Tsunami, 23. The Mysteries of Government.

People are confused about the re-opening. A friend of my husband's chatted with him last night, talking about going fishing to a favorite spot where the fish would very likely be biting. But, where he wanted to go fishing was in a township that will still be off limits for us because it falls within the health area of Cee-A Coruña. He didn't understand, so I sent him a map I had seen, with all the townships in the colors of the level they will be on, on Friday. He still didn't understand, so I sent him an article I had seen in La Voz de Galicia, explaining the different areas. Bummer. No fishing.

To help people understand where they can and can't go as of Friday, maps are circulating with the townships in different colors according to level. One can only travel within townships of the same color, and those in red are still closed off. The problem is that most people can't read a map, or can't find their township on a map. They know exactly where they live, but show them a map, and they point all over the place. So, things are still confused.

I just know that I can go around my area, up to Santiago, even to Lugo or down to Ourense, or even Vigo or Tui. I just can't go to the north coast from Cee to above Ferrol, nor down the coast to Pontevedra and its interior. It's still better than nothing. The only thing I will miss about being shut up in my township is the decreased traffic we've been having on the road in front of our house. 

One might think, from the elaboration of the re-opening, that the health experts of our region are convoluted thinkers. I don't know, but they can be a bit inefficient. Last November, I went to a specialist doctor's appointment at the hospital in Santiago because of a health scare I had had a couple of months earlier. I had a test done, and was told that I would receive a letter with the results within a month. December came and went, and there was no letter. I decided to sign up for Chave365, which is a system through which you can find out the results of different tests and details of the prescribed medication you've taken, online. I had thought it would also give me access to doctor's notes, but it doesn't. Still, I saw that the test done in November had found me in good health, and the scare had been a mere pimple of existence. 

Imagine my worry when I got an SMS telling me of an appointment by telephone with the specialty where I had gone in November. An appointment had been set up for me without my asking for it. I went back and checked my medical record again. The test result had been excellent. What on earth had happened?

This morning, the phone rang an hour earlier than had been in the message. It turns out that they had merely made the appointment to tell me of the results. Instead of printing out a letter and mailing it in December, they had decided to put off informing me until the end of February by phone. I would like to assume that if the result had been worrying, that they would have called me as soon as the results had come in. I understand that they have been swamped by Covid, but this specialty had nothing to do with active Covid patients at all. It's a mystery.

On the subject of mysteries, I just received a certified letter from the regional Hacienda, or tax office. They're telling me, again, to pay a parking fine from 2018, which I already paid within the first twenty days at half the amount. I had overstayed my parking in the center of town while waiting at a bank, and was fined €80. I then waited until the end of the prescribed twenty days to pay it. That is the time within which, giving up all rights to contest it, one can pay half of the fine's amount. So, I went to a branch of Abanca, and paid €40.

It was lucky I kept the receipts. Last August, I received a certified letter from the tax office, saying I now owed €88, with interest, since I hadn't paid in time. I went to the local offices of the township. From one office, they told me to go ask at another office. At the second office, they told me it no longer had anything to do with them, and that I should talk to the tax office that had sent me the notice. So, I did, and sent scanned copies of the receipts to the office, to an email address I had been given.

This morning, after signing for the certified letter, I called, and was told that the email where I had sent the information was erroneous. She gave me a different address. I have just sent it to that new address. The addresses weren't that different. So, if one office receives a notice that belongs at an office down the hall, they can't inform them? The burden in this country is always on the taxpayer. Even if various government offices could easily interchange information, they won't. The citizen is the one who has to gather everything together to send it to the office that requires the documents. 

In my case, it could also have been a question of, "let's get her sick and tired of appealing, and maybe she'll cough up the money." I wouldn't put it past them.

Life continues.