!?$!%&(*(!, that hurt

[annathepiper]

So there I was with Great Big Sea belting out the live Road Rage rendition of "Old Black Rum" out of my computer speakers, cleaning up the bathtub in risu's bathroom in preparation for ravyngyngvar's arrival tomorrow, when I slipped and fell and landed badly on my right foot.

Ow. OW. OW, DAMMIT, that hurt.

I suppose it was my own damned fault, taking the sticky mat out of the tub because it was all funky and I wanted it to air out. That was just asking to slip on the bottom of the tub, which was still all wet. STILL, OW!

spazzkat heard me fall from all the way downstairs and came rushing up to help me back downstairs to the couch. He gave me an ice pack and some pillows, and now I'm lying here on the couch with my foot elevated and wrapped up in the ice pack as best I can make it--and it's awkward due to how I landed, my first two toes and the side of my foot are the places that hurt.

In conclusion, OW.

EDIT 9:03pm: Of course, now I just got a phone call from Yngvar saying that he's run into passport problems! :( He doesn't have the newfangled passport that you're supposed to be able to swipe through a reader--so now he's going to be delayed getting here if he's able to come at all. So I guess I'm off the hook for cleaning the rest of the bathroom tonight, but this was NOT the way I wanted that to happen. GAK.

Comments

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

ow! *hugs*

[annathepiper]

*hugs back* Thanks!

And now I just got a call from Yngvar anyway--he's run into passport problems and may be delayed, if he still manages to make it at all. Foo. :(

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

WTF with the passport? Where's he coming from? What's this about needing a swipey thing? (that bothers me...)

[annathepiper]

Yngvar's coming out of Bergen, Norway. The deal with the swipey thing has to do with new passport regulations--new passports coming out with little microchips embedded in them that are supposed to contain an electronic duplicate of the information printed on the passports, so that they can be swiped through a reader. New passports getting issued in the U.S. are supposed to start having these real soon if not already--I'm not sure if the new one I just got has one or not, I should doublecheck.

He didn't mention if it was the Norway side of things or the U.S. side of things being annoying about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were us given how much more stringent the U.S. has been about foreign visitors since 9/11.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind, let me know which it is? The tinfoil-hat side of my persona just had its b.s.-o-meter hit the peg... I'm going to get real twitchy if they're requiring RFID passports alreddie, particularly when I don't know what the heck they're going to put in those things...

[annathepiper]

See janne's comment further down the thread--looks like it was us being annoying about it. Yngvar either has to have a machine-readable passport or a tourist visa, according to Norwegian passport regulations that she found.

I guess I must have gotten things mixed up a bit with crossing the border into Canada, which does not as I understand it require a passport at all still until next year.

[janne.livejournal.com]

I just checked a norwegian information site on passports, which says (translated by me):

"USA has decided that norwegian citizens that do not have machine readable passports need a tourist visa to enter the USA after October 26. 2004"

All new (norwegian) passports produced from Januar 1st this year (or since 1999 if issued in Oslo) are machine readable, so it's probably faster to just get a new passport than to apply for a visa, which requires meeting in person at the US embassy in Oslo.

[annathepiper]

Ah, okay, so that makes what Yngvar mentioned briefly about talking to the U.S. Embassy as a sort of last resort make sense now. He must have been talking about the tourist visa.

Guh. Guess he's got an old passport. Hope they can speedily set him up with a new one.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Obviously there's some sort of agreement somewhere that sets the standards for machine readability... any idea where that might be? I suppose I could dig it up m'self...

[annathepiper]

Googling for +machine +readable +passport +regulation, I get these links:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/laws/telegrams/telegrams_1483.html
http://travel.state.gov/visa/laws/telegrams/telegrams_1535.html

Other links come up on the first page of Google results, links that seem to be referring to various and sundry airlines' bulletins about these regulations.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Poor you! Hope you feel better...

[annathepiper]

Thanks! A Mike's hard lime, a bath, a cup of hot cocoa, and an icepack later, I'm pretty decent.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Ow indeed. Hope both foot and visitor delays get sorted soon.

