The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump

GRRR.

Got the license renewal dealt with easily. Problem was everything on either end of that.

The RMV in Watertown doesn't open until 10:00 on Thursdays. I got there at 9:30, so stood in line for half an hour until they opened and then sat around for ten minutes after getting assigned a waiting-in-line number. The renewal process itself was easy. Then the fun started.

See, last night I walked to my voice lesson, but gave myself an unusually painful foot (two burst blisters stacked one on top of the other, so the bottom one is just empty but the top one is raw). It hurts whether I'm using that foot or not, so it woke me up periodically all night and hurts more when I walk. Getting to the RMV involved 20 minutes of walking and half an hour of standing around. Then it involved another 20 minutes of walking back to the bus, at which point I discovered the bus wasn't coming for another 17 minutes. Sheeit, says I, and walks 10 more minutes back to Watertown Yard and gets on the 57 after a brief wait. I get off the 57 at Harvard & Brighton Ave and then discover the 66 isn't coming for another half an hour. SHEEIT, says I, and walks down to Harvard & Comm Ave and gets on the T to Kenmore. Mercifully, the 60 is right there, so I take that down to Longwood Ave and walk another 10 minutes to work. Total travel time from Watertown to HSDM: 90 minutes, 40 of which consisted of limping around in the humidity. I feel like a worn-out dishrag and my foot hurts, and I wonder why I didn't get on the T and go home instead of to Kenmore.

GRRR.

Final score: DMV 3, Me 1.

I am now, finally, in possession of a temporary Massachusetts license, with the permanent one supposedly showing up in the mail in about two weeks. And it only cost me $90. And I sent off a fairly long missive to the DMV about the previous three trips, in which I veiled "what the hell is wrong with you people?" in language that might get me an answer.

So there.

Today I proved conclusively that not even the federal government can tell the state of Massachusetts anything. The DMV, despite the fact that its list of forms says so, will not accept an expired passport without a Social Security card. I ended up going down to the federal building by the Fleet Center (which isn't the Fleet Center any more, but I forget what it is), and filling out the form for a new Social Security card. The woman in the Social Security office gave me a piece of paper that says "this is the SSN for this person" and a receipt saying my new card was in the mail, and told me I could take those back to the DMV and they'd accept them. Except they won't, as I found out when I got back to the DMV. They will absolutely only accept Social Security cards, full stop. So I have to wait until I get the card (hopefully next week), and start over for the third time. If my Ohio license didn't have a now very wrong address on it, I'd be tempted to quit worrying about it until 2008 when the Ohio license expires.

I know that government offices don't talk to each other, and that goes double for communication between federal and state government offices. And I know that exercise is good for me, and the walk between the Registry and the federal building and back was probably a good thing. That does not, however, make me any happier about getting contradictory information (says one thing on one side of the form and something else on the other) from the DMV, and contradictory information from the DMV and the Social Security office. It also doesn't make the weather any less hot.

As much as all that sounded like complaining, I'm really not bitter. At this point, I'm resigned. And when I can afford it, I'm going to renew my passport, just so I can prove I'm me for another ten years, driver's license or no.

I think today I'll embark on a fool's errand, also known as converting my driver's license from Ohio to Massachusetts. (I was wrong, by the way; it's going to cost me $110, not $90.) The list of proof of identity that's on the DMV web site is a little overwhelming. I can provide proofs of residency and date of birth, but my passport has expired and I have no idea what constitutes "proof of signature". My Ohio license has my signature on it, along with my Social Security number (I know, that's a bad idea, but I don't have any other proof of SSN). I figure the worst that can happen is I sit in the DMV for three hours and then they send me away because I don't have the right documentation. At least then I can find out what, exactly, the right documentation is. And if it all goes well, I can change my voter registration at the same time.

I've got a rant about Social Security numbers, too, but that's for another time.