The iPhone saves my day, again

My license tabs expire on the 2nd of July every year. Since my car has more than 50,000 miles on it, I have to get an inspection done every other year. This year happened to be one of those years, and I hate inspection time. Here is some back-story - the Check Engine light has been on in my car since 2003, and every attempt the guys at Strictly BMW have made at completely diagnosing the cause of the problem has failed. So when inspection time rolls around, I have to jump through hoops to get my tabs.

Armed with my "Waive" inspection report, I reached the licensing office a little before closing time on Tuesday. I think it's daft that the Office doesn't accept payment via Credit Card, and the ATM at the office didn't accept my debit card. "Just my luck", I thought!

I was about to walk out of the office, and was desperately looking around for a way out when I saw a poster that, if it could speak, would say the words, "Manoj, you can renew your tabs online with your credit card". Halle-fuckin- lujah!! The task wasn't easy - there were 6 people ahead of me in line, 4 more were being attended to, and I had 3 minutes to renew my tabs or else they would be ready for pickup only the next day. My iPhone, my ninja typing skills, and a well designed WA DOL website came to my rescue; the last page of the renewal process was loading up as I walked to the lady that called out to me.

The lady at the counter had a bemused look on her face when I told her how I had renewed my tabs. "You renewed your tabs while waiting in line?" was a concept she couldn't quite digest. Unable to contain her "excitement", she proceeded to tell the other girls how I had worked around the ATM problem all thanks to my iPhone. Needless to say, there was definite iPhone envy in that room, and some of them might become future iPhone owners. Maybe I should become a Marketing guy, maybe I should tell the Licensing office that it's time they accept credit cards. One thing's for sure, my car is street LEGIT again!