Are We There Yet? vol. 103
With the war in Ukraine occupying all our minds, I thought I would tell a lighthearted story which, while frustrating to the participant, may bring a smile to the face of the reader. At least that is my hope.
The participant in this case is my wife, Jen. Several weeks ago, Jen received a notice from the Florida Department of Transportation for a toll fee with a picture of a car. Of course, Jen hasn’t been to Florida in years, and her car has never been there. The picture showed a white Lexus whereas Jen drives a blue Volvo. The license plate in the picture was close but off by one digit. Florida has an online system where you can contact them to contest the charge, so Jen went online and explained the issue with a picture of her car and license plate. She then received a nice email from Florida thanking her and indicating that the issue was resolved. I smiled as I read the response because it added that to entirely close the case, Jen needed to go to the Virginia DMV and get them to write a letter that the car in the picture was not her car. Jen was hopeful that she really didn’t have to get the Virginia DMV to write a letter to prove a negative but lo and behold, she got another notice this week with a threat to double the amount due unless she paid soon. I might add that the charge was $20 and while I am sometimes one to stand up for principle, I might have just paid the $20 and been done with it.
Well, Jen is thankfully not me so in preparation for her call to the Virginia DMV, she got out her registration and realized that the license plate on her registration does not match her actual license plate but it does match the plate of the white Lexus in Florida. The Virginia DMV is now investigating how this could have happened and they will get back to her when they have an answer.
As many of you can imagine, dealing with one DMV can be frustrating and time consuming, but dealing with two DMVs is guaranteed to try anyone’s patience. Jen has kept a good perspective and we’ve had a few good laughs about what she could have been doing with all this lost time. And, the jury is still out as to whether Virginia will produce the letter about her not owning the white Lexus. Perspective is important these days as we see the suffering that those less fortunate than us may be facing.
This week’s selection is:
VIDEO:
Inventing Anna (Netflix)
Audacious entrepreneur or con artist? A journalist chases down the story of Anna Delvey, who convinced New York’s elite she was a German heiress.