Stupid Tax

If you ever listen to Dave Ramsey, you have heard him talk about stupid tax. Well, I feel like we have paid some lately. Not that we have made bad financial decisions, we have just been stupid and had to pay money for it!!!

Last year about this time we were getting ready for our trip to Sierra Leone. The timing of it all worked so that I had to expedite my passport process. My old passport had expired, so I had to renew, but expediting costs a little extra. So, we take our trip and all is well. Obviously we had to take some vaccines before we left. One of those was the hep A&B series. They have a combo shot now, a series of three. So, we get the first one before we left and had to finish the series when we returned. We both--S & I--go get our second round together. We take our passports, as they have our shot record thingy in them. Well, let's just say the passports and shot record thingys got left in someone's pants pocket and someone washed and dried those pants--passports and all. I was just about sick to my stomach when I pulled those pants out of the dryer and found the passports in the pocket. S was in denial for a while that we would have to actually get them replaced. Even though they crumble in your hands, he thought we could use them. Well, we can't.

So, we FINALLY go to the post office yesterday to get things taken care of--you know, pay a lot MORE money (stupid tax) to get new passports. There was no line, much to my surprise. I didn't have my birth certificate and HAD to have it. I then go downtown to spend a little more money and get a certified bc. So, what should have taken a few minutes, took several hours. Plus the cost of gas for all this running around. And, of course, we expedited our passports, because we didn't feel we were paying enough stupid tax!! Actually, they are saying it is taking AT LEAST 10-12 weeks to process passports, and we didn't want to take any chances.

To top off the day, I got my last round of the hep series. Evidently the first two shots were covered by our insurance, but we have since changed insurance companies, and this last shot isn't covered. Do you know how much this ONE shot cost??? $105--that is one hundred five dollars times two since we both have to have it!!! I told everyone I encountered yesterday that these passports as well as these shot records will be guarded and if anything happens to them, it will be bad news!! They all seemed to think it was humorous that we washed our passports. I have yet to see the humor in it.

Oh, and let's just add insult to injury. Those shot records include proof of yellow fever vaccine that is required for several countries. Actually, it is probably only required of any country we plan to visit, because that is my luck. Anyway, to get the clinic to give us a new proof cost $5---could anything be easy???

I am so tired of dishing out money to people for things I have already paid for--all because of a little stupidity on our part. Let's just say, we have learned our lesson.