The adventure continued: Renewing my driver's license - Chapter 2
"The following week I drove 45 minutes to another TDL office, this one in a larger town and open 5 days a week. I had been told by a couple of folks that the office wasn't very busy when they'd been there and they'd never had to wait very long. Why do people lie to me?
I got there just before 11 AM, waded through a standing room only crowd to take a number (43). I found an empty chair and in the next 10 minutes the two state employees working in the office called #28 and #29. OK, I thought, not too bad. At this rate maybe I'll get through in an hour, maybe and hour and a half.
Things progressed relatively well for the next 20 minutes - until #31 was called. It was an elderly couple with their daughter, who I sure hope had driven them there. He was 85, using a walker, and his spouse wasn't far from that age. Both needed to renew their licenses, but had only used one number. They were 10 feet away and I could hear the entire conversation with the clerk...
His wife went first, but couldn't pass the eye test, with or without her glasses - she tried twice each way without success. The clerk, with minimal help from the daughter (she appeared to really be working hard at staying at arms length in this entire little drama), talked the lady into getting an ID card rather than a license, emphasizing she could always come back and try again after getting new glasses. Then it was his turn.
He passed the eye test with glasses, and wanted to take it again without them! He tried a couple of times and apparently did OK with his left eye, but not his right. Then his spouse spoke up saying his doctor had told him he didn't want him to drive any more. This kicked off a discussion between the clerk and the wife, with the daughter and husband looking on stoically. After going back & forth for 10 minutes or so, it was finally agreed that he would also get an ID card, not a new drivers license. After each of them struggled through the process of filling out ID application forms, getting photographs, electronic thumbprints and digital capture of signatures, the wife then had to write two separate checks to pay for the ID cards. Oh, and then after they were done and daughter helped dad out of the office, the wife spent another five minutes telling the clerk all about her efforts to keep her husband off the road.
While this 35+ minute session was transpiring, the other clerk had worked her way up to #33 as the DL office continued to fill with people. I didn't see the exact number but I do know the numbers topped out at 50 and I saw one person (not the last to enter) had started over again with a 4.
By this time I'd been there an hour and they'd processed a total of seven (7) people. Watching all of this, muttering under my breath and telling myself "hey, you're retired - nothing better to do - chill", I calculated that barring another special case like the old couple, I would be done in another hour. Right...
When the old couple left, the clerk looked at the clock and announced to her buddy that she was going to lunch.
About that time, the other clerk finished up the guy she was helping. Instead of calling "34!" she announced "I'm going to help those who have courtesy slips now. I'll resume calling numbers a little later." It seems those who had come in previously and had not had all the necessary paperwork to complete their business were given courtesy slips so they would go to the front of the line when they returned with what they needed. There were at least two of them, probably more.
I threw in the towel and left.
I returned the following week, arriving before they opened. I was in and out in 15 minutes.
"