Flying with Car Seats

This has nothing to do with RVing, but a lot to do with traveling with kids.

If you're flying with your kids (for the holidays, perhaps?) and plan on taking a car seat onboard, you must read this post over at CarseatBlog. It talks about your rights as a passenger and tells you how to produce the information you need when the flight attendant tries to make you turn your 3-month-old forward facing or tells you you're not allowed to use a seat at all.

And why am I posting this here? Well, first, because it's important information to know.

Second, because I wrote it!

A couple months ago the folks over at CarseatBlog asked if I'd be interested in writing for them. I was honored to receive the invitation, since the people who write for that blog are among the most knowledgeable car seat people you'll ever find.

So while I was in the process of neglecting this blog, I was moonlighting for that one.

Look for posts of mine there every two weeks or so. And look for updates of this blog hopefully more often than that.

Re-Cluttering

Sorry I haven't updated for about two weeks now--time flies!

After making so much progress in decluttering our house, we're now in a position where we need to replace stuff we had gotten rid of.

As I mentioned before, I am hosting Thanksgiving again this year, but I got rid of my pie plates, rolling pins, and most of my casserole dishes. Since we're here for a while, I figured I should buy reusable ones rather than relying on disposables. My mom is bringing out a pie plate and rolling pin, and I found a great deal on a set of Pyrex at Costco the other day.

Steve is in a bit of a panic over Christmas decorations. He's really into Christmas lights. Remember how I said I'm obsessive about Thanksgiving? That's how he is with decorating for Christmas. He's won awards for it and stuff. It's a big deal.

We did save some decorations, but we got rid of a lot. He has been bringing decorations over from the storage unit and he did discover that we had saved most of the lights. He was a bit hesitant to admit this to me since he was supposed to have sold them/given them away, but at least it's one less thing to worry about.

Earlier in this process I had been planning on getting the kids very small, lightweight gifts for Christmas. The other day I realized that I don't need to worry about that anymore, but we have gotten so deeply entrenched in this "less is more" mindset that I don't want to get big stuff, or a lot of stuff. The thought of it actually makes me kind of sick.

I'm hoping we can resist re-cluttering our lives too much during this limbo.

I will admit, though, that Steve did buy one new Christmas decoration, which I will photograph once it's up. It's very apt. Stay tuned.

OMFG, DMV!

Warning: If you're looking for a quick, clear recap of events, you won't find it here. If you like wading through the intricacies of large bureaucracies, this is the post for you!

What a twisted day it has been.

We decided we'd take our chances and get licenses/partial licenses today. The plan was for me to get my Class C, and for Steve to get his Non-Commercial Class A permit (while temporarily keeping his Texas Class C in the meantime).

We figured the Laguna Hills DMV office would be our best bet. See, Laguna Hills, besides being the office closest to us, is a tiny, quaint suburb. That office is bad enough, so we couldn't even imagine how awful a bigger office would be. That's why we were surprised when each time we checked the approximate wait times online, the Santa Ana office had waits of less than half an hour. Santa Ana is Orange County's largest city, the county seat, and the kind of place you don't go to if you don't have to. But after lunch the wait times were 17 minutes, so off we went.

We filled out our forms and checked the box for "new license." Sure, our old licenses weren't due to expire for years, but we had gotten other licenses out of state in the meantime. We couldn't reinstate our old vehicle registrations, so it didn't even occur to us to apply for a replacement of our old licenses. In fact, it seems downright dishonest and would probably be considered illegal.

So when I was called up to the window and the guy asked if I'd ever had a license in California, I said that we were coming from Texas, but that yes, I used to have a California license. I gave him my old number. He pulled it up, had me do the thumb-print thingy, asked me for my $31 and said my license would arrive in 2-3 weeks.

"I don't have to take a written test?" I asked--both relieved and a little disappointed.

"Nope, your old license is still valid, so we'll just send you a replacement of the old one."

Ooooookay....

