learn by doing (a tuesday toss back to a week ago)

december is an expensive month for me…

…not just with xmas, but also my sirus xm subscription renews, and BOTH custom plates and car registrations come due. that’s $455.00 for all curious, and that’s with the “cash discount”.

this year presented an unusual hiccup – state registrations went away this year (2025) and won’t be a thing going forward. but this was LAST year (2024) when my shit came due. now, registrations have a five day grace period, so most folks that were due in 2024 would just wait till the beginning of the year as there’s no financial penalty and now you don’t have to stop and pay and deal with two different places. for me there was the added dilemma of blaq betty not being able to pass inspection due to some recent deer damage…

but i have custom plates, and those don’t have a grace period. as of new year’s day those would become available, and that i couldn’t have. so i tried to go the week of xmas, only to find out they were basically shut down all week. i went back the monday before new year’s, december 30th, and 9am and the line was literally the length of the historic caldwell county courthouse the office is in…

bottom right for anyone curious where the actual office is

so i went back after work and the line was much, much shorter. once i got up to the door i realized something – not only was i missing my inspection but my phone, where our insurance cards live, was in the car as well. so, needless to say, it was time to turn on the motherfuckin’ charm…

*throws down to registration letter from dmv*

i need to pay y’all some money!

very good, sir – do you have the inspections for these?

i didn’t think ‘inspections’ were still a thing?

yes, sir, they are – that starts next year

well, *reads name tag*, marcie, this is the last half hour you’ll be open this year. then you have two fun days off, then you come back and never have to ask for inspections again. i don’t know about you, marcie, but i learn by doing…and so i would just skip all that bullshit so you can get some practice in with the NEW policies and not worry about my inspections since i really need to renew my plates and one of my cars wouldn’t pass, so i wouldn’t have one of em even if i could – practice makes perfect!

*she takes less than five seconds, smiles, and says…*

sounds good to me!

and prints my stickers, i hand her the cash, and i split!

one of the better close out notes of a fairly shitty year.