Yesterday - the flowers did not disappont



Yesterday was tightly scheduled. I was the first to appear at our precinct polling place. And the first to vote. And then it all went wrong.

 I was prepared to go from there direct to the local Department of Motor Vehicles to renew my driver's license. I did not do this before my birthday because our MVD was not manned. And then it was supposedly staffed but she was in training in Rio Rancho. May was not an easy month with the Trinidad showing, etc. And the wait gave me an opportunity to hear all the horror stories about renewing my license.

 Seems our state had for a decade been giving just anyone a driver's license. Including but not limited to illegal aliens. They even defended this practice based on the number of workers lacking green cards which were driving illegally unless they allowed them to get a license. And they would know where to find them.

 Nobody noticed they all had the same residence in Jal, New Mexico. There was a booming tourist trade in a town with nothing for tourists to look at. But bus trips were a going business as you were tutored on the correct answers to the written test in route.  Please note the last time I took the written test for the state of New Mexico, after moving back from Tennessee, 10 of 20 questions concerned how to renew your license or what to do if it was lost or stolen.

 The federal government caught on an sued us. The NM driver's license could not be used as legal identification outside our state or inside at a federal facility. I renewed my passport and got a federal ID card to handle the issue while I waited for NM to catch up with the federal mandate. Well, they have now and gone totally overboard. Not only must I prove I am a US citizen, but that I am a legal resident of New Mexico, and where I live within the state. There is a list of documents you need to present. Or should I say lists. There are several and they do not all agree with each other.

 Meanwhile I went to paperless billing on my bills. And Colfax County changed the name of my street. My mailing address is in Mora, my electrical Coop bill has the old county B14 address, and I live on Llano Vista where every website tells me is not a valid address. And because I had a stalker I elected to have my mailing address put on my license eight years ago instead of the street address.

 I thought I had at last assembled the documentation to cover every contingency and so armed headed to the DMV which the Village website said was open at 7:30 a.m. Wrong. They are closed for two weeks. I will need to go to Red River or Taos. Stories differ as to who can handle this. But my calendar is book. Especially yesterday. I had to be home to receive my photographs from the show in Trinidad.

 Note the Ute Park Fire has closed the easy rout of US 64. So I had looked up the alternate route and emailed the google map and written directions to the gallery owner. Even offered to meet him in Wagon Mound. He assured me he had it handled but when an hour past the arranged time had passed he called from Springer. He had not been able to make it up NM120 so turned back without calling me to meet him in Ocate or Wagon Mound or Springer, where he was leaving to make a meeting in Trinidad.

 Let me mention the stress of the Ute Park Fire, and the DMV issues did not add to my tolerance. I do not suffer fools gladly.

 So today I am tentatively going to Wagon Mound to meet someone who has proven undependable to pick of photographs I am suppose to hang in the Brewery tomorrow.

 I am taking the camera and all the MVD information so if he doesn't show it won't be a wasted trip. With a 40 minute detour south I can stop in Las Vegas to do the license. It is behind the Walmart Super center on Ridge Runner Road.

 Always have a contingency plan. 

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