Our Toyota Tacoma arrived and is in our garage. Sebastian called yesterday mid-morning. Could we come pick it up, and, of course, pay for it? Absolutely, if we could be guaranteed to be finished by 2:00, because our screen guy Mike was finally coming to fix pool screen panels which had blown in during a cold front 2 weeks ago. He was supposed to come Friday, but bad weather earlier in the week had messed up his schedule. Saturday, he ran late. Finally, Monday for sure. We’ve had a couple of birds fly in, which, thank goodness, were able to find their ways back out. Not so lucky were the 10+ butterflies who died before finding the huge opening they’d managed to fly in through. I’ve been able to grab a couple and throw them out. The rest avoided my trying to guide them out with our long handled pool skimmed. They now are displayed with other bugs, wasp nests, snake eggs, etc I’ve found in the yard this year.
My deadline is not a problem. Should be quick in and out. We were paying cash, putting as much as possible on a credit card ($6,000) to get the points, and writing a check for the balance. I mulled his offer of financing at 0% for 4 years, but decided the loss of $500 in discounts just about negated it’s value plus added the headache of payments.
Should have been quick and was until finance person Larry asked me my current tag number to transfer to the truck, thus avoiding the $250 new car-on-the-road fee. NVB T36. Nope, the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles, which had required me to buy a new physical plate ($50 fee) last year, had not updated its data base with my new tag number. Its website still listed my previous number, not the tag I actually have. No tag to put on the truck since the one on my car didn’t officially exist. Plus I’m pretty sure I threw the old plate away. Legally, I was supposed to return it to DMV. Who does that? I explained the situation again to Larry who seemed skeptical, so I stomped out to the car to get my registration to prove NVB T36 was my correct tag number. Dang, I’d not noticed the registration had the old number too. I refused to pay a $250 new tag fee just because DMV can’t manage a data base. But the clock is ticking, and my screens are flapping in the breeze. Another grackle trapped in the pool enclosure might put me over the edge.
Larry types away and comes up with $35 new tag fee. Still a no op to me. I’ll put the truck sale on hold and fight the incompetence. Why should I pay for someone not to do his job? Larry continues to type and comes up with a $15 fee. Grant reasonably points out that paying it is better than being on the phone with twits. $15 it is, plus a $100 transfer fee. I, gritting my teeth, agree. Still galling, but best to do.
Twenty minutes of signing on the touch screen and again on paper, and the Tacoma is ours. Mike ran late, we had to reschedule until Tuesday, so we could get to Clara’s softball game on time.
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