Damn the DMV

It was going to be so easy this year.  My eye was  fixed.  I could see again.  Maybe I could talk the DMV out of my having to take a behind the wheel test again.

Last year, because I'm old, I could not renew my driver's license by mail, but had to go to the office.  I thought I was being ahead of the game by bringing a note from my doctor about my eye.  But no, they needed me to go back and have her fill out a special form, so I had to go back to Sacramento for the form, then make a second trip and then a third trip to the DMV because I had to take a behind the wheel trip since I was blind in one eye.

The tester told me at that time that from now on I would need to renew my license every year and take a behind the wheel test every year.

But I'm not blind in that eye any more.  In fact I have better vision there than I have had in decades.  The form they send you clearly states that you need to bring a note from your doctor if there is a problem with your vision, so it never occurred to me that I would need one this year.

Maybe I just got the wrong clerk.  She spent a lot of time looking at my form and her computer and left her computer twice to confer with someone in the back but ultimately, even though I could read the damn eye chart without any problem she told me that she could not process my form without a note from my doctor that yes, I could see again.  Evidence that I could was not acceptable.

And yes, I would have to repeat the behind the wheel test.

(I must say that my friend has only one eye for most of the 50 years I've known her and she doesn't have to go through this!)

So I got my form to take to the doctor, but because of working at Logos, I couldn't drive in to Sacramento that day and would have to go the next day.  I called Kaiser first, though, and found out I could take it to the Davis Kaiser and they could sign it for me.

But I couldn't go to Kaiser today, because I was waiting for a call from the DMV.  I tried to make appointments for my next try at getting my license (which expires on Wednesday) renewed and the telephone hell method worked all right for making an appointment for the written test.  Since they are closed on Monday for Presidents Day and since I will be out of town on Tuesday, the earliest I could go was on Wednesday, the day my license expires.

Trying to make an appointment for behind the wheel testing, however, was an entirely different matter.  You can do it by computer, only their program said that my driver's license number did not match their records for my birth date.  Huh?  Rechecking, it's the right number and the right birth date.  What's their problem?

So I went the telephone hell way and after being disconnect twice, I finally was able to get to an automated message saying that they could not process my request but that I would have to speak to an operator and my wait time on the phone would be only 30 minutes!!!  They did offer me the option of a call-back, which I took.

Well, what with working at Logos (report tomorrow) and waiting for the DMV telephone call, that left no time to go to Kaiser to pick up the needed form.

In almost exactly 30 minutes, a woman from the DMV called, and after my answering all the same questions I had answered three times before to the automated menus, she told me that she could not make an appointment for me until I had the signed doctor's form and had completed my written test.  She was also amazed that I needed the form and that I needed a behind the wheel test, but couldn't explain why.

So I'm back to square one and after having gone through the tortures of the damned trying to prepare for the written test, I now have time to prepare yet again and get myself all worked up all over again.

I took all of their practice tests and passed most of them, but there wasn't a single one where I didn't make some errors.  I failed 2 or 3 of the 15 tests.  Walt had a DMV rule book that I tried to read through and I dunno...it must be my age, but I just could not absorb anything.  Two full pages about the kinds of turns you could make on the various kinds of roads just went completely over my head.  

So I don't know what the next chapter is going to be, but I'm very frustrated with the DMV right now, and facing not being able to renew my license after all.