Damn that Murphy!

Vince got his bike out of the shop. $1400+. Yeah. On the way home he noticed the blinkers were not working. He called the shop and left them a message. Then he decided to go up to Sturgis on Sunday. On the way up there, he noticed the same electrical kookiness happening again. So he pulled over and left his bike there then came home and got the trailer and loaded it up. Took it back to the shop. Yep, same thing. Ugh. I'm not giving them another dime. They think they have found the problem and have it fixed. I'll not hold my breath.

I told you so!

How's this for Murphy's Law? We have spent the better part of 6 months trying to get Vince's bike tagged in South Dakota. He lost his title so we had to go back to our prior state, who dawdled for months and finally decided they needed a release of lien. So we went back to the prior prior state, but they didn't have copies because it's been paid off for so long. Finally we found a copy, sent it in along with the 12necessary forms and notarizations. On these forms our current address was printed no less than 5, count 'em, 5 times. Never heard anything. Called them and talked to the most unhelpful "customer service" person ever who said that our duplicate title had been mailed out a week ago. To where? Our former address of course. Ms. Helpful told me there was nothing she could do and to call back in 30 days to see if it had been returned. Then she hung up. I called back and spoke to someone, anyone, but her. This time I got an apology and a promise to send it to our current address when it came back to their office. I asked for another copy, but was told that they couldn't do that since there was already one floating around. Whatever. At least she was nicer. So, I called our old postmaster and after a lengthy convo about the kids and our general state of being, she said she would forward it to us when it came through. See the benefit of living in tiny towns? A couple weeks later when we got back from vacation and picked up our mail there were 2 duplicate titles! Oh, the irony. So, I called the tag office here and asked what we needed to get the tags. Just the title. Fine. Take just the title up there. Guess what? We need more than just the title. ARRRRGH! Since it's a new title (it's a duplicate, but whatever) they need a bill of sale or a signed affidavit with either the purchase price or the amount of taxes paid on it in our previous state of residence. Why does that matter? They are the ones that issued the duplicate title, so obviously we don't owe them any taxes, right? And who cares how much we paid for it? It's been completely paid off since 2002. Well, do you think my husband still has a bill of sale for a vehicle he bought in 2001? If you do, you'd be wrong. He's probably already misplaced the 2 titles he got a week ago. Anyway, called the credit union where we had the loan. They laughed. Called the state that issued the title. They laughed and asked why in the world SD needed that information? If you find out, would ya mind filling me in too? I don't know why they need it!!! They just do. Talked to about 7 different people and finally got one who told me to have SD fax them something on their letterhead stating what they need exactly. Called SD and told them this. The lady says, "Uh, we can't do that. There's no form for that." What form? Just use a piece of letterhead. That's the paper that has the name of the agency that you work for on the top. Duh. I realize that you make just a bit more than minimum wage and just do what they tell you to do, but this is ridiculous. She tells me that they can just charge me an excise tax on it if we can't figure it out. Excuse me, but bullshit! I'm not paying more than what I've already paid. Vince called the shop where he bought the bike and asked them how much that model of motorcycle would have sold for in 2001. He writes that number on the affidavit and hands it in. They accept it. What a crock! But at least he has tags and can ride legally now. Yay!!

A couple of days later, he goes on a poker run with some friends. The perfectly legal motorcycle breaks down. No, I'm not kidding. He's 1.5 hours from home and it completely dies. He rode on the back of a stranger's bike all the way home. Then we had to go get it since it was literally in the middle of nowhere in the Badlands. We got home at 2:30 am. Then we took it to the Yamaha place to have them take a look at it. The ENTIRE electrical system is fried. It's going to cost at least $1300 to fix.

So glad we spent the last 6 months trying to get a tag on the stupid thing!

That's the ultimate Murphy's Law story.