Finally something blogworthy


Living off the grid without even trying.

I don't drive. That's a topic for another time but for now just understand that I never got a license. Never tried for the test and barely spent any time behind a wheel practicing. In 1996, the company I worked for decided to send me to a conference across the country and suddenly I needed a photo ID. My state had a photo license bus that roams around and occasionally showed up in a parking lot less than a half-mile from me, so I headed over there next time they showed up and Bob was, as they say, my uncle.

When it was up for renewal 4 years later, I went back and got my picture taken again even though I hadn't needed it since the trip. When it came up for renewal in 2004 I did nothing, partly because I still hadn't needed it and partly because the new owner of the parking lot didn't let the license bus park there any more.

I'm going to need it again. Not soon; I got slightly over a year's notice. The bus still doesn't come around here, but it doesn't really matter because they also don't do non-license IDs any more. They'll renew my wife's license, and she can also go to the AAA office two miles away, but the closest place I can get/renew my ID is at a DMV office 30 miles away. There's no public transportation here, so I can only get there during their very-limited Saturday hours or really put someone else out hitting them up for a ride.

So it should be just a pop over to DMV and I'll be related to Bob again. But it hasn't been so far. We're coming up on 4 months of bureaucratic hurdles (I'm doing the first couple of these entries retroactively) that have so far cost me a ridiculous amount of money and still not borne fruit.

First trip to DMV ended quickly. They were closed for a holiday that no other state agency observed.

Posted: Wed - February 28, 2007 at 01:07 PM          


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