Man of the House & Miracles at DMV

Adopted as part of his routine now, whenever Papa goes out of town, Chris becomes the "man of the house", a job he takes very seriously. He has to make sure we are all safe and sound, and he has to check all the doors and windows to make sure they are all shut and locked. So cold out now, he just had to do the doors this time.

He's only 5, and he still climbs in our bed in the middle of the night on most nights. So when Papa is out, he gets to go there directly. Well.....that means that in comes the nightlight that normally resides in his own bedroom. It's the one that looks like an oil lantern, but made from wood with a pint-sized mason jar screwed in over a nightlight bulb, and with a swivel on/off switch. Very clever design for a nightlight, and very-child friendly. We found it in our travels near Pocahontas, Arkansas, this summer.


Don't forget Teddy and Elmo, his best buddies. He wasn't feeling so well the past few days, so he woke up around 10 with an upset belly, but then slept all the rest of the night.

What an innocent looking babe. Then, of course, he wakes up and the conversations start! Thankfully he's feeling a little better now, and off to school he went. So far, no calls from the teachers, hopefully he's over the worst of it.

** And now, for the DMV experience yesterday **

You'll appreciate this lapse in memory, I'm sure nothing to do with turning 44. Here I was being proactive and getting the oil changed on my van on Friday, as it was really a little overdue. Wanted to have it done before Thanksgiving and didn't make that date. They found my back brakes to be completely worn down, but I didn't know, they didn't sound or feel funny. Maybe that was that strange ringing noise we used to hear when turning corners? Apparently, that is a safety ringing, designed to notify you of worn down pads, who knew? Anyway, new brake pads later, and we're on our way.

THEN, on Sunday, the night before Mike is supposed to leave town for almost a week, he notices that my NM car tags have EXPIRED on 11/30! Dammit! Too late to get them renewed from NM (a much less expensive, albiet temporary, solution), so now I have to adjust my already backlogged TO DO list and take care of all this on Monday before mid-afternoon.

Of course, as we all know, DMV can sometime be a nightmare, so boy, was I looking forward to sitting in those lines on a MONDAY and taking my chances that they would accept all the paperwork I presented.

First, I had to gather up all the necessary paperwork. Birth certificate, lease, utilities bills, old registration, current insurance card, anything else?

Then, we got the state inspection, a relatively painless experience. Arrived at 12:20 PM to a car dealership, where they said they could do it right away. Small issues: needs new wiper blades and the brake light in the back window was out. Hmmmm, didn't know there was such a thing on the van. No need to bring up how if I had REMEMBERED to get a state inspection, I could have done it on Fri, when the car was already at a shop. Nope, that is old news now. For the present situation, the dealership had to send someone up to the Dodge dealership to get the couple of parts, meaning we had to wait about 45 minutes longer. No biggie. We had snacks and drinks for the little guy, and Indiana Jones nintendo ds video game to keep him occupied. And the couch was comfy, so he laid down on my lap for awhile when he was getting too tired. By 2 PM, we were on our way!

Left there, got lunch at the ever-so-healthy Mickey-D's, and then drove to find the DMV.

We got there at 2:35, got in line and waited to get our paperwork to get the registration and tags changed to VA, oh, AND, to get me a local drivers license. Our number was E646, they run 3 separate numbering schemes, apparently, but the current one being serviced in our scheme was E638!


...and would you believe it: we walked out by 3:43 PM, a mere 68 minutes later, with BOTH my new VA licence and the new license plates, stickers and registration! How's that for record timing! Never in all my years of registering cars and getting licenses did a process go so smoothly! Like, really, *never* has this been so easy to do, AND I had a sick boy with me the whole time -- who, by the way, was VERY good and patient. (Sometimes he's not so patient)

For my favorite part, the New License:
Notice, it no longer has the weight category on the license, not that it was ever a useful tool, anyway, but I, for one, am VERY happy it's been removed! "As If" anyone ever told the truth about their weight, anyway!


Never liked my picture taken, but this one is okay.

Of course, DMV messed up, because I wrote down that I wear glasses, and they didn't mark it on the card. Also, I didn't see any checkbox for organ donor, so I'll have to go back and modify that one.

Probably the strangest thing of all about being in this state, is that my *name* is darn near everywhere! on every car, so many store signs and highway signs, every newspaper, advertisement, local commercials, etc. Well, not every single one, but you get the picture. I believe when I get a job, I'll be using a nickname from day one, to reduce some of the "Oh, it's Virginia in Virginia" and the usual, "Oh, Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa", and there are more. It's more annoying than anything to see my name in print so much. Just one of the things I forgot about when we moved away from Alexandria 15 yrs ago.

Now, back to the pressing issues of the day: finishing unpacking boxes, finding the rest of the boxes of decorations, and finishing my HOMEWORK! ...which is what I was supposed to be doing yesterday....

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