"Monday, Monday...No DMV"

"Monday, Monday"

* Did you know that Monday is a holiday in the state of CT? I, for one, did not know that. There I was, standing in the nearly empty parking lot at my newly adopted state's DMV office in Norwalk. Imagine my delight, when I exited the ramp at the end of Route 7 expressway, specifically designed to place your vehicle at the DMV's doorstep, when I saw a nearly empty parking lot. Ah, I thought, the excessive heat has kept other less hearty and hopeful motorists at home, and my reward will be perhaps a new world record time for registering three vehicles.

Not.

Only the cleaning crew was working on Monday, which is a holiday for DMV workers in CT. Every Monday. While I was there, a dozen fellow citizen motorists arrived with that same wondrous look in their eyes upon seeing so few other cars, but only for a moment, until they realized once more that what appears to be too good to be true, often is.

* Nationally, the official unemployment rate is 9.2%, which is approximately as correct as an old Soviet Five-Year Plan for wheat, meaning not correct at all. A Bureau of Labor statistician might take a brief walk around the block and have at least anecdotal evidence that the real rate may be twice that. She  might even return to desk to find that 176 people had tried to get her job while she was away gathering data.

In cities like Norwalk or nearby Stamford, 9.2% unemployment is a punch line to a not very funny joke.

Please.

* The state of CT is about to lay-off 6500 employees, who recently turned down a new deal negotiated by their union bosses and the new Governor. Like anyone else these days, they were merely acting in what they saw as their own best interests.

Standing there in the empty parking lot on a Monday, contemplating the locked DMV doors, realizing that Monday was a holiday, probably because the DMV is open a half-day on Saturday, a few citizens wondered how this could be. How is it possible that the state could not find enough people to work a schedule that included a half-day on Saturday and a Monday?

We were thinking that somewhere nearby were a whole bunch of people who would be willing to work those hours for what must be pretty decent wages and benefits. Actually, we were thinking that we would be willing to do that.

We were also thinking that we better get back there on Tuesday, early, to make sure that we got through the very complicated license and registration processes before those lay-offs hit the DMV, making Tuesday a holiday as well.

* How complicated are those processes? For a license you need: an app, your old NY license to surrender to the state, 2 proofs of residence, an original birth certificate or a passport, and an original Social Security card, beginning in October. Not making up that last one. Then you pay first an app fee, take an eye test, then pay a license fee (two separate transactions), and have your photo taken twice. It's all about identity and catching illegals. Strangely, nobody has any interest whatsoever in whether you know how to drive safely and any "points" are simply erased.

Customer Focus

To register your NY vehicles in CT you need: original titles, CT insurance cards, $20 emissions test/or $10 VIN verification certification. CT treats your your NY inspections and registrations, plus the titles as if they never existed, so they can get some fees. Then you pay tax on the vehicles. Oh yes, if one of the registrants should happen not to want to go to the DMV, imagine that, you need to have a notarized Power of Attorney too.

* During this ordeal, I visited my insurance broker's office in a very large, very expensive looking suburban office building. Here is a photo of the 20 or so putters outside an office there. Everyone was dressed in golf shirts and pants. The putters were not meant for customers.

* Whatever happened to the customer? Best not to think about it and just listen to The Mamas and the Papas "Monday, Monday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h81Ojd3d2rY