In which Joanna renews her driver's license...
In Pennsylvania you are required to renew your driver's license every four years, and unlike in some other states you have to get a new picture taken for your license each time. There is a two step process for the renewal: 1) When you get the renewal notice, pay your fee, and receive a camera card back in the mail, and, 2) Go have your picture taken at a PennDOT center to have the actual card issued. And in Pennsylvania your license expires the day after your birthday in the given year.
I received my renewal in April and had long since paid my money and gotten my camera card in the mail. And since the last time I went to get my picture taken for my license, it was all of a five minute procedure at a suburban office - literally, no waiting - I wasn't worried or in a hurry. Then suddenly it was the middle of June and time to get off the stick.
Four years ago, I got my licensed renewed and picture taken in Rosemont, where I was the only customer and where two clerks were arguing and vying to see who could take a better picture of me. I went out on a Wednesday night before the dance and I tought I would do the same thing this time. But being sensible, I decided to check on PennDOT's website to make sure the Rosemont office was still open late on Wednesdays. After 10-15 minutes of searching the website and trying, mostly failing, to find the simple list of PennDOT offices and their hours, I finally found the PDF in a non-intuitive section of the site and discovered that evening hours had been severely curtailed, not only in Rosemont, but at all of the offices, and that the only night any center was open late was Thursday. Guess who has plans this Thursday. And guess who will have an expired license if she waits until next Thursday. So, for better or for worse, I decided to brave a Center City office and rationalized this decision by telling myself it was relatively close to my office, I take a late lunch so the big crowds will have dissipated (incidentally, this theory never holds true at the post office either), and that it's just a picture, which should be a quick thing. Right.
I leave my office on 15th and Walnut just before 1:30pm, headed for the PennDOT office on 11th and Market. As I approach the address, things don't look promising. Buildings look vacant. Not good. Finally, I notice a small sign in one of the windows saying that this PennDOT location closed on May 30th and all business will now be conducted at the next closest office, some 5-ish blocks away on 8th and Arch. Now the clock is ticking.
I make it to 8th and Arch at about 1:45pm to discover a long line out the door. Figuring that the line is for people waiting to take a learner's permit test, I walk up to the door and peer in, but everyone I ask says there's just one line. While I figure it never occured to anyone else to ask if it was otherwise, I get in line and start calculating how long I can wait before I have to cry off so I can get back to work in time.
The line is the typical downtown scene: many younger folks getting permits now that school is out, mothers with small children in tow. Behind me a young woman waiting to submit a change-of-address form gets uppity when an elderly woman who has trouble walking is helped inside ahead of others (likely to sit down), even after two people tell her she can submit her address change online at any computer with internet access and not have to wait here at all. Still she remains on line, yelling about how unfair it all is.
Finally, really only a few minutes later, an employee comes outside and issues numbers to the three of us on the long line with camera cards. I rush in and am taken right away, answer three questions, and am allowed to select the best of three pictures. A minute later I'm back out the door, in plenty of time to walk back to work and hopefully forget about PennDOT for four more years.
Showing posts with label City Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label City Life. Show all posts
2/03/2009
Okay, enough with the weather...
Don't get me wrong. I think snow is pretty and all, but I've about had it. I don't want to shovel it, I don't want to clear it off my car, and I don't want to drive in it. This is Philadelphia. This is practically the southland. We are not supposed to have this kind of weather here. What gives?
Tonight it was predicted that the snow would end at about 9pm and we would have about 1"-3" of snow on the ground. I got home from work and had just enough time to clear and salt the steps and sidewalk, then clear off the car and head to Swarthmore. It's a little slippy on the local roads, but fine. Class, clear off car, go to longsword. Rehearsal, clear lots of snow off of the car, and proceed to begin the drive home. It is after 9pm. It's still snowing. A lot. So much for the weather report.
