September 23, 2003 - 1:44 p.m.
It was warming up to be a nice day. The boys let me sleep in a few minutes, the sun was shining, my parents had their roof patched just in time for the rain, my sister made it home safely to LA. It was the first day of autumn, my favorite season, and I had hoped to leave all the dramatic insanity of summer behind me....
I made a little list of errands and put the boys in the car. They didn't fuss or kick and Marcus even wore his shoes without complaint. I wasn't in a rush, didn't speed, and just enjoyed the drive and wondered why that Fairfax County police officer would be pulling into Target right along behind me...
I couldn't fathom why he wanted to see my license and registration but I handed them over nicely. It pays to be nice to cops.
"Ma'am, do you realize your license plates have expired?"
I hadn't. I couldn't even remember receiving the notice in the mail. Hadn't I renewed for two years last time? No, DMV doesn't offer an incentive for that anymore. I had only sent payment for one. I looked at my registration as I handed it to him. Expiration 8/31/03.
Damn.
I entertained the boys while the policeman does whatever policemen do back in their patrol cars and waited, wondering how much a ticket like this could cost. But being nice pays. He let me go with a warning. I smiled and thanked him, confident I could just log on to the DMV website at home and renew, print out my receipt and settle the whole matter in minutes thanks to the miraculous digital age...
Or I would if I lived south of Fredericksburg. Here I need to take my car in for an emissions test before DMV will grant me the license to drive it around.
So much for the simple solution. Now I need to wait for Marcus to nap, find a sitter, find a place to take my car quickly, have the emissions tested, wait and worry about whether it will pass, pay the nice mechanic for testing the emissions, pick up my children, compensate the babysitter, come home and log onto the DMV website to settle the whole matter in minutes thanks to the miraculous digital age.
I'll let you know how that all goes later.
