Jimmy and I accidentally let our Maryland driver's licenses expire. This little lightbulb didn't go off until Jimmy tried to rent a car on our vacation in Salvador in February, only to be told that he didn't have a valid driver's license and couldn't rent the car. His expired on his November 4 birthday and so we rented the car under my license which didn't expire until my April 1 birthday.
I knew I wasn't renewing a MD license and would need to get a SC license and was panicked about having to take the written test all over again. After my mom and Jimmy's mom checked with different DMV locations and I called the SC DMV hotline number, I was sure that we wouldn't have to take the test because our old licenses would be within the magical 9-month window of expiration.
My first stop after arriving in Charleston in late June was the DMV. (Okay, really it was the second stop after Chick-Fil-A, but that's getting technical). I got my license with really no problem and have the next decade to live with a photo of me after just getting off an overnight flight. Stunning.
Jimmy was waiting until he got to SC to get his license renewed so that was the first order of business for him on Monday morning after we returned from Disney World on Sunday night.
Before I go further, let me just say that I know there must be intelligent people who work at the SC DMV. This next part isn't about them.
If you hold out all 10 fingers and count off 9 months from November 4, that'll take you to August 4. I know. I've done it several times. The general dumbing-down theory applied to Jimmy upon entry in the DMV office because when four different people told him he missed the 9-month cut-off on July 4, he believed it (even though I'd told him he would still be good to get his license). So they made him take the written test and he took it. He asked what happened if he failed, and they said he could return the next business day. The SC DMV apparently doesn't believe in making you study longer and harder to make sure you're a safe driver. But why would they when they have the sort of questions they have on the test?
There were some of the expected ones like how far from making a turn should you turn on your blinker? No idea. How many feet do you leave between you and the car in front of you. Nary a guess. I have no idea why I was so stressed about having to take the written test over because those were the only two difficult ones. The other ones were things like a picture of a left turn arrow with a slash through it and you had to guess what that meant. Ummm. No left turn? Or my favorite: you approach a flashing caution light. What do you do? One of the wrong answers was drive to the middle of the intersection, stop and see if anything is coming. There's no wonder there are so many rocket scientists on the road in SC.
After Jimmy took and passed the written test, he called me at Chuck E. Cheese where we were celebrating my nephew's 3rd birthday to tell me that he was getting ready to take the driving test. When I asked why and he told me that he missed the July 4 deadline and was having to do all the testing, I asked him to open all 10 fingers and count off from November 4. Apparently once you're inside the DMV building, all bets on intelligence are off.
The good news is that we're both licensed again and I think brain regeneration is progressing nicely.
1 comment:
He was a lot more patient than I would have been.
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