Got the wrong counter girl

Went to a really big Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles service counter this week. I needed a title transfer, temporary plates, and to put in my order for a special type of permanent plate. I swear that if I didn't need the temporary plates I would've just mailed the stuff in, but in Wisconsin you can only (legally) drive around for 48 hours without a valid plate or temporary tags. If you need valid tags this month, you're pretty much compelled to go for counter service.

I suppose I was lucky that six of the eight counters were staffed, but it was still a half-hour wait for service. During the wait I played at judging the experience and effectiveness of the employees, hoping to land one of the old hands when my number came up. I wasn’t so lucky. The woman I got had never heard of "Vehicle Collector Special" plates, and required protracted consultation with senior coworkers on how to handle my forms. That was after she tried to get me to fill in a separate pamphlet for regular collector plates. Those plates wouldn't help me though on my winter car. In Wisconsin, you're generally not allowed to drive "collector" plated cars in January, a regulation intended to force collectors to have at least one automobile they pay annual registration on.

So it took awhile, plus forty-five bucks for the title transfer, fifty-five bucks for registration, fifteen bucks for issuing the new plates, and five bucks for the honor of seeing a real live DOT employee. Oy!

Oh, and since we're on the subject, who's the genius that came up with disabled motorcycle plates? No, I don't understand. Unless somebody explains this to me, some day I'll be walking through the parking lot and see a motorcycle with these plates in the handicapped parking stall, and my brain will just blue-screen, right then and there.