I have ranted about the divorce process before, and that process is nice enough to give me reasons to complain again.\u00a0 My basic viewpoint is that the whole thing is stoopid.<\/p>\n
In the state of Colorado, all one has to do to be married is pretty much say so.\u00a0 Two strangers (of opposite sexes only, currently) could meet, introduce themselves as Mr. and Mrs. whatever and, as far as the law is concerned, consider themselves married.\u00a0 It helps if they share a bill together and go get a marriage license, but even without doing that they can file their taxes as a married couple and the state and the U.S. government won’t object.\u00a0 It’s called a common law marriage, and while the rules for it vary from one state to another, it’s relatively easy to make happen in most places.<\/p>\n
Divorce, on the other hand, is trickier.\u00a0 You can’t just be separated for a period of time and declare yourselves divorced.\u00a0 Even if one is ordered by the court to pay child support to the other, you’re still married.\u00a0 An eternity could pass, as the law has it, and you would still be married.<\/p>\n
Okay, I have said the above before.\u00a0 I have been going through the legal Colorado process of divorce for the last few months, and it’s quite annoying.\u00a0 First, you have to file several forms and pay a fee.\u00a0 With children, the fee is $280.\u00a0 Without, it’s about $200.\u00a0 Then you have to go to what amounts to a counseling session where the process is described to you in excruciating detail.\u00a0 Even if you’ve read the details and know what you have to do, you have to sit in a little room and have somebody tell you all about it.<\/p>\n
Ninety days after your initial filing, you’re allowed to ask for a court date.\u00a0 You can ask for a Decree Without Appearance–meaning you don’t have an actual court date; the courts just make it happen for you–but that is only workable if there’s no children.\u00a0 Colorado considers a child to be a child if they’re under nineteen.\u00a0 That’s right:\u00a0 As far as divorce is concerned, a child isn’t a minor at eighteen.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter that I’ve paid child support for the last fifteen years or that we’ve been separated for seventeen years or anything else.\u00a0 We have to go through the process of a court appearance (physically or by phone) in order for this stoopid process to be done with.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I will be filing the piece of paperwork requesting a court date today.\u00a0 I’ll keep you posted on it, but I still retain some hope the process will be done by the end of the month.\u00a0 I will add that I am an optimist and that hope is probably optimistic.<\/p>\n
On a brighter front, I have high hopes of completing my computer upgrade today or tomorrow.\u00a0 The last pieces I need–a power supply for me and a new hard drive for Sam–will arrive by 3 p.m. today according to FedEx.\u00a0 I will then do my utmost to follow this plan:<\/p>\n
That’s my plan.\u00a0 I hope to make it happen today, but we’ll see.\u00a0 Later this month, I will get new cases for both of us and a little more RAM for me.\u00a0 These are, in theory, minor changes and should not cause any issues.\u00a0 In theory.<\/p>\n
See you tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have ranted about the divorce process before, and that process is nice enough to give me reasons to complain again.\u00a0 My basic viewpoint is that the whole thing is stoopid. In the state of Colorado, all one has to do to be married is pretty much say so.\u00a0 Two strangers (of opposite sexes only, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}