Out and about taking care of business today.  Awhile back I mentioned the fiasco involving an insurance company issuing a check for roof repairs in the name of my dead father.  Thanks to some sleuthing by my son we found the potential fix.  It involves submitting a petition to the Probate Court to reopen the estate for the purpose of depositing said check (it’s over $14,000 so it’s a pretty big deal to poor folks like us).

So, I completed the petition (which to the county’s credit was in a handy PDF format).  I’m just hoping I checked all the right boxes.  Once I had filled in and printed out the form I needed to get my signature notarized.  I had checked with my bank on post and was disappointed to learn they did not offer that service.  Plan B was to visit the office of the Judge Advocate General (JAG).  And that’s what I set out to do.

I arrived at noon only to discover the *ahem* JAG was off.  Until 1300 anyway.  So the wife and I enjoyed us some Burger King and then sat outside soaking up some fine spring weather.

That’s me being patient.

At the appointed hour I scored ticket #2 in the waiting queue and soon enough I was at the counter.  I dutifully showed my Army contractor ID card and the soldier/notary asked to see my “orders”, by which he meant the paperwork I was provided when I was granted SOFA status.  Well you know, I just don’t carry those around with me and I haven’t even looked at them since I arrived back in Korea.  The soldier explained that unless my “orders” specifically included access to legal services he was not authorized to help me. I told him I assumed they did as I had been granted all the normal rights and privileges. He didn’t want to take my word for it though.  I explained I’d made a 45 minute trip in from Gireum and I really needed to get this done today.  He said he’d check with a higher up but he expected the answer would be no.  Shortly thereafter he returned and said there was no higher up available.  I gave him my best woe-is-me routine and he finally relented and notarized my signature, for which I thanked him profusely.

Next stop was the Army Post Office where I utilized Priority Mail to send the documents off to South Carolina.  Easy peezy.

Then we moved on to the bank and withdrew money to pay the rent.  Long line, but it moved fast enough I reckon.  While I had been taking care of business with the JAG, Jee Yeun had been looking through the PX circular and spotted a purse she coveted.  I pointed out that she already had a perfectly fine purse but she said it was a “winter” purse and she needed a new one for summer.  Finding it hard to argue with a logic I didn’t understand, I agreed to go to the PX after we finished our bank business.

Alright, I’m not much of a shopper.  And shopping for purses is just not something I have much comfort level doing.  But I had a picture from the circular, so how hard could it be? Excruciatingly difficult as it turned out.  I eventually found a rack with the brand of the desired purse on display, but no purse that matched the picture (or the price) of the one in the circular.  Finding a salesperson in the PX is like looking for water in the desert, but after awhile I snagged one who was hurrying by (probably trying to avoid me).  She also could not find the purse so she called out to a male employee who gruffly stated “not in stock” and walked off.  So Jee Yeun still doesn’t have a summer purse and I wasted precious minutes of my life.  (Ha, sorta like you are doing by reading this post!)

We walked back to the Dragon Hill Lodge gate to sign off post and my left leg was screaming the whole way.  Yep, it’s still doing that.  Comes and goes, and usually if I sit down for a few minutes the pain lessens and I can move along.  I needed to get to the commissary and Jee Yeun was heading into Itaewon to do the money exchange thing, so we shared a cab.  While shopping I ran into my soon to be former boss and he confirmed that legal services was included in my “orders”.  So, there’s that.

Having purchased exactly $135.00 in groceries I wasn’t feeling up to lugging them out to the bus stop.  So I grabbed one of the waiting cabs and told the driver “here’s the deal, I’m going to give you a very short fare but I’m going to pay you W5000 for it”.  He was down with that (and even turned off the meter) and five minutes later I was at the bus stop.  The 143 arrived just after I did, and we were on to Gireum-dong.

And the gaenalee is blooming.

And that’s how my day went.