Payson Roundup

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

The state is closing 10 Motor Vehicle Division Offices because of budget cuts.

ADOT said the closures are part of an effort to balance a $100 million agency-wide shortfall tied to the state's fiscal crisis.

Some MVD branches have already closed, while others will close Friday.

ADOT officials say residents who need something can conduct a range of online transactions through ServiceArizona.com.

The MVD offices that will all be closed by Friday are in Ajo, Benson, Bisbee, Willcox, Fredonia, Superior, Kearny, east Mesa, central Phoenix, and Williams.

But not Payson.

Okay, you can breathe now. :-)

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

“$100 million agency-wide shortfall …” That's a lot of cash. My pet peeve with the Arizona MVD is the change they made to require a new license plate when purchasing a vehicle. It must cost millions to issue and record the changes in the license plates. When I lived in California, the license plate stayed with the vehicle, no matter who owned it. Of course vanity plates were available for extra cash.
-Fred

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

When my youngest granddaughter graduated from high school we bought her a car. Had it put in our name as she was not 18 yet. Went to transfer the title after her birthday. Surprise.
I told her she had to pay the transfer fee of $12.50. While she was gone to the car to get her money the lady said that will be one hundred seventy nine dollars. I asked her what for and she said license plates and registeration. Told her we had just bought plates for it.
Didn't care I had to take them off they were mine. Asked her what I was going to do with them as all my vehicles had plates. I had not a bought a used car in a long time so didn't know that was how it worked. Her answer was buy another car. What a B- - - - !
If you don't use them the time runs out on them and the state has another slush fund.
I don't know who I was madder at, the car salesman for not telling me as he knew we were going to transfer the car in 3 months, or MVD for thier dumb new law.
You also have to give your full Social Security number now when you get a title or drivers license.

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

That has changed Pat. The plates still belong to the person but if you don't have another car or expect to get another car you can get a cash refund. The credit must be over 12.00 to be eligible for the refund.

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

When we recently got rid of a car, we kept the plates for our new car. The plates were the old maroon ones and the number while not a true vanity plate (we just lucked out) is one we wanted to keep. So look around town for a new car with the old maroon plates and it will be me.

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Shovehead,
When did the law change?

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

Checking… checking…

January 1, 2005

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Now another question. Is it in the Revised statutes? I couldn't find it.
You are such a doll. (:

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

http://www.azdot.gov/mvd/vehicle/pfto…

rtnaz (Rex Hinshaw) says…

Bernice,
Sure wish I had the maroon ones still. I dislike the propane Jane ones the most.
Arizona memories….S&H Greenstamps….Goldbond stamps….Lou King….Ledgend City…
Dang , I told myself I would never reside on memory lane….I guess I do miss some things from days past.

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Shovelhead I read that one but can't find it in the Revised statutes like when they changed the law you had to give your complete SS number to get a drivers license.

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

“That has changed Pat.”

Thanks, Mike. Good info.

“I guess I do miss some things from days past.”

So do I. Here's just three of them:

a. Being able trim my toenails without dang near breaking my back.

b. Being able to drive from Pine to Payson without having some nut, usually female, take offense at the fact that I happen purely by chance to be in front of her (or occasionally him).

c. Being able to walk into Home Depot and buy something—anything!—at a reasonable price.

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

Try this one Pat :)

http://www.azleg.state.az.us/FormatDo…

Title 28 chapter 7 article 11
28-2356

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Thanks, Mike. Out of curiosity I went and read that.

Amazing, isn't it, how many ifs ands and buts Arizona can come up with when it comes to giving back a buck? It would be child's play to set up an automatic computer calculated deduction from the cost of reregistering your next vehicle. It would cost exactly nothing, except that Arizona wouldn't get to rake in all those undue profits.

The longer I am here the more I like the people and the less I like the state government (by which I mean the clerks and administrators).

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Thanks Shovelhead.

Tom what has changed?
I always refused to give them my SS number for my drivers license.
There was a law that only law enforcement and Dept of Rev. could ask for your full SS number. Every other state office could ask only for the last 4 numbers.
My husband and I went in when we moved to change the address on our drivers license and on the form it had a place for SS number. I put in the last four numbers and the lady was real hateful.
Said I had to put it all down. I pulled one of my fits and said screw it, I won't change my address and walked out. Came home and looked it up. Sure enough our great politicians had changed the law about six months before. Complete number. They don't put it on your drivers license just want it in thier records.
A year ago I sold a pickup to my daughter and we both had to give our SS numbers to get the title changed.
You didn't put a smile after the b item in above post.
I have been in 7 fender benders, none my fault the other driver always got the citation.
Everyone of them were male except for a little girl that ran into the back of my car on her bicycle. Males ages from 16 with only a permit and no licensed driver with him to a man 84 yrs. old.

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

Some things I miss:

a. a 22 inch waist (while eating what you want to when you want to)
b. the joy of being able to sleep until noon on Saturday and Sunday (although waking up early isn't too bad once you get use to it)
c. being able to watch a TV movie from start to finish without falling asleep (my husband never tells me how it ends - maybe he falls asleep, too???????)

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Bernice,

Loved your post! I endorse every part of it except the 22 inch waist. That would set me back to 11 years old.

Come to think of it, maybe I like that after all. :-)

“You didn't put a smile after the b item in above post.”

Wasn't one, Pat.