That seemed too good to be true, so I went and checked with someone else who said that since my old license wasn't expired, that's how they do it. What's weird is that they didn't take my Texas license, hole-punch it, or even look at it.

Steve, on the other hand, had a little more trouble.

First they had no idea what test to give him, because, as we have learned, people at the DMV often don't actually know what they're doing.

They finally found it and I waited with the kids in the "waiting area" (a long dark hallway) while he took it.

When I noticed him standing at the window again, I headed over to see how it went. He had a pained expression on his face, which I interpreted to mean that he failed the test. Turns out he passed (100 percent!) but there was a problem. Because he, too, had checked the "new license" rather than "replacement license" box, the clerk had created a new record for him. Only they're not supposed to do that, because everyone is only supposed to have one file.

So they got other employees and at least one supervisor involved. First they tried blaming Steve for checking the "wrong" box, but he explained his line of thinking. (If we have to start over again with the vehicles, why not the license?) Plus he had told the woman at the window that he had had a California license as recently as two months ago, but she must not have understood.

They were all a little baffled that Steve didn't pop up in the system anyway, when she entered his information, but for whatever reason he hadn't.

By this point the kids were going nuts, so I took them out to the truck for what I thought would be a quick wait.

An hour later Steve texted me that they were calling Sacramento to see if they could locate their asses.

Elias had to go to the bathroom so I went back in, only to learn that they were insisting that Steve needed to take the Commercial Class A test, which made no sense at all, especially given that numerous DMV documents clearly state what a Non-Commercial Class A is for (fifth wheels over 15,000 lbs).

A guy insisted on going out to look at the truck to see if we had air brakes. What??? Steve played along, and it was finally determined that, oh yeah, you need the Non-Commercial A.

Then it turned out that part of the problem was that in California, Steve had had a Restricted Class B Firefighter license, and the system, for whatever reason, couldn't add a Non-Commercial Class A to the Class B.

The other problem was that in Texas, Steve had just gotten a Class C since he doesn't really need the Class B, since he doesn't drive fire trucks anymore.

So Steve explained that if it was the Class B holding things up, he was willing to forgo that.

I said that the most important thing to us would be to walk out with his Texas Class C still in place, and his California Non-Commercial Class A permit.

Then I had to take the kids back to the truck, so I missed the rest of the dealings, but heard about it from Steve.

They wound up reinstating his Class B license. They also hole-punched his Texas license (making it invalid), and told him that he couldn't get his Non-Commercial Class A permit until his permanent license (as opposed to the paper temporary) arrived in the mail in 2-3 weeks. So that means that even though Steve passed the written test (with a 100 percent), which should have allowed him to get his permit, he didn't. And we also can't legally tow the trailer in California since he no longer has a valid Texas license.

So we walked out as official Californians again, but probably worse off than we were at the beginning of the day.

I'm not at all confident that any of the stuff they did was correct, nor that it won't come back to bite us in some way later.

In the meantime, it's a good thing we decided not to go on a trip over Thanksgiving because there's a good chance we still won't be able to pull Homer by then.

To think that if we had skipped the whole Texas thing we'd probably be done with this process by now...

Sigh

I guess it was pretty naive of me to assume that the DMV employee knew more about DMV regulations than the AAA employees.

I did drag the kids to AAA. Four employees, a supervisor, and another call to Sacramento confirmed what we had initially been told: Because the vehicles were registered out-of-state, we do have to go through the whole process anew.

The trip was not for naught, though. The very kind (and efficient, and knowledgeable) AAA people felt very bad for me and gave me forms to fill out to request a partial refund from DMV since we have, essentially, double-paid a good portion of our registration. They said to include a detailed letter and to be prepared to wait months for a response. I'm not optimistic about what that response will be, but I do write damn good letters, so we'll see.

Also, I did find the verbiage on our Texas registration that shows we did not transfer title. So the AAA woman was able to take that, do the VIN inspection, complete our application, and issue our new California registration and license plates for the Pilot.

