We had 7 hours and 47 minutes of sunlight today. The sun is now setting before it is time to go home from work which is an odd feeling. It has also been rather cool - down to the single digits each night. I took Squirt for a walk the other night without his sled dog boots and I had to carry him home after 2 blocks as his feet were cold and he was limping. Hard to limp when all 4 feet hurt. Still have had lots of sunshine. Supposed to get snow tonight.
On with new home adventures....
When we initially arrived in Anchorage, we had to get new car insurance which required the registrations. Texas does not require car registrations be carried in the vehicle. Alaska does and titles and/or registrations to prove ownership of the car before you can get car insurance. (Alaska doesn't have a "welcome to Alaska fee" like Texas does....ever a trade off.) There was much arm waiving when Robert discovered the registrations weren't in the SUV. He just couldn't understand why they weren't. After a lot of arm waiving in return, he finally understood it was because I made a mistake and packed them.
Thank goodness for friends back home. I was able to call the Houston Car Registration people (not their official title) and a very good friend who graciously gave up her lunch hour as she went to pick up copies and fax them to me. Of course I gave her the wrong fax number the first time and they ended up at the car care center (we found out because they called and asked what they were supposed to do with them). After providing the RIGHT fax number, we were able to successfully get car insurance and I learned an important lesson. Car titles and registrations go with you and not the goods when moving.
Once our goods arrived and we had the car titles again, we decide on Saturday morning to go get our tags. Fellow co-workers had warned us about doing this on a Saturday morning. The lines would be very long. They open at 10am and we decide to drive down about 9am to see what was going on. GOOD GRIEF!!! There are all ready 20 people in line and they don't open for an hour. Bucking up and parking the car, we might as well get in line. Glad it's in the 40's and not the 20's. Look at all the teenagers here to get their license. Surely they aren't old enough to drive.
Once the doors open there is a mad rush to the "take a number machine". Nothing happens at the Alaska Department of Motor Vehicles without a number or a form. Of course, all of the forms are right on the other side of the "take a number machine" and there is a bit of a traffic jam. I have an entire stack of paper. Alaska requires a passport or birth certificate, Social Security card, mail addressed to you at your Alaska address (proof you are moving here), and if the names don't match on everything, proof why they don't.
I have it all covered. Now serving #19....now serving #20....now serving #21...OK - we are next....and then the impossible.... the computers go down across the state. It had been only 30 minutes since we arrived and now who knew how long it was going to be.
Dobedobedooooo...da da da da da....dobedobedo....you get the point.
Another 3o minutes pass and the ladies continue to tell us it will be up shortly however, if anyone wants to take their driver's license test those machines are still working. (Go figure.) Taking the chance we won't miss the computers coming back on-line causing us to miss our turn, we get in the driver's license line. Next!! I go to the computer and start my test....Question #1 - how many months is your license suspended if you don't have your insurance verification in the car? I'm not really sure how that applies to me driving on the road and I miss the question. Luckily, I get the other 16 correct and can get a license. Whew!
Back to the seats....waiting for the reboot....another chorus of dobedobedooooo.....
Now serving #23. Wait a minute!!!! What happened to #22???? Quickly realizing they started the number listing at the wrong number, we were allowed to sit down and process titles, driver's licenses and voter registration. After only 3 hours...we are finished and ready for lunch. Who knew!
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