Paperwork

There is so much paperwork involved in a move, and even more if you have a lot of unnecessary extra houses and cars and all the insurance happens to come due right around the time you move. We've been going back and forth with our insurance agent almost every day. Also the credit union. Also all the different utilities, which I thought would be simple to deal with, since the Boulder ones were already in our name, but they haven't been. Then there's health insurance. We've signed up for COBRA, since no job prospects have revealed themselves as yet, and I figure, worst case scenario, we can hang on to that until Obamacare comes through, which should present some cheaper options.

Something else we have to take care of is registering our vehicles and getting new driver's licenses. I've been driving around with my California plates for four weeks and it's really started to make me uncomfortable.

 

Coloradans are not in love with Californians, despite, or more likely because of, the fact that so many Coloradans are former Californians. So I decided that today would be my day to Get Registered. Rocket Boy agreed to mind the twins in the morning. I figured I'd be gone about an hour.

I drove to the county Clerk & Recorder's Office on 33rd Street and walked in. It's a pleasant office, quiet, and well run. I selected "Title" on a touch screen, and a ticket with my number on it popped out of a machine. A few minutes later my number was announced and I sat down with a nice county employee who told me that I could not register and re-title my vehicle until I got a smog test and a VIN verification. I showed her my paperwork indicating that my vehicle had just passed a smog test 3 months ago in California (which has more stringent emissions limits than Colorado) and that it had been purchased in Colorado and here was the VIN number. She smiled politely and showed me a map with directions to the emissions testing place.

Oh well. Off I went. Unlike California, in Colorado you can't go to any old place to get your smog test -- it has to be one of the state-sanctioned places run by Envirotest. Despite having been there before (and having just been told how to get there), I got lost and had to pull over and call Rocket Boy for help. When I finally got there, the electronic sign out in front said the wait was 31 minutes.

While I was in the line of cars, waiting, I noticed a sticker on my windshield that I had not paid attention to in years. It said "Colorado Emissions Exempt Vehicle." And I suddenly remembered that when I bought my Subaru, it was considered "exempt," meaning I didn't have to get smog tests. So what was I doing in this line?

I panicked. Should I get out of the line and go back to the county office and tell them I was exempt? What if they disagreed? But what if I stayed in line and the Envirotest people laughed at me because I'd spent 30 minutes in their line with an exempt vehicle? I thought about this long and hard and finally decided it was not the end of the world to be laughed at.

So I waited. And when it was finally my turn, I pointed to the sticker and asked the guy if I was still exempt. "What year is it?" he asked me. "2007," I told him. "Nope, that's only for the first two years," he said. Oh, I was so relieved.

But then he said, "Are you paying by check or cash?" "Check," I said. I'd brought my credit union checkbook that still has checks with our Boulder address.

"Does the address on your driver's license match the address on your check?"

"No." I still have my California driver's license.

A moment later I was pulling out of the line after all, and driving off to get cash.

I needed to go to the credit union anyway, to deposit some checks, so it wasn't so bad. I got a LOT of cash, in case I needed to pay for my registration with cash too. Then, since the credit union is right by the driver's license office, I thought I'd stop by there and see how long the line was.

In California, everything vehicle-related is handled at the same office, but Colorado splits it up. And the driver's license office is notorious for being just awful, with terribly long waits. When I walked up to the office (which is inside a little mall), there were people sitting and standing all over, OUTSIDE the office, in addition to all the people inside. I pushed my way in, noticing that all THEIR touch screens had signs on them saying "OUT OF SERVICE." I took a number from an old-fashioned machine. It was 700. I looked to see which number they were currently serving. It was 646. OK, back to the emissions testing place.

This time, the line was longer, but it moved pretty quickly. I noticed several people being told to get out of line and leave, presumably for reasons similar to mine. In maybe 20 minutes I was at the front of the line. I got out of my car and went to wait in a little booth, where a TV was showing an endless loop of a little show about what a good thing it is to have emissions testing and thus keep Colorado's air clean. I watched it for a while and then I started to wonder whether my car would pass. It's 2000 miles overdue for an oil change (I had noticed while waiting in line). I had only a quarter tank of gas, the cheapest kind. I knew that if it didn't pass, I could just take it to Grease Monkey for an oil change, no big deal -- but I'd spent so much time on this project already! Rocket Boy was probably losing his mind at home alone with the twins.

It passed. Flying colors. $25 that test cost me. They did the VIN verification too, for an extra 20 bucks.

It was getting late, 11:45 am, but I thought I'd drop by the driver's license place again. It had been about an hour. Wouldn't it be cool if they called number 700 just as I was walking in the door?

They were on number 670.

Back to the county office, where I was able to get my car registered in about five minutes (after a five-minute wait). Got my plates, my tags. Paid in cash, since I had it. As I was leaving, I said to the nice young woman who had helped me, "Can you tell me why this office is so quick and well-run and the driver's license office is such a mess?"

She smiled ruefully. "Well, this is a county-run office and the driver's license office is run by the state," she began.

"I get it," I said. "Thanks again."

Tonight after dinner we put on the plates (Rocket Boy had gotten his a week or so ago but hadn't put them on yet). We did his car first.

And then we did mine.

Baby A screwed in all the screws. He loves to help Daddy and work with tools.

Only one more car left to register. I'm crossing my fingers it fails the smog test and then we can get rid of it.

And then it's on to the driver's licenses.