In all the confusion I forgot to ask how I go about actually canceling (again) our old California registration--or if I even need to now that there's a new one associated with that VIN number--but that's a battle for next week. I'm taking the rest of this week off.

And the Cluster$*%^# begins again...

When I got the mail yesterday afternoon, I was amazed to find two letters from the California DMV. We had only registered our vehicles on Saturday at 4:00. How could they have mailed us something pertaining to it by Monday?

Turns out, it wasn't regarding our new registrations. Instead, they were Notices of Intent to Suspend (our prior registrations) because of a lack of insurance.

See, the DMV would have received notice when we canceled our previous California insurance, which we did after we secured insurance in Texas.

However, they also should have received the form I sent in, within 10 days, as required, notifying them that our vehicles were insured in another state.

So I took on the always exciting task of calling the California DMV. After wading through the automated menu I was able to zero-out to get to a representative, all of whom were busy. One thing I can give DMV credit for, though, is having a system that will let you enter your phone number to get called back rather than waiting on hold. I was able to take a shower while waiting for a call back.

The conversation I had with the representative was pretty interesting.

She confirmed that the registration on the Dodge had, in fact, been canceled, so we could disregard that issue.

Then she said that our Honda registration was still valid.

So I explained the whole situation to her--about registering in Texas and now needing to re-register here--and asked if, since our previous registration was still valid and paid up through July, it was possible to just reinstate it...or whatever the right term would be since apparently it was never UNinstated.

She seemed confused for a while, and it turns out that's because she showed that we had already paid for the new registration, which has not yet been issued pending that letter from Texas about the title.

Then she went to talk to her supervisor. She came back and said that, yes, the whole transaction should have cost $6, not the $300 or so (plus smog check) that we have paid to re-register the Pilot. She also said that if our Texas registration said on it "Non-Negotiable" or something similar, we should not need a letter about the title, either.

She suggested we call AAA to see if they had submitted the paperwork yet. If not, they should be able to reverse it. If they have, there's some way to apply for a refund, apparently.

So now I'm debating whether it's worth $294 to deal with dragging the kids back to AAA or standing in line at the DMV. It probably isn't, but it's the principle involved...

It's a Wonderful Life

I never visited Soviet Russia, but I imagine it looked a lot like the California DMV.

Many years ago, my local DMV office in Laguna Hills, California, was a lovely place. It had blue carpeting, counters made of wood (or some other dark substance), low lighting, comfortable chairs, and friendly people. On the few occasions I was there, I never experienced more than a 10-minute wait. It resembled a Starbucks more than a government office.

Then something happened. At some point the office was remodeled and transformed into the height of bureaucratic institutionalism.

Now there are white floors, white walls, and glaring fluorescent lights. There are rows of chairs cordoned off into what resembles a holding cell. The line to check in extends out the door, and once you check in, you are tersely given a number and sent to the holding cell. Last year when I had to renew my license in person, we walked in and Elias immediately whimpered, "I don't like this place." It does give off a truly cold, unsettling vibe.

Our experience in Texas was much different. Before we left on our trip I had to call a few times with questions. The folks at the Polk County Tax Assessor's Office and the Department of Public Safety answered both the phone and my questions in a timely manner. When we got there, we saw that the Tax Assessor's Office looked like something out of Bedford Falls. I half expected to see Jimmy Stewart manning the phone. The people were helpful and, best of all, accessible.

Even so, I was concerned about my task for today: calling to get a letter stating that we never had the title to our Pilot issued in Texas. It seemed like a slightly unusual request, plus it's always harder to prove a negative. But I figured I needed to call and get the ball rolling.

So I called the Tax Assessor's Office where we had registered our cars. The woman who answered transfered me to the vehicle registration department (which was probably the woman sitting right next to her), and I explained the situation. She asked for our license plate number, our names, and an address. Then she said, "Ok, I'll try to get that letter in the mail to you today."

Wow.

Needless to say, we will miss that kind of efficiency.

I just tried making an appointment to get my license here in California, since you're supposed to get your license within 10 days of becoming a resident. The first available time slot is December 7.