Dearest Rachel –
I don’t think you told me about what needed to be done about your car when we left for Camp Awana, and you went on to meet your fate. But then, it wasn’t something that would have needed to be dealt with for several months, and you fully expected to be around to deal with that matter when the time came.
But we all know what happened. And so, when the bill came around for the new registration sticker for your car’s plates, well, I wrote the check and sent it off. I hadn’t expected it to come back, saying it hadn’t undergone its biannual air quality inspection. So, with time running out, I drove out to the testing facility last Monday – where, you’ll be happy to know, it passed just fine – and headed for the DMV in order to hand over the check and get the current sticker for your plates.
I probably should have been tipped off when I had no trouble finding a parking space, but it never occurred to me that the place would be closed on Mondays. But there it was, engraved on the door along with the rest of their daily hours. So, while I hadn’t exactly wasted the trip – the DMV was basically on the way back from the testing facility – there was no denying that the timing could have been better.
So now I just had to wait until another, more opportune day came along in order to get this taken care of. And a whole week went by without me thinking about it, too. In fact, the first it occurred to me to deal with the matter again was – you guessed it – this past Monday. Which, if you noticed, would have been no better than the previous Monday in terms of getting things done. But at least I could put all the paperwork in my car (I figured it wasn’t necessary to bring the actual car just to get the renewal sticker), so I’d remember the next day.
This time, though, there was a line outside the office that stretched past three other storefronts – to say nothing of the difficulty of finding a parking space. Okay, so this is what a typical day is like at the DMV. Well, I let Daniel know that I’d pick up dinner for the two of us once I was done here – and we’d probably have a pretty good appetite for it by then.
As it turned out, I never found out what everyone was in line for, but it wasn’t for a license plate sticker. There were a couple of staffers walking along the line, asking what each person what waiting for, and when he came up to me, and I told him, he smiled and said, “Oh, you can go ahead, and follow the red line once you’re inside.”
So I walked in, ripped open the envelope that they’d returned to me, gave the cashier the check inside, and got the 2022 sticker and got out in less than five minutes.
Imagine: fast, helpful and efficient. Does anyone ever expect that from the DMV?
So, now I was left to pick up dinner at 4 in the afternoon. Yeah, I guess I’m part of that retirement crowd after all. Not that it was intentional, but here we are. So now your car is going to be street legal for another year, for all the use it’s likely to get. Okay, sure, Daniel might use it from time to time, but for now, It’s mostly out here on display.
But at least it’s being displayed legally.
Take care, honey.
Letters to Rachel 