No Reason to Feel Superior

Within the past 60 days your humble blogger

dropped an unprotected iPhone onto concrete, cracking its screen,

completely overlooked a registration renewal, incurring a $195 penalty,

lost his wallet.

No appointment? The line goes out the door at the DMV.

Each mistake had a reasonable excuse---the iPhone was perched on some papers and two cups of coffee as I tried to pull open a door, the DMV invoice was stuck behind other papers, and the wallet fell through a car-door crack while I was dozing---but maybe they're not a coincidence. Maybe the long slide into mental oblivion has begun.

Losing a wallet was most burdensome because it entailed the cancellation of four credit / debit cards and the replacement of a California driver's license in person at a DMV office. I surveyed eight locations and selected the one with the closest appointment, which was three weeks from now (forgetting one's valid license at home is an infraction that can be dismissed if one produces it, but I would not have been able to produce one for three weeks). My intrepid spouse persisted in searching after midnight for an appointment , however, and so it was that I found myself at the Hayward DMV office at 9 a.m., less than 24 hours after the wallet was lost.

The appointment line had only one person ahead of me. I was done in less than an hour, temporary license in hand, while the 50-deep no-appointments queue had hardly budged. Once upon a time I might have mocked others for their lack of foresight, but these days I have no reason to feel superior.

I (again) resolved to be more mindful about what I'm doing, but I'll probably forget this promise by tomorrow.