zimmers in texas

From Meryl

Just when we think we understand what we are doing we find something new that we have to do. We are still trying to buy a car but to insure the car we have to have a Texan driver's license. We also found we need to have social security numbers to get paid so we went to the Texas Dept of Public Protection to start the process for our driver's license. It is just like Australia where you have to do the written test and the go out with the State Trooper to do the practical test. We may try to sit the test next week if we study hard this weekend. We visited the Social Security Administration office on Friday. They are only open from 9 to 4 Monday to Friday and they have 24 interviewing bays. The public contact area is just about as big as the whole Inala office. We got there at about 20 to 4 on Friday and left about 40 minutes later. Glen's records matched with the Department of Homeland Security so his was processed straight away and he should get his card in the mail in the next 2 weeks. Mine, of course did not match so it will be about 4 weeks. We also applied for Texas ID cards and they should arrive in about 2 or 3 weeks. For such an "advanced" nation they sure do take a long time to process anything.




View from Meryl's window at work included. Shows part of the 'very complicated' freeway network that is all through Austin. Appears to be a much smaller city than Brisbane with about 10 times the traffic