Almost legal

As you may recall, today was the day for MVD Express, the long-awaited chance to finally get a NM title to Valdesca. I left the house with my folder of paper, with Tim asking me if I had it all in order. Yes, yes, yes, see you later. Got to MVD Express with a bag of knitting for the anticipated lengthy wait. Got called up to the counter before I had my knitting out of the bag. Well, this looks promising. I told an abbreviated sob story to Al while shuffling paper to find what I needed to show him. I pulled out the MD title only to realize that I had forgotten to sign for the previous owner. Uhhhh, "I forget to get something I need from the car." "That's OK," Al responded, "we've got plenty of time." Out in the car, I practiced my orthography, filled in the blanks on the title and then hustled back inside. Things were kind of touch and go there for a while as Al's computer balked at the beam width and length; the computer didn't like it when the boat was wider than it was long. Sheesh.  I had to call Tim for the MD registration number. Then I started to worry that we had wanted the title in my name OR his, not just mine. But would Al make me get Tim's signature? That would mean a half hour to get back home, a return trip to Santa Fe, and then all my other errands. Al seemed to be copacetic with just one of us signing. I had to call Tim back for his social security number. Fortunately, he and Lee were huddled over the Thursday crossword waiting for calls. It was especially dicey when Al started piling up papers and telling me that we could finish when the stickers arrived. I told him that we wanted to clear out of Santa Fe and get the sticker FedEx'd to us en route. "Well, when are you leaving?" "Tomorrow at 10:30 right after we pick up a strut at Pep Boys." "Oh." And and and I was worried that we were getting close to 90 days since we bought the boat and would incur a penalty if we didn't get it titled before Feb 2 (which is the truth; we bought the boat Nov 2). Al said, "Oh, we can just do the title then." Yeeeeeees (breathe in, breathe out).  Eventually he got around to printing out the title and calculating the taxes. I wrote the check and passed pleasantries, all the while maniacally knitting while standing at the counter. The way we left it, I would send somebody in with a copy of the title to get the registration and we would have it before we put the boat in the water.

Phew! Dripping relief, I went out to the car and called Tim. "Well, I got the title. But I locked the keys in the car." Happily, Lee was about to head to Santa Fe, and he could meet me somewhere with a key. I told Tim, as I looked around at the not-terribly exciting landscape of St Michael's Drive, that I would be at Molly's Kitchen and Lounge. I strolled over there and walked in, not having eaten at Molly's Kitchen since it moved from downtown about 30 years ago. It was like a morgue in there, at 11 AM. The sign said OPEN so I sat down at a table and started to knit. After a good long while, and a few beer deliveries, a guy passed by an open door and saw me. "Are you open?" I asked him. They were. I ordered some lunch as I waited for Lee, who arrived as I was finishing. Good thing I wasn't writing a restaurant review because Molly's wouldn't have gotten even one chile.  We visited awhile, as Lee likes to do, and I headed off to complete my round of errands, which included some clothes shopping at REI, copying our precious boat and trailer titles, and a few other details. I parked near REI and paid 75 cents for 45 minutes of parking. I managed to get out of REI with a FEW shillings left in our bank account, walked back to the car, picked the parking ticket off the windshield, had a good laugh, and went home. Can't say I have ever locked the keys in the car AND gotten a parking ticket in the same day. But at least we can leave town now.