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In Which I Wash My Car & Get My License
Jan. 31st, 2020 08:32 pmI've really been trying not to love Julie (the Benz) because I'm all too aware that I'm likely to damage her, as I dip back into the world of driving.
But on Tuesday or Wednesday (I'm not sure which: the days are blurring into each other, as I engage in an endless sequence of building furniture, unboxing stuff, breaking down boxes, and taking the boxes to county recycling), after a trip to recycling and Ace Hardware, I washed Julie for the first time.
It's another thing that I did for the first time in 30 years. I didn't do the best job of it, in part because I don't think I have a good enough scrubber, and in part because I couldn't figure out how to get to the roof (stepstool!). But much of Julie is much cleaner after her splashing through muddy potholes the first week I had her.
And I got to know Julie a lot better. I was surprised by the number of dings and scratches I found, all very low on the car, most of them near the back hatch. Some probably due to the mud and gravel on the roads, some due to loading and unloading things. I don't know if they appeared before or after I purchased her: the former owners said she'd been recently detailed, but I assume most of them must predate my ownership.
And when you wash a car, I think you come to love her more. Sigh.
On Thursday afternoon, Kimberly and I went into Lihue so that I could get a new driver's license and she could get a handicap placard. (Kimberly can't get a Hawaii State ID yet because she lost a few of the important, required proofs of identity during the move. Getting new copies is on our TODO list.)
I had to knock off work thirty minutes early to be able to get there in time. They close at 4.00, stop serving people at 3.45, and stop giving written tests at 3.30. Since I knew I had to take a written test for an out-of-state license transfer, my plan was to leave at 2.00 and be there by 2.30, giving a full hour for governmental inefficiency.
Alas, I did not know the scope of the problem. (But all of the DMVs in many states have been pretty screwed since the fascist requirements for the national ID cards came down, and the feds are putting in the screws this year, promising to deny people airline flights if they don't have their new national ID cards, though how that hasn't been challenged as a denial of our right of movement, I dunno.)
We got there a little later than planned, at 2.40, and I drew number 703 when they were serving 683. Then I sat and watched for ten minutes before they called 684. I was pretty sure I was not going to get called.
Sure enough, at 3.33, they were up to number 699. That's when a woman stood up under the sign that announced that out-of-state transfers (and permits) were only served 7.45-3.30 and said there would be no more written tests. )@(#*#)($@.
I gave Kimberly my 703 to replace her 705 and we waited until about 3.40, at which time she got called. Five or six minutes later she had a handicap placard.
While the clerk worked on Kimberly's placard, we also saw a family with kids go up to a window, to try and demand they process permits fo them. That clerk had to tell them several time that they weren't doing written tests anymore, then walked away in great exasperation.
(As for what I think of stopping written tests before closing the office, and letting people take numbers, but not get served: WELL. It's damned stupid, but typical 21st century austerity thinking.)
Meanwhile, I had nothing. I tentatively planned to come back the next morning because I knew that if it slipped I could easily go months before I got my new license, after the annoyance of wasting an hour (sorta wasted; Kimberly did get her placard).
But I really did want to do it soon, because I'd read through the whole Hawaii Driver's Guide, and had obsessively run through about 35 practice tests. (I was getting a bit sick of it all!)
So this morning, I was up at 6.50am or so, before my alarm went off. I was out of the house by 7.10, which let me do some more almost-nighttime driving, as that was five minutes or so before dawn.
I got in to the Civic Center at 7.40. I picked a new number, 722, out of the machine, and saw that they'd set the machine to 714 over night. So, the ninth number for the day, but they weren't likely to be skipping the numbers of people who left this time.
Fortunately, they had more staff at 7.45 in the morning and seemed to be more efficient. The eight numbers before me went by in twenty minutes or so, and then I got called up.
I handed over all of my carefully collated paperwork. I gave up my California Driver's License. I did an eye test, they took my picture, I paid my fees, they took my picture again (twice!?), they took my fingerprints (just one thumbprint and two index fingers!?), and then they printed up my ID. It was pretty quick from that point.
You may note what was missing there: no written test. Yep, they wouldn't process my driver's license on Thursday afternoon because they were done giving written tests, and then they didn't have me take a written test today.
#*)(@*)#@$*.
So now I'm really Kama'aina, with a Hawaiian ID and everything (albeit, a temporary one).
As for the driving itself ...
I'm getting used to the high-speed two-lane highways from here to Lihue and from here to Ele'ele. That's mostly what I've been driving lately. (In fact I've been to Lihue and back three times in the last day and a half, with another trip planned for tomorrow.) And even though I haven't been doing any full night driving, that experience with the LIhue road especially will help when I go gaming.
I continue to be surprised by all the ups, downs, twists, and turns, which I never noticed as a passenger, but I'm getting used to those too.
Parking is still challenging, but every once in a while I position Julie in a space perfectly. Yay!
(And when Kimberly is about, I'll be parking in larger handicap spaces, which obviously will be less challenging, but I can still assess how well I'm doing at hitting the spaces between the lines and getting Julie oriented well.)
And that's my driving experience a month into our Hawaiian move: I have a car, a car that's been cleaned, a Driver's License with a permanent copy pending, and definitely more comfort with driving, even if I still get uncomfortably tense in my shoulders when I drive.
