Yet another painful, inane technicality.

Continuing the insurance saga from the previous entry, we finally got car insurance settled. So we embarked on the next step, to go on line and pay for our annual registration and license plate tags for our Dodge car from the State of Colorado.

We have four U.S. addresses in three states, each serving a purpose or two relating to banking, vehicles, item storage and any other reason to need a mailing address in the United States. Keep in mind we are mostly here in the States to take care of paying income tax, registering vehicles, renewing passport etc. details con red tape.

We own a house in New Mexico and are part owners of a house in Nevada. But we live in Mexico when we aren’t here to visit our son or deal with ALL this red tape.

It seems at every turn the Calypso’s are an anomaly. It is as if we are the only people living out of the Country. Every process we encounter has a problem attached to it or should I write ‘challenge’.

We wanted to get our Dodge car’s tags renewed one more time in Colorado. In attempting to renew our tags online we were advised that our insurance was in question (the insurance we re-established a couple of days ago). In other words their records showed we didn’t have insurance.

Anita called explaining that we live out of the Country but we do have vehicles here and we would like to continue to license them. They refused in no uncertain terms to accept the fact we have insurance – we were required to come in to the office in Pueblo, CO.

We explained this would be impossible prior to the expiration of the tags and respectfully request an accommodation as we are in another State – an ‘accommodation’ – what’s that! I am sure the computer wouldn’t allow this (as if they have a mind of their own – don’t you love it when something is out of a humans control because the computer won’t allow it?).

Apparently we are pretty much out of luck on this one. The car we drove here to Las Vegas will soon have expired tags, but it will have insurance. Our plan, if you can call it that, is to take our chances with the tags until we return to New Mexico where we will get new driver’s licenses and registrations – in the mean time we become part of the criminal element as of next Tuesday.

Conclusion: companies and governments make best effort to punish and charge extra when you don’t fit the mold of an average citizen living in one house, in one city and one state. We already carry full year insurance for driving in Mexico – anything over about two weeks of temporary Mexican insurance becomes just as well to purchase annual insurance. Apparently that is the same advice to be taken in the States although the insurance tab is substantially higher.

If you have been reading along you know a lot of our time here in the States has been devoted to tax filing, banking and vehicles. Today I am thinking perhaps it is simply less expensive and certainly less of a hassle to fly or take a bus to the United States – not keep a vehicle(s) in the U.S.

It has been over 104F almost every day of the nearly three weeks we have been in Las Vegas. We have setup banking relations with both Bank of America (Banco Santander in Mexico) and Citi Bank (Banco Banamex in Mexico). You will have to stay tuned to learn how the car registration saga wrings out. If you are confused about all this red tape – don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. Stay Tuned!