It's not always easy to keep emotions in check when things don't go your way, and by your way I mean my way.
Bureaucracy has it's place and I know that you (I mean I) have to be patient and go through the motions but when I've put my right foot in and taken my right foot out and put my left foot in and took my left foot out, then I've done the hokey pokey and I've turned myself about, I somehow expect that I would be able to get my way... but no.
The DMV has returned all the paperwork I had submitted to them in September, sent it all back to me (for a 2nd time) and has said that they can't process it for 2 reasons.
1. The cheque I submitted has to be from a US banking institution and in US funds as they don't take Canadian cheques.
2. I need to pay for the additional charges mentioned.
So let's start with #1. The cheque I sent them was from a US account, in US funds, it was only that my (name and) address on the cheque was a Canadian address. I explained this to them a letter I sent them. I did spell cheque "check" because it is the DMV and they are in America and Americans, when shown the cheque say check-eh, which is their best attempt at reading the Canadian spelling and dealing with a "qu" sequence that they're otherwise unfamiliar with when dealing with the word check. For all my American friends, please just take minor offense to this, you know it comes from a loving place in my heart. In Canada the word cheque is reserved for the bill of exchange drawn on a bank by the holder of a current account; whereas the word check is mostly used in the investigative sense among other definitions. So language idiosyncrasies aside, I was slightly annoyed.
Onto #2. The DMV has now lost the tracking of my very first payment that I made in the form of a Money Order that I bought at the Post Office in Orange. When they sent the package of paperwork back to me the first time, they noted the payment and told me they needed an additional payment because of penalty I had to pay, so that was the cheque I had sent them in September that was now returned to me (see #1 above). I can't seem to find the receipt to this payment right now - could be in the Airstream which would be ironic but entirely likely so I couldn't prove it to them so I wrote another cheque to cover this charge if they deem it necessary because the last thing I want to do is hold this up any longer.
I wrote them a letter to accompany all the paperwork and the additional cheque and crammed it all into the envelope they provided me and mailed it off yesterday. Since the bulk has gotten bigger and bigger with each iteration it cost me $2.35 to get it mailed down to Sacramento.
Godspeed my little envelope!! Last time the turn-around was about a month from when I sent the DMV what they asked for, until they opened it, pointed and laughed and sent it back to me. I know that they're not doing it on purpose and that they have their processes to follow so I'm working on controlling any hostilities I may towards this whole exchange because at the end of it I will get the title and I will go and get my little Miss and bring her home with me to Powell River. When that day comes I will likely honk my horn the entire way from Saltery Bay to the Townsite. That's a total of about 55km (35mi) so we'll see if Ella's (my car) horn was made for short sudden usage or if it's up for 30 minute sustainment.
I'm fortunate that Miss Perception has a safe and happy place to rest while I work out these details. She's still enjoying her time at "summer camp" which hopefully she's figured out is now turning into boarding school because it's October and I haven't picked her up yet. The Airstream dealer has been kind enough to allow her to say there and hang out with her peeps until I can make my down there to get her. They're fantastic!
As an update on Ella as well, it's been determined by a few experts that she's probably just fine. I've been driving her ever since I came home. She does feel different than she did before the repairs but it's the new Ella (not new and improved). She's noisy and feels more sluggish than before but since I've gained a bit more comfort with her new demeanour I'll keep that in mind during my completion of the ROMP tour.
