"So, tell me more about your day at the DMV."
Abbieupdate’s regular readers doubtlessly have one question on their minds: How many more posts can this guy milk out of the process of buying a new car? The answer is: One, but this is the last one. Probably.
We went to the Department of Motor Vehicles yesterday morning to register the new car and deregister the old car. Normally a trip to the DMV is an unpleasant experience, like losing Game 2 on a walk-off homerun from a guy who hit exactly zero homeruns in the regular season. My experience has been finding long lines, screaming children, and funny smells at the DMV. Maybe that was true later in the day, or maybe I just arrived on a good day, but when I arrived at 9am I walked right up to a helpful clerk with no waiting. I suddenly felt silly for filling the parking meter with 33 minutes, but at least the only screams and smells I had to deal with came from Abbie.
Not that getting to the DMV was entirely pleasant. Yesterday was the first morning of the season that I’ve seen a hard frost on car windows. We’ve had condensation and even light ice crystals form on windows this year, but that stuff scatters easily with a flick of the wiper blades, or sometimes if you just make a scary face at it. Yesterday’s ice was stubborn enough to require scraping. Sadly my ice scraper was not in my new car, but was instead still temporarily residing in Ellie’s truck, which was with her at the hospital at the time. Facing a choice between waiting 15 minutes for the defrost to loosen the ice or scraping with an improvised implement, I used the only flat plastic object I could think of: A credit card. Naturally I used my Discover Card, because even if most businesses won’t accept it, my windshield will.
With a clear windshield, I had smooth driving, effortless parking, and easy walking right up to the clerk. Unfortunately the rest of the experience was more difficult. The DMV is not equipped to make the lives of parents with small children easier. If it were, they would have a separate supervised play area encased in soundproof Lucite and filled with the latest toys, books, music, and videos for the kids to enjoy while their parents finish their business with the clerk, and then enjoy a leisurely lunch at one of the fine nearby restaurants before picking their children up around closing time. Lacking such a feature, I had to juggle Abbie and the registration simultaneously. I had several options to do so, each with their own drawback:
1. Hold Abbie in my arms while standing at the window. Cons: She can squirm out of my grip in under a minute and right onto the floor. As a variation, I could dangle her by her ankles, but that only keeps her entertained for about a minute before she starts screaming, and I was at the window for about 15 minutes. Plus the dangling draws suspicious looks from strangers.
2. Set Abbie at my feet and hold her hand to make sure she goes nowhere. Cons: I might as well slather frosting on my hand because she will bite me in this situation. Plus she’ll start screaming when she discovers she can’t roam freely.
3. Set Abbie on the floor and let her go, returning her to my feet when she wanders too far. Cons: A 15 minute meeting will become 30 minutes if I have to stop every nine seconds to fetch her. Plus, God forbid someone grab her when I’m not looking.
4. Sit her on the counter next to me. Cons: She could fall if I’m not careful, and I’ll have to fight her for sole control of papers and writing implements.
I opted for #4, and kept her entertained with a steady stream of toys while I signed things and tried to figure out exactly why just registering my new car costs almost half of what I sold the old car for.* At one point I handed her a credit card to play with (the Discover Card of course) while I pulled the necessary cash out of my wallet. Abbie promptly threw it on the counter. The clerk, not seeing who threw it, informed me that there was a fee to use a credit card for payment. Thousands of business won’t accept Discover, but the DMV will! For a fee!
As I neared completion of massive signings, Abbie threw the latest toy I gave her on the floor. I dutifully bent down to retrieve it, and as I did Abbie slid right off the counter. She screamed her head off despite my catching her on the first bounce. The clerk appeared to hold a mix of pity for us, and wrath toward me for letting her fall, especially since she remarked earlier that she’s always afraid kids will fall when they sit on the counter. I tried reassuring her that this was nothing abnormal, that she falls and cries like this two or three times a day, but I don’t think that helped my case. Until the DMV installs their soundproof daycare center, these problems will continue.
I grabbed my new plates, and walked out of the office, still trying to calm Abbie. My guilt got the best of me and I gave Abbie a treat on the way to the car: I let her walk down the dozen steps leading to the street. This time I held her tight to ensure she didn’t fall.
