Tuesday, May 26, 2015

I curse the state of West Virginia

And the West Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in particular.

I recently bought a new (to me) SUV, and today was my day to go down and get it's tags and put the title in my name.

First off, I went during a normal working day, so the office was chock full of teen moms with screaming kids and what looked to be about half of the population of Tijuana. In fact, between the caterwauling kids (whose moms all seemed to be too busy talking in their phones to pay any attention to them) and the "Gwaba, gwaba, gwaba..." of what sounded to me like illegal alienese, it was all I could do to hear my own number called, roughly an hour and a half after I walked into Kearneysville's version of the Mos Eisley Spaceport cantina.

Part of the problem. Deportations have been replaced with signs like this one:
"Welcome to America. Don't forget to press 1 for English."

Service was hardly what I'd call prompt, since the office has nine customer service (ha!) windows but only staffs three or four of them at any given time. But I finally got up there and had the privilege of giving over the cost of a decent rifle in the form of a 5% sales tax on my vehicle. Hell, for that much money, I'd better see one of those state-paid muppets show up at my house once a week to wash the damned thing! And what exactly do I get back from West Virginia in return for that shakedown again? And it doesn't even include the "personal property tax" that the county will be strong-arming out of me every year from now on for the same damned vehicle!

How many more years again until I can retire, move out west, and form my own little sovereign nation-states?

At least I got to finish The Road by Jack London while I waited. I recommend it, and it's free.

6 comments:

  1. Fortunately for me, I can pay my tag and title fees by mail, but in the case of registering a new vehicle I also have to go to the DMV office. Ours are like yours. Lots and lots of illegal aliens clogging up the works by trying to get "i.c. cards" and drivers licenses. We also have lots of minority types who have lost their licenses for running drugs, DUI, and the like. They come down to the DMV and spent an hour or so at the same window trying to talk "de brudda" or "de sista" into giving them their license back even though it's suspended, etc. I would find it amusing if it didn't take so long and become tedious.

    You don't get much of anything for your taxes. They go to pay the bureaucrats generous salaries and benefits.

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  2. Hey Murphy,

    Lemme know where you move to when you form your own sovereign state, I will join you.

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  3. Thankfully I can do mine online! :-)

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  4. While I like the K'ville office, being close to work, I hate the idiots who work there as much as the scum that use the lobby as their babysitting service. I watched one woman drop her kid on the bench, left for the entire 45 minutes I was in line waiting. She was coming back in as I was leaving. No one to watch the kid, just dropped and left. I wonder if the one on 9 in Hedgesville is any better?

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  5. Being there the last week of the month didn't help your plight, either.

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  6. Ahhh...you should try California. They don't call it Mexifornia for nothing.

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