Air-conditioning and the RMV

I'm a happy duck..

I finally managed to get G into the shop. For those that aren't in the know.. "G" is my champion of a 1998 Ford Ranger XLT pickup. As part of the deal I wrangled with the Ford Dealership, they installed air-conditioning on my little truck when I purchased it. I really can't complain.. it HAS worked just fine for more than 5 years.. aside from the fact that the blower doesn't work on the two lowest speeds so your options are "no air" or "wind-tunnel".. unfortunately.. the AC recently kicked the bucket.. woke up on the wrong side of the grass.. if you know what I mean.

Luckily, I also needed to have my annual state safety inspection done this month.. and it had been 7,000 miles since my last oil change (shhhh!!! don't tell shiela!)... so I figured I'd make the trip worth it and brought it in this morning...

3 minutes (literally) after I got back into my office, the phone rang.

It was Mark from P&M (the "shop".. I assume Mark is the M in P&M). Anyway.. it turned out that my registration, which was in the little plastic folder like it is supposed to be in the glove box.. expired last month. DOH. Ok.. so they can't do the safety inspection.. and I have to figure out why I didn't get the renewal forms in the mail.. horrible thoughts of outstanding excise taxes in Malden come to mind...

Ok.. so I called P&M at about 3pm and G was all set. I got a ride to the shop and made small talk with John (the other owner of P&M.. i'm not sure what the P is for..anyway..). I shelled out like $200+.. but it was worth it, baby!! G's air conditioning makes the interior of the little cab like the arctic man.. and i'm talking about the arctic before global warming! (btw.. see Gore's movie if you haven't already...)

I swear cars drive better after oil changes...

Anyway.. I get back to the office and go to grab the registration to call the RMV to figure out what the story was. The registration isn't there. urgh! So I call P&M back and both John and Mark (and whoever the P stands for) aren't there and there's nothing on the table.. *grumble* So I took this as a prime opportunity to procrastinate on the registration thing...

That lasted for about 5 minutes.. then I got online to the RMV's website. Any state that doesn't like the acronym "DMV" is just loopy. Anyway.. I managed to beat the system.. I guessed at some items on the online registration form and did some googling to figure out things like my Plate Type.. and hit "submit" (because that's the state's way of making you acknowledge that they can squish you like a bug)..

I beat the system! I now have an "official" email stating that my registration has been renewed and I don't have to spend hours at the RMV!!! yay me!