Gina

[annathepiper]

Thanks! The foot's still a trifle sore at this point, with a swollen bit just under my toe that makes walking kind of delicate.

Yngvar, on the other hand, reported that if he's lucky he may get this resolved in another couple of DAYS. If he gets it resolved at all. Sigh.

This'll likely mean I'll have to work on Friday after all. Darn. ;P :)

[janne.livejournal.com]

Ow, poor you. Stop having accidents now, ok? And I'd heard that the new passport thingie was only needed from October on, so that's puzzling. Or maybe that was the biometric part? At this rate a passport will end up being the most high-tec thing one is likely to bring on vacation to the US.

[annathepiper]

Yngvar said he was told the changeover was from last October. Which is confusing, because I thought the same thing you did. I wonder who got mixed up along the line. It'll be really annoying if the person who prevented his departure got that data screwed up.

[janne.livejournal.com]

The visa thing can be confusing. Exactly the same thing happened to me the first time I went to the US alone-- maybe 1990 or thereabouts. They had a brief period back then when the US decided to demand visas from everybody, regardless. I didn't find out until I was checking in at the airport, not fun at all. (Got solved quickly since my mom had connections at the US embassy back then, fortunately). Then they removed the visa requirement again soon after as long as it wasn't a longterm stay.

[annathepiper]

Guh. And I thought travelling just across this country was annoying.

Yngvar says he'll try to get all this worked out and see if he can still come see us later on this year, at least!

[janne.livejournal.com]

Synchronisity or something -- I just got a magazine I subscribe to in the mail, and lo and behold there was a long article on passport rules. Apparently there are/have been three different October 26 deadlines: As of October last year you can only enter the US without a visa if you have a machine readable passport. As of October this year you were supposed only to be able to enter the US without a visa if you had a biometric passport (which apparently stores data such as your fingerprints and other unique biological traits, whatever those are). That deadline has now been extented to October next year.

Hmm... maybe I should strive to get in another US visit before I need to be fingerprinted to get there. I have certain reservations against that procedure, which is something I identify exclusively with criminals. Then again, Cat really wants to go to legoland next year, and they don't require passports at all :D

[annathepiper]

I'm not terribly thrilled about this whole fingerprinting thing, either. Sigh. And I do wonder how this is all going to play out with Americans trying to go abroad in the future, too. My new passport may or may not be machine-readable, but it's certainly not biometric; I applied for the thing by mail and no fingerprinting or any such thing was involved. Yet I can't help but wonder whether some other nation will get cranky about U.S. nationals visiting because we're so cranky about foreign nationals visiting us. :(

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

Oh crap! Ouch! I hate getting hurt like that!! Isn't it always the way? You're trying to do something nice and then this kind of stuff happens. *sigh* Hope the foot gets better real soon and here's hoping things work out with your friend's passport problems.

[annathepiper]

Thanks, hon!

This morning my foot's just a little tender, so I'll be fine. Yay!

Yngvar, on the other hand, is probably going to have to get a tourist visa to get over here at all--he says he's been told it'll take weeks to get his passport renewed. Ack, ack, ack. How so very vexing to find out he has to do this ON HIS WAY OUT THE DOOR.

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

On good GRIEF! What a pain for Yngvar. Nothing like heading to the airport to find out news like that! I hope he'll get to visit you when it's all over.

Glad to hear the foot is better. *g*

[annathepiper]

Yeah--though he didn't say so specifically, they must have stopped him right at the airport before he was able to reach the plane. Gah. No worse time to be told "NO TRIP FOR YOU" than when you're on your way to depart on said trip.

(Foot's mostly better. I think I'm going to have a bit of a bruise soon. But no real harm done. :) )

[caligogreywings.livejournal.com]

That is the exact reason I'm incredibly paranoid about showers with no tub mat. I'm very afraid of falling in there.

[annathepiper]

I should have been more paranoid than I was, indeed. This wasn't the first time I'd slipped and fallen in a tub--the first time, I did actually clunk my head and give myself a bit of a concussion, too.