Canada

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Tip: Don’t Be Born In Quebec

The lady at Lethbridge Vehicle Licensing and Registry who processed my driver’s license application personally emailed me today to apologize for not explain the transfer process to me. Apology accepted on her end.

The reason Alberta did not give me a full license is that according to the records they could get, I only have two years of driving experience. Alberta will trade a full driver’s license from another province for a full Alberta license if you have three years of verifiable driving experience on a full license. Yukon provided this information for the last two years but Quebec doesn’t reciprocate with the other provinces.

Feeling pretty bad about the whole thing, the gal at Lethbridge Vehicle tried to make it right by calling the SAAQ, the Quebec DMV. The bastards conceded to providing her with my file number there, but would not give her any further information, stating that I had to request an abstract in writing… and provide $65 for an English translation!!!!!!

When I got home, I dug through my files and found a copy I made of the abstract I bought in 2009 (I forgot about the fee, but the receipt was stapled to the copy!). I’m getting smarter in my old age! I will bring this copy to the licensing office on Tuesday and see if that is good enough. Hopefully, Alberta won’t insist on an abstract printed this month since there would not be any additional information.

Quebec’s never-ending and completely pointless bureaucracy never ceases to amaze and infuriate me. Things don’t have to be so complicated, take so much time, or cost so much money!!!!!

Let’s see… I have both my large and small birth certificates and my full driving and insurance records from back there. Hopefully, I will never have to deal with Quebec bureaucracy again.

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Alberta’s Clever Way of Potentially Ruining People’s Lives

Today, I finally received my Alberta driver’s license. I’ve been driving with an interim one. There was a strange notation on it, GDL, and I got a bad feeling. I showed it to Jody who confirmed that I was given a ‘graduated’ driver’s license, not a full one. I found the information about that buried in their website. At no time did anyone at Lethbridge Vehicle Licensing and Registrymention to me that I was trading my full Yukon license nor was there any information to this effect in the letter I got with the license.

There are two main restrictions with this license. The first is fewer demerit points, which isn’t an issue. But the second is. It’s a zero alcohol tolerance policy. I’m probably not the only person in the universe who can drive safely after drinking a beer with dinner. Now that I know about this restriction, I can heed it, but imagine if I hadn’t noticed that I have a GDL license and was pulled over after having a beer. Boom. I lose my license for a month. Good luck getting insurance at renewal time!

I can keep driving on my GDL indefinitely, but if I want to get the full license, something I have held without a ticket or at-fault accident since 1997 or 1998, will have to wait for two years, and will have to pay $75 for a road test. It’s another way for Alberta to keep squeezing blood out of turnips I guess.

SHAME on the folks at Lethbridge Vehicle Licensing and Registry! They saw how many bloody hoops I had to jump through and should have given me a heads up. I will be sending them a link to this post.

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Busy Managing

I have to confess that I am absolutely in love with my job! I thought that I never wanted to work for someone else again, but I’d never been a manager before! I have a lot of the freedoms I enjoy from working for myself, but I also have a steady pay cheque.

This apartment complex managing position is an excellent fit for me. It combines all my past work experience, from bookkeeping support to security clearance processing to customer service, and more. I feel valued and appreciated and I am discovering that I have a backbone!

This week, being the last of the month, is incredibly busy. I am presently at the office waiting for two tenants to move out!

While this job is slowly taking over my life, I am still drawing a firm line and continuing with my own business and clients. It’s really the best of both worlds.

Now, someone pinch me. Tomorrow is September?!

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Up On Blocks

Last night, I noticed that Miranda was listing on the passenger side and thought that she had perhaps sunk into the ground. But no. When I came out this morning, I discovered that the front passenger tire was flat as a pancake!!!

I asked around at work and was able to borrow an air compressor. That’s something I’ve been wanting to buy, but the one I want is a lot more money in Canada, so I planned to get it this winter. Anyway, this compressor I borrowed was perfect; 2 gallon tank, 125PSI, and, maybe most important, I could lift it!

The compressor was super easy to use. Just plug in, wait for it to stop making a racket, then apply the tip of the hose to the tire valve. Worked like a charm. Except that the reason my tire went flat was that the valve was kaput! So the air was rushing out as fast as it was going in.

Jody came to see me just as I got home and was messing with everything, so she was able to call Gary and ask him to bring a jack home so that I could at least get the weight off the wheel. But that wasn’t good enough for my wonderful host. Oh, no:

my borrowed air compressor in the foreground, with Gary beside it trying to get the hubcap off

my borrowed air compressor in the foreground, with Gary beside it trying to get the hubcap off

can you see how flat the tire is?

can you see how flat the tire is?

I feel like a redneck with my home up on blocks!

I feel like a redneck with my home up on blocks!

Yup. Gary loosened the tire nuts, got Miranda on the jack, slid blocks under her to stabilize the frame (yay, I’m level again!), took the tire off, and determined that the tire is okay but the inner tube is rotten. So, my plan went from getting a mobile tire repair place to come to me ($$$) to bringing my tire to a repair place this weekend, having Gary reinstall it, then taking it for torquing ($). But do you know what Gary did? He left with my tire to get it fixed tomorrow. Can you believe that man?!

And Jody isn’t much better! When she saw how depressed I was tonight (I had a day from hell, and it had nothing to do with my job), she said “I brought home pizza. Come and have some.” So I didn’t have to worry about dinner AND she sent me home with beer, two corn on the cob that I look forward to boiling for dinner tomorrow, and some muffins!

It is a wonder of the RVing life that it can make friends out of strangers so quickly. I continue to be so grateful to be here.