Cellar Scribblings

[brianr]

I wish you were here. I have the planning meeting for our walking group here today. They are arriving at 10am and I have yet to clean the bathroom, now 7am. I did vacuum on Monday and cleaned kitchen yesterday.
When I have my car serviced, they usually wash it for me. It is not a thorough job but better than nothing.

[Sason]

(no comments, Sonja)

Who? Me?

*whistles innocently*

[serious crayons]

I also need to take the car to the shop on  Monday.  Nothing  major, just routine maintenance is due.  So that means on Sunday I'll need to get the car cleaned. 

I've never done that! Is it basic car-repair etiquette?

BTW, have I mentioned that my car was stolen last Friday night?

[Jeff Wrangler]

IBTW, have I mentioned that my car was stolen last Friday night?

I don't think you have. That's awful! 

[serious crayons]

I don't think you have. That's awful! 

Thanks. It wasn't a great car -- 11 years old, 105,000 miles. Luckily, I still had full insurance coverage. Hopefully the insurance company will pay me the Kelly Blue Book price, which is about $5,000. But minus my $1,000 deductible.

At least the insurance is paying for a rental until the case is settled. So I guess I'll be going car shopping while I still have wheels.

Also, a relatively minor problem, but unless the car turns up soon -- and it's been almost a week, so I'm guessing it won't -- the insurance company essentially "buys" it from me, for which I'll need the title. And somehow the file I had of car-related papers has been missing for several months.

So because of the shutdown any DMV-related thing has become a huge hassle. The nearby AAA has a DMV counter that few people know about -- normally you can go in and waltz out with a title five minutes later, as opposed to the two hours you have to wait to do anything at a regular DMV. Now you have to get there in the morning and sign up. If you get one of the 180 spots, you can leave and they'll call you when it's your turn.

But apparently although the AAA doesn't open until 8, people start lining up to sign at like 6:30-7 a.m. Obviously those people are either superhuman or are just getting off a night shift. 

They probably need to get in ASAP. I have the luxury of working from home and generally having a flexible schedule, so most days I could go back at any time.

There's another DMV nearby where you make an appointment. But the AAA woman said they're booked into August.

After all that, I feel like I should be getting a "real ID" while I'm at it. Do you all have yours already?

[Front-Ranger]

Your car was stolen!? What a GDBoaUS!! Did it happen at home? How awful!!

One time my son's Jeep was stolen and used in a robbery. They drove it into the front of a gun store. Fortunately, there was not much damage that couldn't be repaired. So, he got his car back and they arrested the perps.

I have some kind of a LoJack thing on mine that traces my car if it gets stolen.

I don't know what a real ID is, but I just renewed my driver's license online. It was pretty easy.

[serious crayons]

Your car was stolen!? What a GDBoaUS!! Did it happen at home? How awful!!

My son parked it outside his girlfriend's house at 1 a.m., and when he came out at 4 a.m. it was gone. It's actually her parents' house (she was home from school in Chicago) and it's in a quiet, residential, middle-to-upper-middle-class neighborhood.

I live in an adjoining middle-class neighborhood with essentially no violent crime but there is the occasional car theft. Though I think usually they're nice cars!

There was a loud, wild party going on down the block -- 20ish-year-olds who had rented an Airbnb house. My son and his girlfriend noticed them and the police officer who took my report said they'd had a number of complaints. So I hate to point the finger with no evidence, but ... Of  course, it could have been someone who felt they could get away with it while the party provided a distraction.

I don't know what a real ID is, but I just renewed my driver's license online. It was pretty easy.

Hmm. Maybe they don't have it in CO, although I thought it was a national thing. In fact, my understanding was that MN is behind other states on it.

It's kind of a cross between a driver's license and a passport. You have to provide extra identification: two forms of ID, a utility bill with your address on it, etc. Starting in October, you won't be able to board a domestic plane flight without one. Not that there's probably going to be a rush on domestic flights in October, but still. I've been procrastinating because my passport is expired, so it seemed like a hassle. Now, of course, it will be a much bigger hassle because I'll have to renew the passport to get the real ID (or a SS card might work, I can't remember).

You'd still need a passport for an international flight. Not that there'll be much demand for (or possibility of) those anytime soon, either ... 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Hmm. Maybe they don't have it in CO, although I thought it was a national thing. In fact, my understanding was that MN is behind other states on it.

It's kind of a cross between a driver's license and a passport. You have to provide extra identification: two forms of ID, a utility bill with your address on it, etc. Starting in October, you won't be able to board a domestic plane flight without one. Not that there's probably going to be a rush on domestic flights in October, but still. I've been procrastinating because my passport is expired, so it seemed like a hassle. Now, of course, it will be a much bigger hassle because I'll have to renew the passport to get the real ID (or a SS card might work, I can't remember).

You'd still need a passport for an international flight. Not that there'll be much demand for (or possibility of) those anytime soon, either ... 

Real ID is a federal mandate, somehow related to security. I got mine for Pennsylvania a year ago. There was a fee for the Real ID, plus I had to pay for a driver's license renewal, although they gave you an extension on your driver's license.

At the time I didn't realize how long it might be before I got on a plane again. It just seemed kind of stupid that if I didn't have a Real ID, at some point I would have to use my passport to fly from Boston across Cape Cod Bay to Provincetown. 

(That business about getting on a plane had and has nothing to do with Covid-19. After I had to cancel a badly needed vacation at the last minute because my father was hospitalized, it just seemed to that I really can't plan another vacation while he's still alive. I couldn't deal with having to cancel a vacation again as I had to do last fall.)

[brianr]

Many of our domestic flights do not have any security, none of them require any ID.
I let my passport lapse in 1984 and it was quite a rigmarole to get a new one in 1996 so I would not let it lapse again. I now have 2 and am not sure I will renew my Australian in 2026. You can renew the NZ passport online but the Australian requires a visit with an appointment to the post office in Australia or to the High Commission in Wellington here in NZ. I am suppose to use my Australian passport entering and leaving Australia but I used the New Zealand one in 2016 as I had applied for the Australian Passport at the Post Office in Sydney and had it posted to my sister while I went to Europe. I could only get away with it because NZ citizens are the only people who do not need a visa to enter Australia.

[serious crayons]

Many of our domestic flights do not have any security, none of them require any ID.

So you can just waltz into the airport and go straight to your gate without any interference or hassle?

You don't have to take off your shoes to be X-rayed? You don't have to put all items you're carrying into bins that go through an X-ray machine? You don't have to stand in a little area where imaging shows you in a really revealing way? You don't have to take off your jewelry, etc. if the scanner beeps when you walk through it? You don't face the possibility of a body search by a TSA agent if the scanner beeped, or maybe just randomly? You don't have to limit any liquids in your carry-on bags to, I think, three ounces (so a bottle of water is forbidden)?

That's how it used to be here. 

Plus we'd get whole meals and, if you go way back in the past, free champagne. People would dress up for plane flights. Acquiring and keeping a (paper) ticket was more trouble back then, but everything else was easier.