I slept in again this morning. I’m just tired all the time these days. I’m sure I’ve probably mentioned that more than once. Sorry for the repeat.
The number one priority on the list today was to get the civic legal to drive, if possible. But before I got started with any of that, my accountant emailed me, and I wanted to make sure I got back to her with answers to all of her questions related to my personal return.
So I got her questions answered. I took my Aunt acid pill for the day, I went inside Richard’s house and ate a couple of peaches, and then my mom and I jumped in ET and headed south.
We didn’t know where my brother Jared was going to be, and we needed to get the key from his house, as well as the vin verification paper in order to finish the registration. I also needed a written and signed statement with personal identification copied and attached to give me permission to do the registration for him, so that he didn’t have to be there.
I decided to swing by the school first, because no matter what, we are going to have to go by the house, if he wasn’t at the house, then we’d have to swing to the school and then back to the house and then back to the school, etc. If he was just at the school, then it would be a lot shorter trip.
Gratefully, he was at the school, and I was able to get the document that I had written up printed and signed and everything, so I had full permission to file everything for him with the division of motor vehicles.
At the very end of the document, I included a sentence that said not just that I had authority to submit the VIN verification and emissions forms, but that I also had the authority to do anything else that was required to complete the registration for the vehicle.
I would be glad I included that last sentence in the permission document.
We followed Jared from the school to his house, where he grabbed the key and the vin verification form. My mom grabbed a couple of things that she had accidentally left there as well, and then I spent probably 30 minutes or so transferring My things from the van to the Civic for my anticipated drive south tonight.
After getting the Civic all loaded up, I drove to the DMV in draper at the point of the mountain. I had expected that maybe they would accept the emissions that my brother had done way back in March, or so, because It says right on the document that it’s good for 11 months if related to a transfer of title. I figured that since the title is being transferred from me to him, then it would apply.
Apparently not.
They told me that I’d have to leave and go get another emissions test done, and that was fine. They also said that The temporary registration had to be canceled by Jared in person, which made my heart think just a little bit, but then I pointed the lady to the last sentence of the document I’d written which included language saying that I had power to do whatever it took to get the civic registered.
Having read the last sentence of the document, she went ahead and canceled the registration without requiring my brother to be there, which was great, because he’s up to his eyeballs 75,000 times over with stuff he’s got to deal with right now.
So I paid the $93 for all the registration fees, but couldn’t get the actual plates and stickers themselves until I came back with an emission sticker stating the vehicle past emissions.
Gratefully, there was an emissions place probably not more than a mile and a half or so away from the DMV, so I swung over there, only had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes for them to get my car in, and then maybe another 5 minutes for the test to be completed, and that was it.
I paid the $45 emissions fee, drove back up the hill to the DMV, had to wait probably another 35 or 40 minutes for my turn in line again, but the end result was that I now have new Utah plates on the back of my little Civic with September 2024 expiration stickers.
So now I’m legal! Well, except for the fact that I haven’t put the front plate on. Arkansas doesn’t require two plates. They actually only even give you one, so my front bumper doesn’t even have holes in it for the second plate that Utah requires.
So the second plate is sitting in the glove box, and it probably will sit in the glove box at least until I get back from my trip to visit my dad and stepmom in Nevada.
After getting all the emission stuff done, I swung by to visit my friend Robyn at the office building where she works because now I had my own transportation to go wherever the heck I wanted to go, and her office building was actually in between the DMV and the place where I did the emissions. 🙃
I kicked it with her for probably an hour or so, just chatting about life, about her business coming everything. It was good little visit. Of course, she was working, so I didn’t want to keep her too long, especially since it was a little bit of a surprise visit. I’ll probably swing by and visit her again at her house for dinner or something once I’m back in Utah after I visit my dad and step mom in Nevada but before we leave Utah for good this trip on Sunday.
From Robyn’s place, I figured I had better go back to Walmart and buy another shirt that would be presentable for a wedding reception. Didn’t want to wear the same new shirt as the wedding dinner.🙃
So I headed over to the Walmart supercenter that was closest to where the wedding reception was being held. Before going in, however, I opened a savings account with an online bank that should give me a 5% APY on anything I have in the account, So that’ll be nice. It’ll be weird not to have a bunch of money in my safe anymore at the ready for buying whatever the heck it is that I want to buy, but it is what it is.
