Old Michiganders to NEW New Mexicans

     One of Caryl's brothers known for his clever phrases remarked recently that he'd heard it was "better to be a NEW New Mexican than an OLD Michigander."
Today, we made it 66.66% official.  After 2 1/2 hours at the Department of Motor Vehicles, we walked out with a new temporary driver's license for Caryl and a plate and title for our car.  Bob is the involuntary holdout, however.
      To get a driver's license, Bob needed a Social Security card--which he says he has never had.  In place of an SS card, the DMV required him to present TWO documents with his identity which also showed his SS number.  Do you know how hard that is to come up with?  He had his Medicare card; that counts as one of the required two.  A second option that was suggested was a "bank statement" with the number on it.  Most banks, including ours, don't do that.  His veteran identification card is also minus the SS number.  Amazingly, even communications from the Social Security Administration do not show the actual number.  So what's a guy to do? 
     Well, a very creative representative at our bank sent us a copy of the "signature card" which Bob signed for our savings account; this card shows his SS number.  And in case that's not adequate, the next time we return to the DMV office, we hope to also have a letter from the VA identifying him by name and SS number.  The DMV list of accepted documents says such a letter, in conjunction with his photo ID which does not have the SS number, would be acceptable.  We'll see--hopefully after a much shorter stint in the DMV office!

 

     Part of the reason our office visit took so much time was that the first print-out of our New Mexican title had our last name misspelled; the clerk had left out the "u."  She was a bit befuddled about how to remedy this and had to call over another woman who seemed to be a supervisor.  This woman helped the first woman to void the previous title, and the charges for it, BUT she thought that the mistake had been to put in an "r" where the "u" should be.  So when we were handed the corrected title, we noted that now our name was missing the "r!"  Oh, bother!!  At this point, the poor clerk (who was probably already an hour past her lunch time) looked really frazzled.  Fortunately for her, and us, the supervisor offered to finish the process.  Third time was the charm--all information on the title is now correct and our car is sporting its New Mexico license plate.  Now if we can just get Bob's paperwork together, we can make it 100% official!