30 days – that's the legal time limit
for getting your Georgia Driver's License after moving in from out of
state. My technical arrival date in the state was June 1 making July
1 the supposed drop dead date. Undeniably, the renewal could have
happened before the last day, but extenuating circumstances conspired
to make procrastination appear the right thing to do. Certainly
searching for and finding of necessities for the apartment assumed a
higher priority immediately after arrival. Emptying boxes and bins
also seemed more important. A check of the Department of Driver
Service website indicated that several documents would be required,
so those had to be found in the boxes and bins. I had to wait for
bills to arrive as they were the requisite proof of residence.
Just about the time those were all
collected , I ordered my new glasses. Of course, wanting the license
to have the most current picture, I decided to wait until the glasses
came in. The five to seven day wait came and went necessitating a
follow up call. That was the day my phone died, so I couldn't call
them, nor could they call me. An email to Beth enlisted her to call
to check on the glasses, which she did, posing as me. The
receptionist couldn't find the records and the optician was in with a
patient, so eventually she hung up and emailed me that something was
wrong. I drove the mile to the store to find that there was a delay,
but that they would be in on Friday or Saturday. By Friday afternoon,
I had a new phone and thus a Georgia number, and I could wear my new
glasses.
With the deadline for renewal looming,
I checked the website again on Sunday for a final review of the
required documents and hours of service. In addition to the
information that the office was open on Saturdays and not Mondays,
emblazoned on the site was the new Georgia law effective July 1 that
all driver's licenses issued from that day forward would be secure.
Everyone had to provide the same proofs that I did, and all renewals
had to be done in person. Thus, I was technically illegal when I
drove to the office on Tuesday, July 3, with Passport, birth
certificate, rental agreement, and two utility bills, but not my
Nook.
The
line of cars turning into the parking lot should have alerted me, but
by that time it didn't seem like much of a choice. After ten minutes
of circling the lot, a parking place opened, and I headed for the
building. Once inside, the clerk provided a form, a clip board and a
ticket with the code E347 and the 10:02 time stamp. Every seat was
filled, and people sat on all the counters and on every flat surface,
so the my form was not completed in the best Zaner-Bloser print.
Fifteen stations lined the far end of the room, each with cameras,
computers, card readers and many of them had clerks behind the
counter, but never all and sometimes as few as seven. That it was
their first day with the new system was patently obvious.
The
system assigned different sorts of requests different letters,
renewals were A and my E represented licensed drivers new to the
state. B,C,D, F and G represented other situations. A gentle female
voice would call out “Now serving A056 at window 13.” If A056 did
not move quickly enough, the same voice would repeat it over and over
until someone showed up or the clerk forced it to the next client.
The numbers also appeared on screens at the side of the room and
above each work station. Searching for E proved futile for the first
half hour. Finally one appeared, E285. It took 20 minutes before the
voice called out E286.
Eventually,
I found a seat and decided my choices were to leave and fight the
same battle another day while I drove illegally, to fidget, steam,
gripe, and complain, or to decide people watching and practicing
patience would rule the day. I chose the latter, though commiserating
with people seated next to me did provide some opportunity for at
least a little griping. Sarah, who kept me company for a couple of
hours, finally concluded that it was completely un-American to
require citizens to prove their citizenship. She eventually left
perhaps figuring that she had time for lunch before she would ever
get called.
At
the four hour mark, I did go up to the question line and learn that
it was a totally first come first served process, and if I was the
670th
person in the door, I would be the 670th
served. I did see one exception, a sweet old couple who got served by
the question answering clerk after they had been there two hours.
That was OK by me. Things began to speed up a little when the voice
would move from A096 to A097 to AO98 within a minute. Clearly, many
chose not to wait.
At
3:45, the voice called E347 at window 14. I practically ran. The
clerk looked over the documents, filled out her forms, took my
payment, and then told me to stand on the line for my picture –
without my glasses. Within moments, I had a paper copy of my license
in hand. I do have to wear my glasses when I drive, even if my
picture plain faced. Facial recognition, you know.
Procrastination
didn't pay off so well this time, but I am now legal on the roads and
registered to vote.
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