Why today's posts will be late. (Blame the DMV)

As my 50th birthday is just days away, I received a notice that my driver's license is due to expire on that very day. Because I haven't updated my photo in over five years (it was a really good one and I had a tan), I have to go in and get a new pic taken and have an eye exam.

I left the house at about 8a.m. intending to get it over with early so I could get to work early and post some updates. As my bad luck would have it, no sooner do I sit down to fill out the paperwork, than someone announces over the P.A. system that the computer is down and that someone in Richmond is working on the problem. Customers are free to wait or to go to one of the other regional offices (all of which are over an hour away) where the computers are working just fine.

I decided I'd risk the wait, as I really hate the DMV and don't want to have to make a second trip.

After about ten minutes in walks an inbred couple and their three-year-old whiny mutant offspring, who never shuts up from the second his foot is inside the door, and of course, they sit near me, because the other 200 empty chairs just aren't good enough. He wants to sit with Mommy. He wants to lay down. He wants to sit with Daddy. He wants to go home. He yells and screams and starts hitting himself in the face when he doesn't get his way. I give up and leave, dreading the idea of having to go back tomorrow morning.

I would rather set my own hair on fire while getting a root canal then ever go to the DMV. There has got to be a better way. It's just one more reason to hate this backward commonwealth we call Virginia.