* Stupid sales tax.
We went to the Department of Motor Vehicles yesterday morning to register the new car and deregister the old car. Normally a trip to the DMV is an unpleasant experience, like losing Game 2 on a walk-off homerun from a guy who hit exactly zero homeruns in the regular season. My experience has been finding long lines, screaming children, and funny smells at the DMV. Maybe that was true later in the day, or maybe I just arrived on a good day, but when I arrived at 9am I walked right up to a helpful clerk with no waiting. I suddenly felt silly for filling the parking meter with 33 minutes, but at least the only screams and smells I had to deal with came from Abbie.
Not that getting to the DMV was entirely pleasant. Yesterday was the first morning of the season that I’ve seen a hard frost on car windows. We’ve had condensation and even light ice crystals form on windows this year, but that stuff scatters easily with a flick of the wiper blades, or sometimes if you just make a scary face at it. Yesterday’s ice was stubborn enough to require scraping. Sadly my ice scraper was not in my new car, but was instead still temporarily residing in Ellie’s truck, which was with her at the hospital at the time. Facing a choice between waiting 15 minutes for the defrost to loosen the ice or scraping with an improvised implement, I used the only flat plastic object I could think of: A credit card. Naturally I used my Discover Card, because even if most businesses won’t accept it, my windshield will.
With a clear windshield, I had smooth driving, effortless parking, and easy walking right up to the clerk. Unfortunately the rest of the experience was more difficult. The DMV is not equipped to make the lives of parents with small children easier. If it were, they would have a separate supervised play area encased in soundproof Lucite and filled with the latest toys, books, music, and videos for the kids to enjoy while their parents finish their business with the clerk, and then enjoy a leisurely lunch at one of the fine nearby restaurants before picking their children up around closing time. Lacking such a feature, I had to juggle Abbie and the registration simultaneously. I had several options to do so, each with their own drawback:
1. Hold Abbie in my arms while standing at the window. Cons: She can squirm out of my grip in under a minute and right onto the floor. As a variation, I could dangle her by her ankles, but that only keeps her entertained for about a minute before she starts screaming, and I was at the window for about 15 minutes. Plus the dangling draws suspicious looks from strangers.
2. Set Abbie at my feet and hold her hand to make sure she goes nowhere. Cons: I might as well slather frosting on my hand because she will bite me in this situation. Plus she’ll start screaming when she discovers she can’t roam freely.
3. Set Abbie on the floor and let her go, returning her to my feet when she wanders too far. Cons: A 15 minute meeting will become 30 minutes if I have to stop every nine seconds to fetch her. Plus, God forbid someone grab her when I’m not looking.
4. Sit her on the counter next to me. Cons: She could fall if I’m not careful, and I’ll have to fight her for sole control of papers and writing implements.
I opted for #4, and kept her entertained with a steady stream of toys while I signed things and tried to figure out exactly why just registering my new car costs almost half of what I sold the old car for.* At one point I handed her a credit card to play with (the Discover Card of course) while I pulled the necessary cash out of my wallet. Abbie promptly threw it on the counter. The clerk, not seeing who threw it, informed me that there was a fee to use a credit card for payment. Thousands of business won’t accept Discover, but the DMV will! For a fee!
As I neared completion of massive signings, Abbie threw the latest toy I gave her on the floor. I dutifully bent down to retrieve it, and as I did Abbie slid right off the counter. She screamed her head off despite my catching her on the first bounce. The clerk appeared to hold a mix of pity for us, and wrath toward me for letting her fall, especially since she remarked earlier that she’s always afraid kids will fall when they sit on the counter. I tried reassuring her that this was nothing abnormal, that she falls and cries like this two or three times a day, but I don’t think that helped my case. Until the DMV installs their soundproof daycare center, these problems will continue.
I grabbed my new plates, and walked out of the office, still trying to calm Abbie. My guilt got the best of me and I gave Abbie a treat on the way to the car: I let her walk down the dozen steps leading to the street. This time I held her tight to ensure she didn’t fall.
* Stupid sales tax.
posted by Matt at
10:06 PM
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