Turning in our plates to Motor Vehicles
Sometimes chaos reigns at the Rubin Rodeo. We got back from holidays at the in-laws to find 3 important looking envelopes from NY DMV amongst a huge pile of mail. I opened them up to find out that we were no longer insured by GEICO and that we had been operating our 3 cars illegally for the past 3 weeks.
How can a crazy thing like that happen? Its easier than you think when you’ve got “automatic electronic bill pay” on your computer combined with not paying attention to the daily mail. Apparently we did not pay our car insurance premium on time.
My hubby Ron, a smooth talker, got GEICO to reinstate our insurance. Crisis solved. Or so we thought. A couple of days later, another set of important looking envelopes arrived from the DMV. These lovely notes informed us that we must SURRENDER all 3 sets of license plates and car registrations to DMV for 21 days or pay a hefty fine for each vehicle that had been driven w/out insurance. Ouch.
After doing some calculations, we decided to surrender the plates to one car for 21 days. Figure it will be a slight inconvenience but what the heck. Earth day is coming. This is one way we can experiment with a lower carbon footprint. So for the next 21 days, we’ve got 4 drivers and 2 cars. That means the older Rubin gals will not be able to just hop in a car and zip to anywhere they like. We’ll all have to coordinate, pay attention, car pool and, heaven forbid, walk a little more! We might even find that this diet works well enough to let go of one of our cars permanently. I’m hoping so.
Stay tuned for updates from the Rodeo.
there are numerous levels to this story. the first is obvious: learning conservation through thoughtful balancing of priorities. the next: that it will become (i hope) strikingly clear how much oil, fuel, expenses, etc. are used even for that extra car. the next: that NYS dmv, in cahoots with the insurance monster, is able to fine you and punish you monetarily, as they do each and every person who disobeys their “rules”. personally, i’m sick and tired of these convoluted and intricate weavings of greed and corruption within the system.
there are many people who must do without vehicles and they survive quite well. the system is not designed for ordered regulation of drivers, it is simply to put extra thousands of revenue in the state coffers. look at the new license plates that were forced down the throats of new yorkers and the ridiculous yearly fees. sorry to rant, sue… . feel free to rail back at me if you like. 😀 i’m looking forward to your reports and the impact it has on your lifestyle. a.
i agree with you. it hits on many levels. we plan on taking a long hard look at $, gas and more on this 21 day fast. but right now, i’ve gotta drive a hubby to the train!