No Good, Very Bad Day...
Jul. 27th, 2012 09:46 pmHAPPY BIRFDAY ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sir_cat, klingonguy, AND oxymoron67!!!
Today...has been a gods-awful day.
The DMV was a disaster. I think they saw my car and were determined to fail it.
The guy doing the emissions inspections was a complete dick. I told him that I had a new engine and exhaust system and I needed the generic test because the VIN was useless. So he starts pulling out lights and mirrors to look under the car and says that with a single catalytic converter (cat) and two/dual exhaust lines, it's not an acceptable exhaust system, that I need two cats for a dual exhaust. He does the test and it passes...except for high idle CO emissions. Looking at the results for eerything else, which is barely half of acceptable limits... You know, the old 305 smog engine with a single, old exhaust line was never that high. In short, I don't know what he did, but he fudged the test. I'll take it to Gary to make sure, but I know my car, and there is just no way my emissions could be that high. Downtuning the carburetor still wouldn't make emissions that high. I'd have to screw up the carburetor and take off the cat to get readings like that.
On top of that, they failed it for the accident damage. They said that I had to at least get the light working, which it is. I checked before and after. They said I had a non-regulation lens.
In short, they were determined to fail the car no matter what. Because they have an edict to get older cars off the road. Because they want to enforce non-innovation and conformity. Well, not quite that deep; they just want a population more easy to control.
So, go inside, and at least got my license renewed. Though the guy was borderline jerky about my documentation, even though it was all acceptable. To recap: Delaware has a one-time document thing (kind of like the one-time document check when you first get your license, so one-time check just means we want you to think this is it, but we can change the rules and there's nothing you can do about it). I'm sure they'll require a blood sample and a DNA clone for the next one-time check in 10 years or so. If I'd known my trip was going to be so frustrating and counter-productive, I'd have brought a vial of blood, a urine sample, and a semen sample with me. Hell, those things are better identifiers than mere documents.
For shits and giggles, I went back to the information desk to ask if I could at least switch the vanity plates. "Yeah, you can go ahead and do that today." Great! So, I wait another 15 minutes. Get to the counter, and the girl behind says no, I can't switch plates without Mom there, since her name is on both cars. I told her Mom had called and was told all I needed was copies of the vehicle registrations and a signed letter. She goes and checks with her boss, then comes back and says that no, Mom has to be there, because they need a signature. I point to the signature on the letter. That's not good enough; they need a power of attorney and a notarized signature. Which is bullshit.
Now... Mom got word from her attorney about reaching settlement for her accident that totaled the Saab a year and a half ago. She and Rich are planning to help me out a little. First part of that is that they'll front me the money to get the accident damage fixed. That leaves me with checking with Gary on the emissions.
Mom is having her bariatric bypass surgery in the middle of August. The plan is to go to the DMV at the end of August and get the car re-inspected. Then Mom, post-surgical, is going to get the walker out of the attic, we're going to get an oxygen line and maybe some other tubes, and then Rich and I are going to prop her up at the counter and she's going to very slowly and very loudly say, "Okay, I'm here. What's so special that I need to be here to transfer a vanity plate from one car to the other? And why is it that when I called the last time I was given erroneous information about this?"
That...at least made me smile. So does the fact that I have the last inspection results and access to a Zeutschel scanner and state-of-the-art industry-grade processing software. One way or another, my car will pass inspection. Cheating? More like countering cheating.
Moving along...
I managed to get a vet appointment for Rocky for this afternoon. He's now current on all his shots, is healthy, and weighed in at 19.7 pounds, which seems a bit lighter than I was expecting. Then again, he didn't exactly stay still on the scale. The thing on the side of his face? Not a cyst, but also not cancer. Benign tumor. Not life-threatening, but the sooner it's off, the better. So, we were going to do it today if I could get my Care Credit card limit extended, since it's a $700 surgery, what with it being close to his eye, needing meds, some bit of kitty plastic surgery, and so on. Credit Care denied an increase. Good thing it wasn't something life-threatening, or else I would have reached through the phone and throttled the guy.
This is the other thing Mom and Rich are going to help me out with. Well, Mom, mainly. She's going to give me money for TomTom's end care. That will wipe out the balance in that card so I can get Rocky his surgery. My goal is to eventually pay off that card and, once the other regular cards are paid down significantly, I'll get rid of it. I want to leave myself something in case of an emergency, but, if I can get rid of it, I will. Useless bastards.
So, overall, it's been a sucky day full of suck. Nice start to my birfday weekend. I think I'm going to hide this one out, complete with coffee, kindle, and comic books. Also? People suck. Way too many people suck. But, I'm glad that Mom will be able to help me out a little in a few weeks. I hate having to rely on anyone else like this, but then, she also sees it as payback for when I helped her out in times of need over the past five or six years or so.
