that a lot on the plates (and then some)

today, i found out we need to do $700 worth of tree trimming…

…tomorrow, i find out what the check engine light is gonna cost me. earlier this week i had to renew my plates.

2026 is proving to be spensive. like, i might need to find a new career kinda spensive.

since we’re all friends here, i’m gonna admit to a possible crime i haven’t yet committed, but on principle might have to. when i got m, even thought she’s not got a lot of carbon fiber stuff on her (that’s more a mr. grey thing), i got the new carbon fiber embossed plates they had just released. because they were embossed, it was an extra $25 ($75 vs $50) to get them over “regular” custom plates, which given the manufacturing process takes a good bit more, makes sense. i paid that extra bit happily, knowing it was due to more work going into the plates and, i will admit, it shows in how cool they look.

what i was NOT told was, going forward, they would cost extra. a good chunk extra. like, renewing grey’s plate was the usual, expected, $150 for the plate alone (plus registration, plus this, plus that)…but m’s plate was $270 (plus registration, etc) so i went in expecting to cruise in out for between $400 and $450 all in but instead had to play almost $600!

what daphuk?

so now i feel i have only a couple of choices, and the original thought has passed, but i’ll list it as the first thing:

1. bitch about how this makes no sense and bitch enough that they refund the difference (i know that won’t happen so why waste my energy and time?)

2. save up throughout the year and in august or september pay the $575 rate (which is only about double what i was charged for a single year) for the five year, which breaks down to $125 per year and locks it that way till i’m (gulp) sixty years old.

3. (this is the possible crime version) order non-embossed carbon fiber plates, but never put them on the car, instead just leaving the regular ones on and if a cop ever calls me out on it pull the plates out of the trunk to show i have them, i just hadn’t gotten around to swapping them yet. this will cost me $50 when i get the “replacements”, but then only $150 a year going forward even though, since i already HAVE the embossed versions, i’ll just leave em be.

ain’t it fun when bullshit laws make you a criminal?