After getting the account created and the money transferred over, I went inside and did my shopping. There wasn’t really anything that I really liked, as far as shirts were concerned. I don’t like any clothing that has logos on it at all. I don’t like being a banner for some company.
So I try to steer clear of anything with any clearly visible logos, and that often reduces the options.
But I ended up finding a shirt, about twice what I wanted to pay, but whatever. Chris only gets married once, right?
Well, at least that’s the hope. 😅 And it really looks like they’ve chosen well with each other. They’ve known each other for years, and they spent a long long time getting to know each other, be coming best friends first I think, before moving into it being a romance.
Wonderful stuff.
I hope one day to enjoy the experience myself and to be able to give my whole heart to somebody.
In addition to the shirt, I bought a whole bunch of food so that I would have stuff for the drive down to Southern Nevada. Well I ate in the car of the Walmart parking lot, I had a lovely little conversation with one of my sisters for about an hour, and that was cool. She and I have a heck of a lot in common in a lot of ways, both on the positive and the negative things, so we can commiserate pretty successfully on a regular basis. 😅
After chatting with Heather, and after eating a bit, I grabbed my old external hard drive to see if I could find the journal entry/story or whatever you want to call it that I wrote following my havasupai adventure way back in 2007.
Gratefully, I found it!
I started to read through it, and very quickly realized that I need to make some additions to it because I forgot to write some of the most impactful parts of the experience. So I’ll go back through it, add the things that need to be added in order to give as full of a picture of the experiences I can remember, and then I’ll send it to Christopher and Jodi as a wedding gift, perhaps.
I threw on the new shirt, and the jeans that I wore yesterday. Did I mention that I didn’t check the jeans that I had bought, and they’re too short? Yeah, that’s a little… Awkward.
I didn’t spend much time at the wedding reception at all. Maybe 35 minutes or so? I got there shortly after it officially started, and I waited in line to give my congratulations to Chris and Jodi. Once I got to them, I didn’t say much. I congratulated Chris on his new piece of jewelry, told them that I just love to see them together, snap to picture with them, and told them I love them and headed out.
I’ve never liked the lines at wedding receptions, but not just selfishly. I feel for the poor bride and groom who have to stand there on their feet as hundreds and hundreds of people greet them and wish them well. My whole philosophy is take as little time as possible, so that they can be done as quickly as possible and beyond their way as husband and wife as quickly as possible. 🙃
I would have stayed longer, but what do you do? Hundreds of people, you came monopolize the time. And you just want to give them as much time with each other on that special day as possible. I guess that’s my opinion.
So I hopped in my car, pointed the nose toward Las Vegas, and that’s where I am at the moment as I’m dictating today’s post. I’m somewhere, maybe 30 mi, south of nephi, and I’ll roll into my dad and step mom’s place probably sometime around 12:30 a.m. Pacific time.
They are night owls anyway, so they’ll be up when I get there.
I’ll finish this post once I get there and I’m getting ready to go to bed, just in case there’s anything else interesting that happens in the next 4 hours of driving. 🙃
…
Well, somehow I managed to make it to my Dad and step mom’s house by 11:45, Pacific time. Not sure how I managed to do that, but I’ll take it!
I had given them my Google stalker location, which they had been watching attentively, so they came outside before I had even gotten out of my car. 🙃
Gotta love Google stalker tools. 😅
So here I am in southern Nevada for the next couple of days to visit and hang out with them. Haven’t seen them for, gosh, maybe since 2020? No, it’s got to be since then come right? Maybe not! Yeah, I think it might have been since the big road trip I did way back in 2020.
Wow.
With them advancing an age, I need to make sure I get out here more frequently. Their health isn’t going to let them travel too much anymore for the rest of their lives, I don’t think.
My knees hurt pretty good right now.
But it’s coming up on 1:00 a.m. Pacific time, which is 2:00 a.m. for what I’m used to at this point, and I’m pretty exhausted.
G’night, my lovelies.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 