Among the rude surprises of the week that this writer has encountered includes a little dandy from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

It's been just about a year since I packed up my Polar Observatory and moved it from the California Delta to Southwestern Florida. That move also included shipping my daily-driver here separately, as I didn't want the "pleasure" of towing a car across the country on a rental trailer behind a rental van or two, as I'd done some nine years earlier.

As part of my most recent move, I informed the California Department of Motor Vehicles that I was changing my address.

I did this twice, as apparently the CalDMV has more than one computer system, and they haven't been on speaking terms for years.

Once here, I got my Florida driver's license, and got a new title and registration and licence plate for my car--without wasting most of a day in line, as I'd done many a time in Cali.

Apparently, one of those CalDMV computers didn't get the message that I'd changed my address, as I got a "NOTICE OF DELINQUENT REGISTRATION" from them in the mail yesterday.

Apparently, I didn't renew my California registration on my car before the deadline of May 28. That's despite changing the certificate of title on it from a California one to a Florida one, and registering it/plating it here in Florida nearly ten months ago.

CalDMV says I owe them $145 to renew the California registration on my Florida-titled-and-registered car, and in the meantime my California registration on my Florida-titled-and-registered car has been suspended.

I called Cal DMV to tell them AGAIN that I'd moved last year, but the first two tries were unsuccessful, thanks to their state-of-the-art automated phone system/blood-pressure raiser. Once I finally got through to a live voice, it was apparent that there was very little functional brain matter connected to it.  It was like being connected to Monty Python's "Argument Clinic," at taxpayer's expense.

I'll print out the Change of Address form from the CalDMVwebsite, and sent it--and their Notice--back to them before long. I hear that our office-supply vendor has a special supply of "moon-the-copier" paper that I can print the DMV form on.

I also hear the office-supply guys get calls for that "specialty paper" from folks dealing with the State of New York and more than a few Federal agencies, too!