IE locked up.
Since I don't know what was downloaded
to my computer, and IE refuses to stay awake when viewing the book, I
can only recommend that you NOT download it, until the author(s) devise
a version that works as intended, with any browser, not just Internet
Explorer.
December, the Month From Hell
First,
let's get one thing clear. I don't dislike December because of Mother's
Day, Christmas, New Year's Eve, or the seemingly endless number of my
children, (not to mention myself) who have birthdays this month. No, I
don't like December because for whatever reason, folks in Panama flock
like moths to a flame to all the shopping centers and seem to leave
their manners at home. Just this morning, on a short trip to Los
Pueblos to buy laundry soap, I was squeezed out of line to cross the
bridge by someone who simply could NOT be one car further back in the
walking pace traffic, then cut off by two others who never even looked
in my direction before pulling out in front of me. Then, leaving the 99
store, a taxi decided that the left lane (my lane) was a good place to
drive since the right lane was barely moving, and I had to wait until
some kind soul let him back into the proper lane. All this within less
than two blocks. Me no know que pasa, maybe some super-nasty virus, or
mass insanity, or too much early eggnog. Whatever it is, I wish I could
just avoid leaving the house until January 5th.