dianec42

So I went back to the DMV with the form from my eye doctor. Now, here's the thing about this form: unlike, say, the Maryland form of 20 years ago, the California form does NOT contain any obvious statement of what the minimum requirements actually are to be able to drive, nor does it contain an obvious set of check boxes for the doctor to say "this person should/should not be given a license, possibly with such-and-such a restriction". Hell, I worked for the federal government for 4 years and *I* don't understand this form.

So I'm directed to the proper line and I give my pile of papers (including this form) to the very nice DMV lady. I then explain that I failed the DMV eye test last time (the big hanging sign AND the wee machine) so I saw my eye doctor and this is the form and they told me to bring it back so here I am. Does she look at the form and nod sagely? No. Does she call over someone else who might be able to make heads or tails of the form? She does not. No, she takes me back over to the wee machine and cajoles me into reading lines 5 and 6. With my bad eye. With, I might add, a frightening degree of success. Then she hands me my new temporary license and confirms (when I ask) that my proper one will show up in the mail some time soon-ish.

My guess? No one at the DMV understands this form either.

I have seen a great deal of strange driving in the past few days, well above and beyond the normal California insanities. I've seen a Pennsylvania driver speeding; I've seen a Massachusetts driver signal; and I've noticed that the drivers here don't seem to speed as a matter of course, the way folk do on the East coast.

Today I had to pass a very tough-looking dude on a motorcycle because he was just going too damn slow. That's not right at all. Also today, I saw a Mercedes with California vanity plates that read "MTG BIZ". I'm sure it stood for something utterly mundane, NOT Magic The Gathering, but I couldn't help wondering, Where *is* Richard Garfield these days?