Plates

This morning I returned John’s handicap card and handicap license plates to the Maryland MVA.  I got to the Quince Orchard office fairly early, so the line was only a couple dozen people long — the first line.  From the first line I got sent to the second line I kind of thought of as the “slow but special” line.  From there I got a receipt for the old plates and a ticket with number D-17 on it (bingo?)  The MVA has a system where you get a deli number and then you wait for a blinking, pinging sign to tell you what numbered clerk window you should go to.  But the blinking, pinging sign was flashing D-23 at the very moment I received D-17,   obviously a problem.  Obvious only to me, the lady with D-18 and the lady with D-19.

D-23 directed the lucky ticket holder to window 16, which was not staffed for about 5 minutes.  When the clerk showed up in window 16, I asked her about the numbering problem and, bless her heart, she emphatically told me it wasn’t her problem, that the supervisor was in window 20.   Eventually this got sorted out, but not by Window 16, bless her heart.  The final step in the process was to go to another line to queue up to turn in the handicap card.  Another deli number (385) on a different system.  4 lines total in about 45 minutes, and it only cost me $20 to have John die as far as the MVA is concerned.  (Well, no actually, I didn’t change the registration.  That’ll be more.)  I am glad to have this task done.  It was another big rock, and is now off the path.

On Sunday, Celia and Mike and I went to Brookside Gardens for the butterfly exhibit.  I took so many photos, I have not gotten through selecting the first cut, let alone editing or printing.  However, here are the first two:

This one is called a Blue Tiger – Danaus (Tirumala) limniace , but it actually looks black and white. 

Here’s a Monarch on a bouganvilia.  There were 20-25 different kinds of butterflies and moths in the exhibit, which is staged in the seasonal conservatory.  The exhibit contains mostly non-native bugs, so the conservatory has an air pressure system to hold the bugs in, plus two sets of doors and you must be inspected on your way out the door for stowaways.  The conservatory is quite humid and warm.  Last time I went with John and a big blue butterfly perched on his back for several minutes.  You have to not mind bugs landing on you, flying by you, and swirling all about.  Some of the small kids were a little unnerved.

Tomorrow I hope to have photos of a new machine I’ve gotten and some things I’ve made with it.