moe went to chicago. the day after she came home (today) she had to come home from work early, because she had “the airplane crud”… whether or not this is COVID or something else hasn’t been addressed yet, but it seems to me like every other time she has flown somewhere, she has come home sick, which results in my getting sick about a week later. 😒

it’s stupid, but that’s only part of the issue. 😒

i went to fred meyer to get some medicine for her. i searched for pseudoephedrine on the shelves, and couldn’t find it, so i asked, and it turns out that it’s a “controlled substance”, which means that i had to buy it from the pharmacy, so i went to the pharmacy, waited in line, and told them what i needed. they said they had to have identification, so i got out my passport…

the passport is FEDERAL identification. it SUPERCEDES whatever identification the state gives me, and for most purchases that require identification, after an initial period of confusion — most people use their drivers’ license, so they’re not expecting someone to use a passport — is accepted as legitimate, valid identification…

but the lady behind the counter was hesitant to take my passport, and over the course of 10 minutes of futzing around, got no less than THREE other people involved in a discussion about what to do with this weirdo who wants to use FEDERAL identification, instead of STATE identification.

eventually another person — a young guy in a white coat (presumably one of the actual pharmacy technicians) — came up and told me that THEY CAN’T ACCEPT MY PASSPORT!! 😒 BECAUSE IT DOESN’T HAVE A BAR CODE!! 🤬

they don’t need my identification. they need proof that i am a resident of washington, and a way to log my purchase of controlled substances into a state-controlled database, because pseudoephadrine is one of the precursors needed to cook methamphetamine at home! 😒

the fact that my wife is sick, and needs medicine doesn’t matter. the fact that i am only buying one package of this allegedly “controlled substance” doesn’t matter. the fact that i presented legally legitimate identification doesn’t matter. they need to make sure that i’m not going to break the law BEFORE IT ACTUALLY HAPPENS because a few dumbshits made some questionable decisions… and, i can GUARANTEE you that all this gawping around and poking into my personal life, and that of my (sick) wife, won’t actually decrease the amount of “illegal” methamphetamine being manufactured in somebody’s kitchen, in the slightest degree!! 😒

all my life, i have tried very hard to be a person who doesn’t grow up to be a cranky old man, but with all of the bad things that i have seen happening over the past few decades, politically, and things like this ON TOP OF THAT, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep myself from turning into a cranky old man… i can FEEL IT HAPPENING! and i DO NOT like it. 🤬