Rocket Science

…I suppose that gives me license to drive like an arrogant, aggressive, obnoxious, a**hole.

Or not.

This really would be “Friday Funny” if it wasn’t true…

I can prove I own my car…five months later… and now I can prove my car is also registered in Massachusetts! So, after another month and a half, I’ve managed to get Massachusetts car insurance and register my car with the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Source: Brandon

See, a Massachusetts License Plate

I was a little concerned about the registration. The State of Massachusetts is fairly aggressive about trying to collect taxes–which probably stems from the fact that in New England, there are a number of states that are very close together where I could have purchased my car. The way I was reading the forms, if I couldn’t prove that I purchased my car out-of state (in my case California in 2004), they would try and collect sales tax on the purchase. Thankfully that process went very smoothly.

Actually the only hiccup in the hour long process was the fact that the RMV only takes check or cash for car registrations (but credit cards for other transactions like your driver’s license). Go figure.

I’ve been trying to get the title to my car so I can register it in the state of Massachusetts. It’s only taken me five months to achieve this small task.

I paid off my car loan in early-July. I was told by Chase that they would transmit the information to the “State of Utah” and that I could expect a copy of my title in something like 15 days. By July 28, I hadn’t received anything from Chase nor the State of Utah. Hrm, so I called Chase and asked for a lien waiver letter to be used with the State of Utah to get a copy of my title. I then had a two and a half week business trip.

By August 25, I confirmed with the State of Utah that the title to my car was still in California–neither I (if I was supposed to) nor the State of Utah had transferred the title from California to Utah when I registered the car in Utah in July 2004.

Harumph. Why didn’t Chase tell me that the car was titled in California? And that California DMV would be sending my title (which I confirmed that they did to a very old address sometime in July)? And why didn’t the State of Utah tell me that my car was titled in California the two times I called in July.

Uh, ok. Call Chase and have the finally send me a “lien waiver letter.” Which I got at the end of August. Call California DMV and confirm what form I need to fill out–check. Send in a letter with the payment for a duplicate title on September 2. Check.

Get a letter back from California DMV on September 26 saying that I was missing a document and that I needed. Apparently I had to fill in a change of address form. Yes, clearly I’m at a different address trying to do this. Uh, why didn’t the guy tell me on the phone on or about September 1??? Great, ok. Fill out the change of address form and send the letter back on October 6.

Wait.

Wait.

Does anyone work in California? (Don’t answer that question!)

Wait.

On December 7, finally receive a copy of my title.

Yay! I can prove I owe my car.

Now to register the car in Massachusetts while avoiding paying taxes (I have to demonstrate I purchased the car in another state, sheesh).

(And yes, it’s now July…aka summer.)

This last weekend finally felt like spring arrived in Boston (as opposed to my previous post on Summer in Boston). I was out and about over the weekend running errands and getting ready for the summer. (So were lots of other people! I had to go to Home Depot twice to get some stuff, and the place was really hopping. Looks like everyone is finally starting their projects.) While this year I’m not getting my house ready (I have Kurt, Thomas and Trent to thank for taking care of my house as I’ve tried to sell it), I do have some springtime tasks that I do.

One of them is washing my car and waxing it. I usually wax my car by hand twice a year, once after the winter and once just before the winter. I did a single pass of wax, and unfortunately after I finished that I noticed that there’s a lot of particulate matter still embedded in the surface. I spent some time with Meguiar’s clay on the hood, but next time I’ll have to go after the rest of the car.

We finally had a dry (ok the 4th of July was dry, but I was mostly just lounging about then enjoying the weather) weekend. The Boston Globe called June “one of the dreariest Junes in memory. Half the month saw virtually no glimmer of sun and every day but four was colder than normal.” (Boston Globe. (2009, June). “A dark, wet month for the history books: June 2009″. Retrieved July, 13, 2009 from Boston Globe website http://www.boston.com/interactive/graphics/20090701_juneweather/)