Getting my money's worth (Signifying Nothing: how does saying nothing at all become so loud?)

Monday, 26 June 2006

Getting my money's worth

I paid $24 today to the Gateway Clean Air Program to hook up one of these to my car under the misguided belief that this is a fool-proof way to ensure that my car isn't polluting the environment. Then I paid another $12 to NTB so a mechanic could look at my car and prove that it wasn’t falling apart, only to be passed on I-70 by a car that I am 99% certain would fail any safety or emissions inspection miserably.

Tomorrow I get to go stand in line at City Hall to prove I don’t owe any property taxes to Missouri on my car, then I get to stand in another line in the same building to get my plates. No word on how much in fees, taxes, and kickbacks that will entail.

5 comments:

Any views expressed in these comments are solely those of their authors; they do not reflect the views of the authors of Signifying Nothing, unless attributed to one of us.

1. Scott wrote @ Tue, 27 Jun 2006, 3:21 pm CDT:

Did you find an apartment?

2. Chris Lawrence wrote @ Tue, 27 Jun 2006, 9:23 pm CDT:

Not yet… I looked at one today that was kind of meh. Also, as is typical of my luck, I accidentally barged into an occupied apartment that I thought was (a) empty and (b) having an open house—that’ll teach the owner not to keep his door unlocked. I think the big push will be tomorrow.

The good news is that the car tag situation is now resolved, after an hour at City Hall, $38.75 to Missouri, a 88¢ screwdriver purchase at Lowe’s, and wasting 45 minutes going back and forth to a Nissan dealer to get replacement fasteners for my front license plate bracket.

3. Len Cleavelin wrote @ Wed, 28 Jun 2006, 1:26 pm CDT:

But you did note the signs at the emissions inspection station stating that the cost of the inspection is mandated by the U.S. Congress? At least when I was still in the STL area every station had three of those signs prominently displayed. “Please, oh voter, don’t take it out on us state legislators!!! That mean old Federal Government made us do it!!!”

:-)

Also, back when I was there, the clean air program had sensor equipped vans which would park in various strategically determined locations, and sample your emissions as you drive by (if you’re lucky enough to live/work somewhere that forces you to drive by the van regularly). I lived not very far from where the van parked several times a year, and was pleasantly surprised, about two months or so before my plates needed renewing, to receive a letter telling me that I’d already passed the emissions inspection, and that I need only send in the form provided, and a check, and they’d send me back my very own certificate of inspection to show the folks at the registration office when I got my plates renewed. That makes the whole thing just a tad less painful.

4. Chris Lawrence wrote @ Wed, 28 Jun 2006, 4:34 pm CDT:

Yep, I saw the signs… and they are still using the vans, apparently, although they charge you $24 either way.

5. Len Cleavelin wrote @ Thu, 29 Jun 2006, 1:20 pm CDT:

Of course they charge you either way—someone’s got to pay for the program, right? (Heaven forfend that we get something for nothing… :-) ) Having done it both ways, though, I thought that just mailing in the form was easier than having to go to the inspection station.

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