The D in DMV

Last month, I bought my brother's car from him. We recently had the thing inspected. Being that the car is only 3-4 years old, we were not surprised that it did pass the safety inspection. However, I was a bit floored that the emissions did not pass. Did you know that only certain counties of some states have to pass emissions tests? In Festus, where we live, we require the emissions test. (Fast forward through a lot if I sound ignorant of a lot of this.) Illinois, in the young life of the car, did not require emissons testing. We are 25 miles from STL. Mom has her car registered in Farmington, in a county that can't be another 15-20 miles south from where we live. They don't have to get an emissions test. But I digress.



The Midas man was a bit confused as well, for a couple of reasons. One, the car is NOT that old. TWO, the car did not fail on his little hand held device. He hooked the car up to the State's machine and once again did not pass enough to give me my sticker. How stupid. Then as Murphy's Law would have it, the State's machines were shut down for a bit. Whatever that means, I was there for just about two hours.



He scheduled me to come back in the morning to find out if the car would pass on the State's machine this time--in hopes that their machine was up and running. It was. And the car did not pass. So, we are given these instructions that are most absurd. For one sensor to be reset, we are to drive the car 40mph for 2 minutes. OK. For a different sensor to be reset, we are to drive it for 20-25 minutes between 40 and 45 mph. Where can you do that safely, without any starts or stops? Again, how stupid.



Well, we did it. And I'll be darned if it really did reset the sensors. When I took the car back to Midas, of course, I thought that I would be there for a while, so I took the kids at dinner time with McD's in hand. As soon as I had the kids' meals unpacked on the little coffee table in the waiting area, the man comes out and says, "it passed." Well, I'll be GD. That is a lot of drama for one little Corolla.



Remember when I used to name my cars? There was Betty the B---- and Elliot the Escort. That must make this one Corolla the #@! I can't say that. Carrie the Corolla.



So does the D stand for dammed or discontented? maybe dumb or