( Comics )
Posted at LiveJournal and Dreamwidth
sir_cat, klingonguy, AND oxymoron67!!!Today...has been a gods-awful day.
The DMV was a disaster. I think they saw my car and were determined to fail it.
The guy doing the emissions inspections was a complete dick. I told him that I had a new engine and exhaust system and I needed the generic test because the VIN was useless. So he starts pulling out lights and mirrors to look under the car and says that with a single catalytic converter (cat) and two/dual exhaust lines, it's not an acceptable exhaust system, that I need two cats for a dual exhaust. He does the test and it passes...except for high idle CO emissions. Looking at the results for eerything else, which is barely half of acceptable limits... You know, the old 305 smog engine with a single, old exhaust line was never that high. In short, I don't know what he did, but he fudged the test. I'll take it to Gary to make sure, but I know my car, and there is just no way my emissions could be that high. Downtuning the carburetor still wouldn't make emissions that high. I'd have to screw up the carburetor and take off the cat to get readings like that.
On top of that, they failed it for the accident damage. They said that I had to at least get the light working, which it is. I checked before and after. They said I had a non-regulation lens.
In short, they were determined to fail the car no matter what. Because they have an edict to get older cars off the road. Because they want to enforce non-innovation and conformity. Well, not quite that deep; they just want a population more easy to control.
So, go inside, and at least got my license renewed. Though the guy was borderline jerky about my documentation, even though it was all acceptable. To recap: Delaware has a one-time document thing (kind of like the one-time document check when you first get your license, so one-time check just means we want you to think this is it, but we can change the rules and there's nothing you can do about it). I'm sure they'll require a blood sample and a DNA clone for the next one-time check in 10 years or so. If I'd known my trip was going to be so frustrating and counter-productive, I'd have brought a vial of blood, a urine sample, and a semen sample with me. Hell, those things are better identifiers than mere documents.
For shits and giggles, I went back to the information desk to ask if I could at least switch the vanity plates. "Yeah, you can go ahead and do that today." Great! So, I wait another 15 minutes. Get to the counter, and the girl behind says no, I can't switch plates without Mom there, since her name is on both cars. I told her Mom had called and was told all I needed was copies of the vehicle registrations and a signed letter. She goes and checks with her boss, then comes back and says that no, Mom has to be there, because they need a signature. I point to the signature on the letter. That's not good enough; they need a power of attorney and a notarized signature. Which is bullshit.
Now... Mom got word from her attorney about reaching settlement for her accident that totaled the Saab a year and a half ago. She and Rich are planning to help me out a little. First part of that is that they'll front me the money to get the accident damage fixed. That leaves me with checking with Gary on the emissions.
Mom is having her bariatric bypass surgery in the middle of August. The plan is to go to the DMV at the end of August and get the car re-inspected. Then Mom, post-surgical, is going to get the walker out of the attic, we're going to get an oxygen line and maybe some other tubes, and then Rich and I are going to prop her up at the counter and she's going to very slowly and very loudly say, "Okay, I'm here. What's so special that I need to be here to transfer a vanity plate from one car to the other? And why is it that when I called the last time I was given erroneous information about this?"
That...at least made me smile. So does the fact that I have the last inspection results and access to a Zeutschel scanner and state-of-the-art industry-grade processing software. One way or another, my car will pass inspection. Cheating? More like countering cheating.
Moving along...
I managed to get a vet appointment for Rocky for this afternoon. He's now current on all his shots, is healthy, and weighed in at 19.7 pounds, which seems a bit lighter than I was expecting. Then again, he didn't exactly stay still on the scale. The thing on the side of his face? Not a cyst, but also not cancer. Benign tumor. Not life-threatening, but the sooner it's off, the better. So, we were going to do it today if I could get my Care Credit card limit extended, since it's a $700 surgery, what with it being close to his eye, needing meds, some bit of kitty plastic surgery, and so on. Credit Care denied an increase. Good thing it wasn't something life-threatening, or else I would have reached through the phone and throttled the guy.
This is the other thing Mom and Rich are going to help me out with. Well, Mom, mainly. She's going to give me money for TomTom's end care. That will wipe out the balance in that card so I can get Rocky his surgery. My goal is to eventually pay off that card and, once the other regular cards are paid down significantly, I'll get rid of it. I want to leave myself something in case of an emergency, but, if I can get rid of it, I will. Useless bastards.
So, overall, it's been a sucky day full of suck. Nice start to my birfday weekend. I think I'm going to hide this one out, complete with coffee, kindle, and comic books. Also? People suck. Way too many people suck. But, I'm glad that Mom will be able to help me out a little in a few weeks. I hate having to rely on anyone else like this, but then, she also sees it as payback for when I helped her out in times of need over the past five or six years or so.
( Comics )
Posted at LiveJournal and Dreamwidth
