I love where I live. I have been a volunteer for awhile and have never taken seriously the fact that maybe I should go all the way in getting myself and my vehicle registered in my new state.
So I start doing the research. There's no end, it seems, to the number of steps one must take before you can proudly show your driver's license and drive your car with its state plates. If you get in an accident, you can prove that you have insurance in the state in which you live.
The steps to achieve such a normalcy can get the best of us down sometimes!
Have you ever felt that you're spinning your wheels in the mud?
You have to do this and that, but you can't do that until this gets done. And this is stuck. So you go on to something else, but the spinning continues. And time is ticking away while your tires lose their tread and the air smells of burnt rubber.
You go to bed at night and wonder what you were able to accomplish today. Nothing. You think ahead to tomorrow. What needs to be done? Everything.
I have decided that I need a driver's license in a new state, but I have to prove that my car's insured in my new state before I can get the license. Will the insurance company want to see my new state's license proof before they insure me in the new state?
And I have to get new plates for my car, but the state also requires that I get a safety and emissions inspection first. But my car's on the older side? Will it pass the inspections? Will I need instead to look around for a good used car that I think will pass these inspections?
And say, I do buy another car, I'll have to sell my old one. I never received the title from the other state I used to live in. The bank that financed the car is now out of business. The county clerk has no record of a title. Am I now stuck with a car that I can't sell? Will I thus have to get two car inspections and two sets of license plates?
Gee, I wish life were simple! How I would love to go to work and not worry about all the personal stuff that hangs over my head. Is there anyone out there who has ever put together a list of things one has to do when they move to another state?
What about those of us with limited funds and time? Some of us feel walled in by rules, by tasks just to live a somewhat normal and legal life.
When we fall behind in meeting these legalities, we cringe when folks ask us for our driver's licenses. Will we be "found out?" Will we be fined? Why don't you newbies just do what you have to do and get it over with?
Some of us have come from states where inspections, either safety or emissions, aren't required. We don't know what we will need to do to pass such tests. Are all those cars being advertised on craigslist there because they can't pass these inspections? Will the owners selling such cars be honest when we decide to go with their car as the one that will carry us around the area?
So I continue to procrastinate. Maybe I can pretend I'm only visiting for a few more months. Maybe I'll just quit driving altogether. Now that's an option!
But there's no bus service on Sundays in my new city of choice, the day I need the service the most. I do have two legs and a bike, but there are times when most of us need our own vehicle.
Will someone put together a recipe for us newbies so we can take steps in the right order without wasting our time and the county and state officials' time in the process?