I got up early again this morning and met Charlotte at the DMV in town. It's a shame I didn't have my camera with me because I wanted to take a picture when I got there. The line out the front door stretched the entire length of the building. As I was there early, I took a place in line and waited for Charlotte to show up, which she did about 10 minutes later. The line moved fast outside the building, and I was half way to the door by the time Charlotte joined me. When we got inside, we explained our transaction to one of the two pre-processing agents. She then gave us a couple forms to fill out. Secretly, I think we surprised and pleased her by having all the expected documents on us.
It took us about 15 minutes to fill out the forms and return them, at which time we were issued a number. We found seats and began our wait, which was about 20 minutes. When they called us we worked with a woman who was an absolute delight. She had a sense of humor and was in a good mood. It really made the DMV experience pleasant. (The pre-processing agent was nice as well.) Our final line was a short one: Charlotte had to show the changed registration documents to pick up the registration tags. All in all, we were out about an hour after we met. Once we filled out the initial forms, I didn't have to be there any longer, but I felt better about staying through the whole process. I hated the thought of leaving Charlotte there to finish the process alone.
So, I started the day by closing the books on my old car, which felt great to accomplish. I'm glad that's done.
Back home, I ate a quick lunch and then started filling big trash bags with old clothes. I'm not sure if I've explained here before, but I hate going to the laundromat. So, for years and years, I accumulated far more clothes than I needed as a way of staving off the laundromat. Today I went through stacks and stacks of clothes, designating some of the clothes to go back east with me and the majority to get thrown out. In all, I filled 6 large trash bags to the point where I could hardly lift them. These I piled into my car and then headed out to the county landfill again.
My second trip to the dump left me even more hesitant to drive my new car out there. I got there late in the day and they were well at work on top of the active landfill. I pulled up to find two huge bull-dozer-like vehicles which were squashing and spreading the day's take. Another tanker truck was driving around spraying water on the dirt and trash. The place reeked and there was a slight wind blowing which instantly coated my car in dust. On the way out, my tires picked up the wet dirt and then proceeded to spray it all over the underside and lower panels of my car as if I were slowly building a daub-and-wattle coating. I had to spray this off when I got home. So much for the wash I gave the car two days ago.
Not sure what to do next, I drove out to the storage unit and bought boxes. They happened to be on sale, which was great. Even better, the manager was there. His name is Mick, and he has always remembered me personally. I think I must have been one of his first customers when he took over the site. We started talking and I explained my situation. Once I told him that I was going to be leaving my items here for another year or so, he offered to move me into a same-sized unit on the second floor. It's only going to cost me $26 a month, versus the $68 I'm paying now. That's a sweet deal... except that I have to haul everything up to the second floor. Fortunately, I'm all about packing lift-able boxes so the change shouldn't be that tough.
Now I'm at Starbucks, having an iced tea to cool myself down. There are two guys at the table next to me, and one of them is a kid who's been yammering non-stop for 30 minutes about all the times he's been arrested. Every other phrase out of his mouth is "my homie" or "cops are dicks". He's one of these 19- or 20-year old kids who thinks he's smarter than the whole system. I wish I was going to be around later in his life to laugh at him.
Well, I guess that's enough of my prattle for today. Back soon!
"If I'd had some set idea of a finish line, don't you think I would have crossed it years ago?"— Bill Gates
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