Biometrics and Blizzard 2008

     "That sucks!" I exclaimed yesterday when I heard that we would be having a winter storm on the day of my biometrics appointment. David was not looking forward to the drive downtown because the forecast was for 14 inches of snow (in March!!!!).

      My appointment was for 1pm. The last time I had my biometrics taken, I waited for over three hours.The second time we went to the same office (for our interview), we waited for almost one hour (the interview itself took only about 5 minutes). David and I were concerned that the same thing would happen again and we might end up driving home during rush hour traffic and in the middle of a winter storm.

     A year ago, we drove through a winter storm when he took me to  the airport for my flight to Michigan. What would have been a 30 minutes trip took over three hours. It was during the rush hour, traffic was barely moving and the road was slippery. A small driving mistake and we would have found ourselves sandwiched between buses. :(

     We did not want to go through the same experience again. We decided to go earlier than our appointed time with the hope that we would be accomodated before 1pm. That way, we would be home before the storm would hit in full force.

    We watched the news and were ready to leave before 11:30 am. We even managed to sneak a photo session, for posterity, before we left, hahaha. Snow was starting to accumolate on the deck outside.  

     We got there before twelve noon. There was only one other applicant! I was given a form to fill out and less than one minute after I handed back the form, I had my biometrics taken.

     It went smoothly. The staff was very professional and courteous. Before he touched my hand, he explained to me what was going to happen and what he was going to do. As my fingerprints were taken, I observed that there was a percentage number beside the photo of my fingerprint on the computer screen. I assumed that it showed the quality of my fingerprint. I saw 53 and I jokingly said, "According to Law and Order, a 4 point match is not a good score. You need a 12 point match. That is way above 12". He laughed and explained that he was not looking at the number, he was looking at the image itself to check if the loops and quality of the lines were good.

     After the fingerprinting, I was asked to sit on a chair so he could take my picture. I was asked to remove my earrings. He said, "You can smile but do not show your teeth.". Now, how on earth do they expect me to smile and not show my teeth? That was one tall order! Fortunately, I must have managed to do it because the picture was good at the first try....and that was it.   

     We were in and out of there in less than 20 minutes! David was dumbfounded. He could not believe our good luck. I whispered to him, "I asked the Sto. Nino for help.". He said, "Thank you Sto. Nino." :)

     As we were driving home, visibility was getting worse. The road was getting slippery fast. We had planned to go to an Asian buffet for lunch but decided to drop by Wendy's instead so we could be home before the weather got worse.

     When we got home, the wind was blowing hard and the winter storm warning was changed into a blizzard warning. This was the view of the snow when we got home.

      This was only about one and a half inches of snow.

     According to the news, the last time there was a blizzard warning in Columbus was in the late 1980s, and that if we would get over 14 inches of snow it would be a record high. As much as I want the cold weather to be over, I have to admit that I am looking forward to the sight of 14 inches of snow tomorrow morning.

     What a day!