Today was the day.  

No matter what didn’t get done, today we’d accomplish our goal at the DMV.  

If you live in California, you know how scary it can be trying to get something…..ANYTHING done at the DMV, Department of Motor Vehicles.

If you don’t live here I don’t know what to say other than well…..I don’t LIKE saying this but it’s a mess.

Does ANYONE get trained for those jobs? 

ANYONE?  

JUST ONE PERSON EVEN?

EVER?

Most Californians don’t think so.

We’d already put it off for too long. 

So this was it.

We promised each other…..even if it meant standing in a damn line for an hour!

Two years earlier we’d notified the DMV of our address change when we moved from San  Diego back to Sacramento.  

But, any dealing with them leaves a kind of insecurity. 

It’s almost a 50/50 shot that even if they get it, it won’t be processed…just sit in a mile-high pile on someone’s desk…..forever!

However, we’d gotten notices when our driver’s license was ready to expire and when we needed new license plate tags so, OK the change-of-address went through. 

But as June approached we hadn’t received our new Handicap Placard.  

It was suppose to come automatically, nothing we needed to do.

Well, it never came and we kinda forgot about it.

We don’t use it all the time so it’s usually out of sight.

Then one day when we hung it, well….it was July and the placard said it expired on June 15th.

We looked at each other…..where was the new one that was just suppose to arrive…..all by itself….. no prompting?

Hmmm? Strange.

I put it away and we forgot about it…..AGAIN!

One day last week for some reason, I thought about it.

So, before it left my brain, I asked the MACHINE OF MANY ANSWERS…..my computer, where the heck was my placard?

What I learned was the DMV requires a separate Change-Of-Address form filled out for the Handicap Placard.  

Who knew?

Not us!

OK, we said. We’ll look into that and…..we forgot…..again!

Recently, in Lake Tahoe we needed to use it BUT…..we were on the Nevada side and well, we figured we could talk our way out of a ticket in California but we didn’t know about Nevada so…..we parked elsewhere.

And…..PROMISED each other that no matter what….we were going to the DMV in the morning and get that taken care of.  

………………..

We headed-out early the next morning. 

First a quick stop at the Post Office to mail a package and hooray, no line, next the Farmer’s Market for tomatoes, and then…..the dreaded DMV. 

They hadn’t even been open an hour when we pulled into the parking lot and parked…..in a non-handicap spot. 

The lot was pretty full already.

There was a large crowd of people outside, just standing around the entrance doors, like they were waiting for something.  

That’s a fairly common site at the DMV.

It didn’t matter and we repeated it to each other…..”no matter what!’

Just before our hand pushed the door open, a young man appeared.  

This poor guy had the horrid, extremely unpopular, even dangerous chore of telling everyone approaching the door that the computers were down, it may take from 1 to 5 hours to get them going and there was already a TWO-HOUR waiting line formed inside!!!!!

We looked at each other…..no matter what…..those words were bouncin’ around in my head.

OK, this wasn’t gonna get us down, we’d just drive over to the Rocklin or Folsom branch.

No biggie!

But then he added…..

“All DMV computers in the entire state of California are down.”

And now it was time to shoot the messenger!!!!!

We decided to go take a look inside for ourselves.

Maybe our transaction wouldn’t need a computer…..hahaha, ya, right!

Clerks were walking around, socializing with each other just like any other work-day and there was a huge line formed along the walls of those who were in it for the long-haul, I guess.

We approached a young man behind the counter and explained the placard situation. 

He gave us the needed forms and 2 choices of what to do with them; either drop them in the mail and we’ll have the placard in 4 weeks (right!) or bring them back when the computers were up and hand them in and get the placcard immediately (immediately after standing in line for 2-hours, he meant!)

“BUT, don’t come back tomorrow morning, we’re closed all morning.”

No matter what!

Then a thought….”Could we make an appointment so we wouldn’t have to wait for hours in a line?” I wanted to know.

“Yep, you can sure do that, but appointments are booked for just about the next two months!”

No matter what!

On the evening news, there was a story about the DMV.

They’re revamping!

We don’t know what that means but just the same, it’s a scary thought!

The forms?

They’re up on the fireplace ledge with a big yellow stickie note on them and it says…..”NEXT WEEK…..NO MATTER WHAT!”