But on Tuesday or Wednesday (I'm not sure which: the days are blurring into each other, as I engage in an endless sequence of building furniture, unboxing stuff, breaking down boxes, and taking the boxes to county recycling), after a trip to recycling and Ace Hardware, I washed Julie for the first time.
It's another thing that I did for the first time in 30 years. I didn't do the best job of it, in part because I don't think I have a good enough scrubber, and in part because I couldn't figure out how to get to the roof (stepstool!). But much of Julie is much cleaner after her splashing through muddy potholes the first week I had her.
And I got to know Julie a lot better. I was surprised by the number of dings and scratches I found, all very low on the car, most of them near the back hatch. Some probably due to the mud and gravel on the roads, some due to loading and unloading things. I don't know if they appeared before or after I purchased her: the former owners said she'd been recently detailed, but I assume most of them must predate my ownership.
And when you wash a car, I think you come to love her more. Sigh.
On Thursday afternoon, Kimberly and I went into Lihue so that I could get a new driver's license and she could get a handicap placard. (Kimberly can't get a Hawaii State ID yet because she lost a few of the important, required proofs of identity during the move. Getting new copies is on our TODO list.)
I had to knock off work thirty minutes early to be able to get there in time. They close at 4.00, stop serving people at 3.45, and stop giving written tests at 3.30. Since I knew I had to take a written test for an out-of-state license transfer, my plan was to leave at 2.00 and be there by 2.30, giving a full hour for governmental inefficiency.
Alas, I did not know the scope of the problem. (But all of the DMVs in many states have been pretty screwed since the fascist requirements for the national ID cards came down, and the feds are putting in the screws this year, promising to deny people airline flights if they don't have their new national ID cards, though how that hasn't been challenged as a denial of our right of movement, I dunno.)
We got there a little later than planned, at 2.40, and I drew number 703 when they were serving 683. Then I sat and watched for ten minutes before they called 684. I was pretty sure I was not going to get called.
Sure enough, at 3.33, they were up to number 699. That's when a woman stood up under the sign that announced that out-of-state transfers (and permits) were only served 7.45-3.30 and said there would be no more written tests. )@(#*#)($@.
I gave Kimberly my 703 to replace her 705 and we waited until about 3.40, at which time she got called. Five or six minutes later she had a handicap placard.
While the clerk worked on Kimberly's placard, we also saw a family with kids go up to a window, to try and demand they process permits fo them. That clerk had to tell them several time that they weren't doing written tests anymore, then walked away in great exasperation.
(As for what I think of stopping written tests before closing the office, and letting people take numbers, but not get served: WELL. It's damned stupid, but typical 21st century austerity thinking.)
Meanwhile, I had nothing. I tentatively planned to come back the next morning because I knew that if it slipped I could easily go months before I got my new license, after the annoyance of wasting an hour (sorta wasted; Kimberly did get her placard).
But I really did want to do it soon, because I'd read through the whole Hawaii Driver's Guide, and had obsessively run through about 35 practice tests. (I was getting a bit sick of it all!)
So this morning, I was up at 6.50am or so, before my alarm went off. I was out of the house by 7.10, which let me do some more almost-nighttime driving, as that was five minutes or so before dawn.
I got in to the Civic Center at 7.40. I picked a new number, 722, out of the machine, and saw that they'd set the machine to 714 over night. So, the ninth number for the day, but they weren't likely to be skipping the numbers of people who left this time.
Fortunately, they had more staff at 7.45 in the morning and seemed to be more efficient. The eight numbers before me went by in twenty minutes or so, and then I got called up.
I handed over all of my carefully collated paperwork. I gave up my California Driver's License. I did an eye test, they took my picture, I paid my fees, they took my picture again (twice!?), they took my fingerprints (just one thumbprint and two index fingers!?), and then they printed up my ID. It was pretty quick from that point.
You may note what was missing there: no written test. Yep, they wouldn't process my driver's license on Thursday afternoon because they were done giving written tests, and then they didn't have me take a written test today.
#*)(@*)#@$*.
So now I'm really Kama'aina, with a Hawaiian ID and everything (albeit, a temporary one).
As for the driving itself ...
I'm getting used to the high-speed two-lane highways from here to Lihue and from here to Ele'ele. That's mostly what I've been driving lately. (In fact I've been to Lihue and back three times in the last day and a half, with another trip planned for tomorrow.) And even though I haven't been doing any full night driving, that experience with the LIhue road especially will help when I go gaming.
I continue to be surprised by all the ups, downs, twists, and turns, which I never noticed as a passenger, but I'm getting used to those too.
Parking is still challenging, but every once in a while I position Julie in a space perfectly. Yay!
(And when Kimberly is about, I'll be parking in larger handicap spaces, which obviously will be less challenging, but I can still assess how well I'm doing at hitting the spaces between the lines and getting Julie oriented well.)
And that's my driving experience a month into our Hawaiian move: I have a car, a car that's been cleaned, a Driver's License with a permanent copy pending, and definitely more comfort with driving, even if I still get uncomfortably tense in my shoulders when I drive.