Homestead exemption

Errand day today. First I forgot that the post office in Shavertown is closed from 12:35 to 1:35 for lunch. I can always go a few more miles to Dallas to the P.O. there but it's the principle of the thing. I have my own post office and I like using it. So I went to the bank next. I had a huge tote bag filled with coins. Guess what? No coin counter! And they don't have one at any of the branches of my bank. They said there was a coin counter at the grocery store. I am way too cheap to pay someone to count my money so the cashier gave me a huge stack of coin wrappers.

Then I went back to the post office to mail a little package to my daughter's family in Utah. The postage almost cost more than the contents but everyone likes getting packages! After that, I went to sign up for our homestead exemption at the Luzerne County courthouse. I didn't know what to expect except that the building itself is a huge pile of grey granite built in the Greek Revival style.

Here were the surprises: I had to pay for parking. Granted it was only 50 cents but I guess I'm used to the wide open spaces of Texas where parking is free. And the pedestrian entrance from the parking lot was really creepy and dirty with cobwebs and lots of dirt. This didn't bode well. I expected to go through security but was surprised at how low key it was. Just one lady security guard and I didn't see any guns. When I walked through the security portal, it beeped but the lady said not to worry about it. She looked at my cell phone, ran my purse through a scanner and that was it.

The building inside reminded me of City Hall Shreveport about forty years ago. In no way did the opulent exterior match the offices I saw. But it was clean and in good repair. The man who waited on me was infinitely patient with an elderly lady in front of me. After the weeks and weeks of complaining customers they must have had because of the reassessment, I was surprised he could be so longsuffering. She wasn't rude, she just needed everything explained about six times. I was also surprised that the huge office was painted a very calm green with nice motivational posters everywhere.

Going back home I had to do the thing in the parking garage where you have to go up through all the floors before you can go back down. I think there were about six floors. Plus the top floor was outside. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to slide down that in the winter? Annoying. But the gentleman who took my fifty cents (the flat fee for parking which seems hardly worth the effort) loved my car and was friendly as could be.

I was very impressed by the kindness of all the public servants I met up with today. It makes the one jerk at the Driver's License bureau really stand out! Michael is planning to get his license tomorrow. I'm anxious to see what kind of experience he has there.