New Hampshire... an update...

It's been a busy few weeks. Last weekend I reviewed the NY State Driver's Manual then went down to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles on Monday to take the exam for my learner's permit. I was surprised how quickly I made it to the exam room--no line! It was not an indication of how the rest of the visit was going to go.

I passed the exam and was sent to an intermediate processing area--again no line--was this for real?--where my picture was taken and my John Hancock forged over twice. How could this be going so smoothly? It was, after all, the DMV!

I was subsequently sent to the cashiers. So that's where everybody was. Indeed there was a line in front of me. Luckily I snatched a seat where I patiently waited for my number to come up. And waited. And waited some more.

Most licensees in front of me were taking about 4-5 minutes each to be processed, but there came an interminable wait at one point. No new numbers were being called. How long was this going to last? An announcement eventually came over the PA system informing us that the computer system was down--state wide--and there was no knowledge of when it would be back. Oh good. Just my luck.

Well wouldn't you know! No more than 5 minutes later the computers were back. Then up went one fellow who took almost half an hour to check out. I was so curious to know why it took sooooo long to process his papers when everyone else was averaging 4 minutes?

I finally made it out of DMV with my learner's permit. Yay!

Yesterday morning I went down to the local driver's ed school and signed up for the day's 5-hour class and 5 45-minute driving lessons which I will receive on the streets of my neighborhood. Oh boy! Driving in a crowded, zanny environment. Yay! If I can make it here... well you know the rest.

Going the driving school route is convenient as they will schedule my road test, let me use their car, and guide me through all the steps. My test won't be until the first week of March so that gives me almost 6 weeks to practice.