Tuesday, February 18, 2014
We were awakened rather early and rather unexpectedly this morning not long before 8. Josh came in and woke us up, saying, "I wrecked the car on some ice and I want you to come out and look at the car." I wasn't sure if he was speaking to both of us or just his dad, but I just let Ron go out to check it out. I assumed (and, yes, maybe that was silly of me) that Josh was okay, since he hadn't come staggering in hollering, calling, asking us to call an ambulance or to check him out or anything. I had the thought that as long as my son was okay, I can always see the car later, and they didn't need me asking silly questions - you know guys always think women's questions are annoying, even if we think they are pretty important.
Ron then let me sleep in this morning until just after 10, which is when I figured I'd get up anyway. The house was quiet when I got up, which was strange. The TV wasn't even on! I soon found him, though. He was outside, putting the brakes on Josh's car, as was planned if it was warm enough. The wind wasn't as vicious as it was yesterday, so he got out there early, which ended up being a blessing in disguise.
After doing a Happy Homemaker stint - I started a load of laundry - I got on the telephone. We needed to get this thing with Ron's license settled today, if at all possible. He needs to get back to work sooner rather than later, you know.
After I don't know how many busy signals, I finally get through to the DMV. They don't have the information. What a surprise, right? I go through the whole explanation again, and she tells me that even though the court has done what they need to do, they have their own processes and it will take 3 to 5 BUSINESS DAYS for them to process this, and it hasn't even come up on their computers yet (from being faxed), so she couldn't even tell me when they could even start on it, let alone when his license could be reinstated. She did tell me that if we wanted to, we could go to the reinstatement office in Mt. Healthy and it CAN be taken care of today, while we are there, but that is the only, repeat only, way it could possibly be taken care of today. I'm trying to write all this info down while I'm talking to her, so I go over all this with her (I can hear her rolling her eyes...lol) and, finally, after thanking her for her help, I hang up. I was on the phone with her over half an hour.
I call the court again and let the woman I have been talking to there know what had been said and she said that they have the paper there for us (the one admitting their error) if we want to come pick it up and go up to Mt. Healthy and the reinstatement office today, but that there was nothing else the court itself could do. It was out of their hands and up to the DMV now, which is what she told me on Saturday morning.
Altogether, all of this has taken more than 2 hours. How depressing.
I call Ron in the house and tell him what I have found out. We decide that we had best make the trip up to Mt. Healthy - which, for us, is at least a fifty mile (one way) trip - if he wants to go to work tomorrow. So, he changes, and I get dressed, and off we go.
We go to Batavia and go through the rigmarole of going in the courthouse just to pick up that paper, then on up 275 we go. And go. And go. (Just to give you a reference point - the Beechmont exit is #65, the Mt. Healthy exit is #36. Yep.) We finally get there, and let me tell you, if you think the Batavia DMV is a madhouse, you better hope and pray you never, ever, ever in your entire life have to go to the reinstatement office!! That place is total organized chaos. There had to be one hundred chairs and they were mostly full - the whole time we were there. People coming and going constantly. Madness. People called to the 'back' by groups of ten, then trickling out. After sitting there for more than 45 minutes, Ron was called and got his license taken care of with no fuss whatsoever. As a matter of fact, the male clerk was impressed with the paper from the court admitting the error (it also waived the fee, thank God), and clacked a few buttons on his computer and -- POOF -- it was done! A paper in Ron's hands saying that Ron O'Toole has a valid driver's license! Yay! He makes his way out of that back room, and after an hour, we are on the road again.
Neither of us had eaten today because of our nerves, so as we were driving back down 275, we were talking about whether or not to stop to eat and finally decided to stop at Crackhead Barrel. Yeah, I could eat some chicken-n-dumplings! And I did, along with hashbrown casserole and corn. Ron got the trout with hashbrown casserole and green beans. We traded half of our veggies, so we both had some of each. Both of our nerves had calmed down considerably after reading that paper saying VALID driver's license, have no fear! He even called Harold at work, and they checked the computer, and it was on there - he's okay for work tomorrow! Oh, hallelujah.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. After 2 missed days of work for Ron, probably a total of 6 or so hours on the phone, and miles of driving on the truck, as well as gasoline we had to put in the truck, we have done the state's job for them and got Ron his license back in one day.
Maybe we should send them a bill for all of our time, his missed wages, the gasoline, the wear on the truck, as well as the damage done to our bodies from the stress all weekend. Hmmmmm.
When we got home, I finally got to see my car. Josh had stopped to trade cars back on his way home from work, so mine was in the driveway. Oh, my poor BengalMobile. Oh, well, it has some character now. All cars need character after a year or so...sigh
Luckily, it's not as bad as my imagination had it being. Also, luckily, I didn't think about it as much as I would have any other day, so that was probably a good thing, too. I'm still so thankful my real baby wasn't hurt! I can replace my vehicle baby, but not my baby son (even though he'll be 35 (!!!) this year) and that thought frightens me.
I had a TOPS meeting tonight, which I probably should have thought of before eating our meal less than two hours ago, and sure as shooting, I had gained three pounds according to their scale. Ah, well. I can deal with that after all this other crap.
I put my meal, and a nut bar into MFP, and - not a surprise - I was over 500 calories short for the day. I thought about eating some popcorn, but it was way too late at night, so I'll take my chances.
Yep, it hollered at me but, you know what? I don't care, not today. I got Ron his driver's license back.
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