The Blue Route is a big mess, made worse by the spray of big truck, but we make it off and I start looking for gas stations, as the idiot light has just come on on the dash. The station that was open had no regular gas, so now to add to the fun of the drive, we have the potential drama of running out of gas. But we creep along Germantown Avenue, slipping but maintaining control for the most part. Until a car randomly stops dead. Deep breath.
We pass that car, finally, although the car hates changing lanes, pass the car further down the road also stopped, and creep into Chestnut Hill. All of the gas stations are closed, but we slide down the hill, trying to forget that there are slippery, unpredictable trolley tracks underneath.
Home stretch. Turn onto Boyer. I fear the parking situation. But then, a spot close to the house. Unheard of at this hour.
I'll shovel in the morning.
Tonight it was predicted that the snow would end at about 9pm and we would have about 1"-3" of snow on the ground. I got home from work and had just enough time to clear and salt the steps and sidewalk, then clear off the car and head to Swarthmore. It's a little slippy on the local roads, but fine. Class, clear off car, go to longsword. Rehearsal, clear lots of snow off of the car, and proceed to begin the drive home. It is after 9pm. It's still snowing. A lot. So much for the weather report.
The Blue Route is a big mess, made worse by the spray of big truck, but we make it off and I start looking for gas stations, as the idiot light has just come on on the dash. The station that was open had no regular gas, so now to add to the fun of the drive, we have the potential drama of running out of gas. But we creep along Germantown Avenue, slipping but maintaining control for the most part. Until a car randomly stops dead. Deep breath.
We pass that car, finally, although the car hates changing lanes, pass the car further down the road also stopped, and creep into Chestnut Hill. All of the gas stations are closed, but we slide down the hill, trying to forget that there are slippery, unpredictable trolley tracks underneath.
Home stretch. Turn onto Boyer. I fear the parking situation. But then, a spot close to the house. Unheard of at this hour.
I'll shovel in the morning.
10/24/2008
Dateline: Forest Hills
Time: Thursday, 9:45 am
I am, at this moment, experiencing a fascinating phenomenon: the alternate-side-of-the-street parking game in NYC.
I'm in Queens, staying at my mom's, and as I got in late on a Wednesday, there were only parking spaces available on the Thursday side of the street, meaning that on Thursday mornings, you have to move your car so they can clean that side of the street. Luckily though, I was on the right block of the Thursday side so I didn't have to move my car until the civilised hour of 9:30 am.
So I dutifully troop out at 9:20 and begin cruising for spaces on the Friday side. Still no parking. And I realize as I'm endlessly circling that there are cars on some blocks of the Thursday side, even though the time restriction is still in place until 10am. And then I notice that someone is sitting in every car, ready to move at a moment's notice when the street sweeper or meter maid comes along as the taboo time is nearing its end. What to do but join them?
And when the sweeper does, in fact, come along, we signal to each other with the start of engines and the flash of headlights and parade around to the next likely Thursday side. Where I now sit waiting for the block's-worth of drivers to exit their vehicles, in synchrony, precisely at 10am.
I am, at this moment, experiencing a fascinating phenomenon: the alternate-side-of-the-street parking game in NYC.
I'm in Queens, staying at my mom's, and as I got in late on a Wednesday, there were only parking spaces available on the Thursday side of the street, meaning that on Thursday mornings, you have to move your car so they can clean that side of the street. Luckily though, I was on the right block of the Thursday side so I didn't have to move my car until the civilised hour of 9:30 am.
So I dutifully troop out at 9:20 and begin cruising for spaces on the Friday side. Still no parking. And I realize as I'm endlessly circling that there are cars on some blocks of the Thursday side, even though the time restriction is still in place until 10am. And then I notice that someone is sitting in every car, ready to move at a moment's notice when the street sweeper or meter maid comes along as the taboo time is nearing its end. What to do but join them?
And when the sweeper does, in fact, come along, we signal to each other with the start of engines and the flash of headlights and parade around to the next likely Thursday side. Where I now sit waiting for the block's-worth of drivers to exit their vehicles, in synchrony, precisely at 10am.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)