Wait of a Lifetime

After Christmas my family was stuck in traffic for an hour heading to the airport.  The entire freeway was being detoured through a single stoplight on a neighborhood street.   This would not do, my daughter needed to be dropped off and we were going to be late!  In the morning she needed to be at school and she was going to miss her flight!   We didn't expect that the intersection at I-70 and I-270 was closed - it's always open.   People were joking and laughing at us as they drove by on the frontage road not 30 yards away.   Who do they think they are?   I set my phasers to calm and had to shoot myself  twice to begin easing the tension in the car.   Road rage narrowly averted.  We later found out that a truck had hit a bridge and traffic was detoured for out own safety.  The bridge never did fall.  I think we were going to be okay.

This 60 minutes really strung my family out.   When was your last 60 minute wait?  Can you imagine a wait of more than 20 years?  My daughter is turning 20 next month and she would consider that a lifetime.   The image on the right shows waiting times for US work visas with waits up to 24 years for some countries - 24 years.  Twenty four years is a really long time.  

Other blog posts and the US Immigration Process page on this site talk about the long lines to get an work visa to the US.  An April 10th article in US News/NBC online describes these long visa waiting lists with some cool infographics.   The full article on the obstacle course of immigration is here.