Three times lucky?
Aug. 12th, 2014 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asakiyumeMy generous brother offered me his old car, which would allow us to retire our gently rusting-to-pieces van. His car is much newer and has a ridiculously low number of miles on it. All that's necessary is to register it at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Except . . .
Time the First
Except, as the healing angel has observed, it is impossible to accomplish anything at the RMV with only one trip. Still, I called up our auto insurance, got all those papers in order, and on Thursday drove across the river and over Mt. Tom to the giant old mill building that houses the RMV office (along with lots of other interesting things, including Topatoco, which sells webcomic merchandise for folks like Kate Beaton and Ryan North). I took my ticket, which told me I had an estimated wait of about 35 minutes. I'd brought work with me, so I worked until I was called up.
"Oh," said the woman at Window No. 4, "You're registering it in both you and your husband's name? But he hasn't signed this. You both need to sign it. So I'm afraid I can't help you today."
I wasn't even that fazed--I'd expected there'd be something like this. And really, I should have read through the dang papers and noticed we had to sign.
She gave me a little slip of paper which, if I brought it in the very next day, would allow me to jump the queue and come right up to the counter to take care of business. The problem was, the very next day was Friday, which is my day at the jail. Fortunately, Wakanomori was able to make the journey on Friday.
Time the Second
From the road, Waka called me to point out that he didn't have the checkbook with him, and that the RMV doesn't accept credit cards, and that registration was going to cost *some* amount, though we neither of us could recall how much.
"I'll go to an ATM and take out cash," he said.
Some time later he called to say that although my brother had given us the car in exchange for the nominal sum of a dollar, because the car is so relatively new, it still has a fairly good Blue Book value, which means we owe a fairly hefty sales tax (because I guess the tax goes along with the Blue Book value)--more than he'd bargained for when he took out the cash.
"I'm out of time," he said. "I've got to get to work."
So we decided I'd go back on Monday.
Time the Third
Waka had used the jump-the-queue paper on Friday, so on Monday I had to re-queue, and this time the wait was estimated at an hour and 45 minutes, and it did take that long. I'd brought work again, but I finished it, so I sketched people taking their tests for their learner's permits. It's done using a touch screen (see bottom of the entry).
At last I got called to Window No. 6. The woman--Mary--asked me how things were going, and I said, "It's my third time, but third time lucky, right?"
"Really? What happened? . . . Was it our fault?"
"Nah, it was us. I didn't have my husband's signature the first time, and he didn't have the checkbook the second time."
So she told me how much the tax would be, and I started to write out the check, and as I was writing, we chit-chatted, and I said, "Yeah, this car is a present from my brother."
"What?! A present?! Then you don't need to pay sales tax. If it's a present from a family member, you don't need to. You just need to have him fill out this form."
We stared at each other. On the one hand, I still didn't have the car registered. On the other, she'd just saved me a pretty sizable sum of money. She told me to come back the next day--today!--with the signed form.
And I did! And now the car is registered! Third time lucky, fourth time, done.
Taking the learner's permit test
Time the First
Except, as the healing angel has observed, it is impossible to accomplish anything at the RMV with only one trip. Still, I called up our auto insurance, got all those papers in order, and on Thursday drove across the river and over Mt. Tom to the giant old mill building that houses the RMV office (along with lots of other interesting things, including Topatoco, which sells webcomic merchandise for folks like Kate Beaton and Ryan North). I took my ticket, which told me I had an estimated wait of about 35 minutes. I'd brought work with me, so I worked until I was called up.
"Oh," said the woman at Window No. 4, "You're registering it in both you and your husband's name? But he hasn't signed this. You both need to sign it. So I'm afraid I can't help you today."
I wasn't even that fazed--I'd expected there'd be something like this. And really, I should have read through the dang papers and noticed we had to sign.
She gave me a little slip of paper which, if I brought it in the very next day, would allow me to jump the queue and come right up to the counter to take care of business. The problem was, the very next day was Friday, which is my day at the jail. Fortunately, Wakanomori was able to make the journey on Friday.
Time the Second
From the road, Waka called me to point out that he didn't have the checkbook with him, and that the RMV doesn't accept credit cards, and that registration was going to cost *some* amount, though we neither of us could recall how much.
"I'll go to an ATM and take out cash," he said.
Some time later he called to say that although my brother had given us the car in exchange for the nominal sum of a dollar, because the car is so relatively new, it still has a fairly good Blue Book value, which means we owe a fairly hefty sales tax (because I guess the tax goes along with the Blue Book value)--more than he'd bargained for when he took out the cash.
"I'm out of time," he said. "I've got to get to work."
So we decided I'd go back on Monday.
Time the Third
Waka had used the jump-the-queue paper on Friday, so on Monday I had to re-queue, and this time the wait was estimated at an hour and 45 minutes, and it did take that long. I'd brought work again, but I finished it, so I sketched people taking their tests for their learner's permits. It's done using a touch screen (see bottom of the entry).
At last I got called to Window No. 6. The woman--Mary--asked me how things were going, and I said, "It's my third time, but third time lucky, right?"
"Really? What happened? . . . Was it our fault?"
"Nah, it was us. I didn't have my husband's signature the first time, and he didn't have the checkbook the second time."
So she told me how much the tax would be, and I started to write out the check, and as I was writing, we chit-chatted, and I said, "Yeah, this car is a present from my brother."
"What?! A present?! Then you don't need to pay sales tax. If it's a present from a family member, you don't need to. You just need to have him fill out this form."
We stared at each other. On the one hand, I still didn't have the car registered. On the other, she'd just saved me a pretty sizable sum of money. She told me to come back the next day--today!--with the signed form.
And I did! And now the car is registered! Third time lucky, fourth time, done.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 04:02 am (UTC)Congratulations!
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Date: 2014-08-13 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 04:48 am (UTC)Hurray, car!
(Damn.)
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Date: 2014-08-13 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 09:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 09:53 am (UTC)Yay for fourth time done :)
no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-14 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 12:54 pm (UTC)But I'm glad you managed to save the sales tax.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 09:08 pm (UTC)Many times
Date: 2014-08-13 02:07 pm (UTC)Well done!
Re: Many times
Date: 2014-08-13 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 09:35 pm (UTC)2: Boo for repeated visits to register the car, but
3: BLESS YOU, MARY! for your outstanding job of listening, thinking, caring, and acting, the combination of which saved my friend some money!
no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-14 07:30 am (UTC)