The most depressing place

One of the most joyless place in the world has to be your local DMV office. That’s why we avoid going there as much as possible. My California driver license is due for renewal this year. Normally I would choose the renew-by-mail option. However, I’ve been procrastinating on getting the REAL ID, a Department of Homeland Security identification requirement to board a U.S. domestic flight. This will be fully enforced May of next year, so I had to bite the bullet and visit the DMV.

Even with an appointment, I was not checked into the building until 10 minutes after my scheduled time. The line outside was that long. Coincidentally, the card payment devices at that DMV office were out of a commission, a fact that wasn’t relayed to those of us in line. It would be cash only, a huge bummer for me because I hardly ever carry cash. Luckily my housemate was home and just 10 minutes away. He came through with the cash minutes before my number was called. Clutch!

The paperwork to attain a REAL ID is relatively draconian. Firstly you need another form of identification (can’t be your driver license), which for most of us is our passport. Secondly you need two pieces of official paperwork that has your name and current address. I used a bank statement and the declarations page of my automobile insurance. The second part seems to be tripping some people up. I heard no less than two people while I was at the DMB not having the necessary identifying papers.

Of course, they didn’t get much sympathy from the DMV clerks. No need to be joyous and courteous toward customers when job security is already baked in. Though honestly there’s really not much for the clerk to do if the customer did not come prepared. On the other hand, the customer likely wasted two hours waiting and will now have to do it all over again on another day. I would be frustrated too.

Save for the snafu with needing cash, I had everything in order. The REAL ID diver license will come in the mail soon enough. And hopefully I won’t have to step foot inside that DMV for at least a few years.

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Miss you finally.

It is done

It took almost seven weeks, but our family’s 2018 Hyundai Tucson - which was a lease - is finally sold off. Made a decent bit of profit too, which is nice. The car market is indeed super crazy right now: the absolute worst time to buy a car, but the best time to have a car to sell. The local CarMax gave us $25,000 for the three-year old Tucson that had an MSRP in the $28,000s. The lease buyout was only $16,500, including tax. Do the math!

It had to be said though our Tucson has relatively low mileage (~18,200) and is practically pristine. Your mileage (pun intended) will vary. Don’t look to get around the same money if your Tucson had significantly more miles.

The $8,500 in profit isn’t without some excruciating waiting and patience. Due to the aforementioned crazy car market, leasing companies have stopped the practice of lease buyouts by a third party. No longer can you take your lease vehicle to CarMax (and the like) and have them cut you a check for the difference in present value and the payoff price. The contract buyout price the leasing companies has is with you; they are not legally obligated to sell to third party for that same price.

And at present time, the lease companies aren’t willing to sell at all. They want to impel the customer to return the car to the brand’s dealership. Because there is an absolute dearth of new car inventory due to the chip shortage.

In order to sell the Tucson and get some money back, we had to do it the roundabout way: buy the car outright from Hyundai, then sell the car to CarMax ourselves. Paying for the car was easy - electronic bank transfer - but then we had to wait over two weeks for Hyundai Finance to mail us the title. With the pink slip in hand, there was another problem: CarMax (and the like) only accepts a clean title: the paper cannot include the leasing company as a registered owner, even though they’ve signed it off to you, and there’s a bill of sale.

Getting a clean title required a trip to the local DMV. After paying $25 to transfer the title to my father’s name only, it was then another prolonged wait for the unencumbered title to arrive in the mail.

That took another three weeks, but thankfully the new pink slip came last Friday. We immediately schedule an appointment at CarMax the very next day. Two hours on the premises later, and finally we unburdened ourselves of Tucson. A whole month after my father have already leased another car! Thank god I had the parking space at work to store the Tucson during this time.

So yeah, if you have a car to sell, now is the best time! I just hope you’re not also looking to buy one as well…

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Today’s office.

Adventures at the DMV

No one enjoys going to the DMV ever, but sometimes you must do so in order to keep your motor vehicle on the road legally. Yesterday morning was such an occasion, as I went with my dad to the local office to get replacement license plates. Someone saw the shiny new 2021 registration sticker on his Hyundai Tucson and thought it would be nice to steal the rear plate that it’s stuck to. Not wanting to drive for very long without a rear license plate on the car, a trip to the DMV was begrudgingly called for.

This may be the times of COVID, but some things don’t ever change, such as the long queue for the DMV in the morning, well before the doors open. Of course, the line is socially-distanced, so it stretched well onto the adjacent sidewalk and out into the residential area. We arrived half an hour before the office opens at 8:00AM, and the wait time ultimately came to about two hours, which is not all that different from “normal times”, if you’re so unprepared as to not have an appointment.

Appointments aren’t possible at the moment except for driving tests.

In these not so normal times, you get your temperature taken and answer a few questions as to the condition of your health vis a vis the coronavirus. Once the building reaches a capacity deemed safe, they take down your phone number and asks you to wait inside your vehicle - you’ll get a text when your number is called and ready to be served. Other than the unusual waiting and screening situation, the procedure at the DMV is not all that different: you’ll spend most of the time waiting, while the thing you’ve come to the office for takes less than five minutes (driving tests notwithstanding).

Excluding the wait, we were in and out of the premises in no time with newly issued metal plates. Fingers crossed these survive long enough to last a calendar year!

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The saddest place on earth.

I almost bought an Apple Watch

Awhile back, the leather strap on my Hamilton watch finally broke off after years of use. To get that “officially” fixed, I was to send the watch to the Swatch Group’s service center. Weirdly, the website doesn’t list prices, but from what I can sleuth on the Internet, it’s about $300 dollars to recondition the watch. That price makes the situation slightly odd because that’s about how much I paid for the watch brand new, which means I can also do so again - buy another one new and save the hassle of shipping the old one in.

The nostalgia factor took over, however, and I decided it’s worth keeping my Hamilton watch going for as long as possible. I emailed the Swatch service center for instructions but then I never heard back! I guess they didn’t want to make money off me, and I sort of treat it as a sign that I should let my Khaki Field go to permanent rest.

It definitely feels weird to have an empty wrist after years of watch-wearing, so lately I’ve been hankering to (finally) buy the Apple Watch. I’m so entrenched into the Apple ecosystem that getting yet another device from Cupertino seems like the next logical step. Back when I still had a functioning Hamilton watch, it seemed irresponsible to splurge for the Apple Watch, but now that I’m free from those clutches, I’ve been eyeing the device on the Apple Store app frequently.

What the Apple Watch would be most beneficial to me - on top of telling me what time it is - is the heart-rate monitor. I’ve written before about my anxiety issues, and a clear sign when I’m having a case of it is an elevated heart-rate. Being able to set alerts on the watch to let me know when such an event is occurring would be fantastic, and on that reason alone I think I can justify the high cost. The Series 5 Apple Watch starts at $399, which is not cheap for a thing that is bound to be obsolete in a few years.

This past weekend I was desperately close to pulling the trigger, because there were discounts on the Apple Watch at all the major retailers (all except for Apple official, obviously). What stopped me from doing the deed? I remembered the yearly registration fee for the 911 GT3 is due soon, and being that the car originally stickered for ~$145,000, even five years on the fee would be quite hefty. I can’t justify spending over $400 on the Apple Watch when I have that looming over my head so soon.

Indeed, I got the renewal letter from the DMV just yesterday! For the privilege to operate the 911 on the road for another year in the eyes of California, I have to pay just over a thousand dollars. Honestly, that is still a shocking figure, even though I was wholly prepared for it. That’s one of the many consequences of buying such an expensive sports car, though ultimately I’m willing to pay the price.

But good thing I didn’t buy the Apple Watch!

In the still of the night.