I go to town once a week. Sometimes once every two weeks. I hire a professional caregiver to stay with Lolly five days a week, two hours a day. She needs female companionship and I'm the wrong gender. On the day I go to town we make it three hours, but I can't go beyond that because she has her own life to lead, after all. She's the greatest, by the way. Now one of the family.

My natural inclination while driving is to dawdle. Back when Lolly and I used to go to town together (oh, what I wouldn't give to see that day again!) I used to pull off the road three or four times on the way to Payson to let others go by. No hard feelings. Vaya con dios.

But now I have to do everything I have to do, including the drive in each direction in no more than three hours. That sometimes means I have to quit in the middle and just come home.

Therefore, I make the best time I can. I do it, however, according to my own private set of driving rules. They're nothing special. Same ones I've used for years. Don't inconvenience anyone, don't speed, don't break the law, don't do anything dangerous, and be as polite as possible.

Lately, it never fails. I pull out of Bradshaw Drive onto 87, having first looked and made absolutely sure that no one will have to slow down for me. Then I accelerate up to 65 and stay there unless it seems dangerous or unless someone comes in front of me. If that happens I stay well back and just accept the fact that I can't make better time.

Lately, however, it seems that every time I exit Bradshaw and start up the hill on 87 a car appears way behind me. I accelerate. Said car usually drifts backwards because it is not doing 65. Yet by the time I get on the downgrade to the four lane here comes said nut in said car, now for some reason determined to overtake me.

Usually, the overtaking does not occur because I have accrued enough distance on the uphill to stay well ahead on the four lane. But all that means is that said nut in said vehicle—almost without exception a female (sorry, the truth is the truth)—is now going to hang on my tail all the way to Payson.

My question is simple.

Why?

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Why was all the wrecks I have been in caused by males and they got the tickets and paid for my cars?

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

Good question, Pat. The ;most maddening things about the road between Payson and Pine are the people who drive 45 miles an hour, ignore the sign about slow traffic must use the turnout and then speed up so that you have to go like a bat out of ____________ in order to pass them at the county dump/natural bridge area. I find that most of them are men driving travel trailers.

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

:-) Boy are we off topic here!!!!!

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

It must be all the tourist coming and going to the Natural Bridge that is creating the problem on the road between Pine and Payson.
They are enjoying the scenery.
Relax, haven't you read about the millions of dollars they bring to our economy? (:
That is why Payson is going to spend money to keep the Bridge open.

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Hey! How come nobody answered my question? (Forget the male/female thing. That could just be a coincidence.)

So I'll ask again. Why?

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

We got off the track.
Why what?

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Cuz they can. (:
How's that for an answer?

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

First post ends in:

“My question is simple.”

“Why?”

I'll elaborate. Why do people do idiotic things like what I described?

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

Tom, are you sure about the 65 mph speed limit?
I'm thinking 55 between Payson and Pine!

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

“How's that for an answer?”

I'm speechless.

Went to town today. Didn't get followed by the Hi-Taller.

But on the way home as I came out of Payson I saw a large pickup truck behind another vehicle, just ahead of me.

The first vehicle turned off at Verde Estates. The pickup took off like a rocket. I followed, about ten or twelve lengths behind, not trying particularly to keep up, and very happy that the drive home would be a peach. You know? No one on my tail. Moving right along. Lots of space between me and the guy ahead.

Then the pickup came upon a small black car. The black car was going quite fast, but that made no difference to el-pickup. I am not exaggerating when I say he sat right on her tail (was a woman), with never any more than one length between them.

I felt bad for the poor woman. She was moving right along. At the maximum or just under it except in places where common sense said to slow down. I hated watching her having to put up with some idiot hanging right on her tail like that. What if an elk had darted out and she had to brake? What if anything happened? Chances are she might have been badly injured or killed through no fault of her own. Not even the go-like-hell-or-else code of highway 87.

Then we reached the 4 lane. She went into the right hand lane. The pickup passed. I did too about halfway through the 4 lane. (That's how I knew for sure it was a woman, though I suspected as much all the time from the height of the head.) I didn't pass her because she was going to slowly; I was just hoping to see the pickup run off the road. Nice free entertainment.

The pickup then took off again, but stayed more or less under the speed limit (65) and finally disappeared toward Pine as I reached my turnoff.

It would have made my day if that little black car had had a 20 millimeter cannon mounted in its trunk. If it had, and she had fired it, I would have driven by the burning hulk lying off the road with a grin that would have almost broken my face!

And stop to help? Only if I had a can of gas to throw on.

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

You're right about the posted speed limit, Mike. However, as we all know that's not the actual speed limit. Don't ask me why things are that way. Some goofy thing between the feds and the state regarding the federal law about speed limits. I'm sure someone else knows the answer. I used to. I've forgotten it.

(I'm allowed to forget. They stamped that on my driver's license when I got it renewed at age 75.)

:-)

Hey! Want to hear something that's actually true?

I do not have to wear glasses to drive anymore.

Anybody want to know why? You may like the answer if you're bewteen 50 and 70.

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

You got contact lens?

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

No, at his advanced age, he had cataract surgery. Don't blame a young chick like you not knowing about cataract surgery, Pat. :-)

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

My husband had cataract surgery but still had to wear glasses.
I didn't know the answer because I am not between 50 and 70. Over 70 CRS. (:

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

To me if the white rectangle sign states 55 MPH that is the speed limit.
Yellow signs with speed limits on it like the one down by JRE for the ducks or on some of the streets that have sharp curves are suggested speed limits according to Payson PD.

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

Tom, I don't understand your answer about the “real” speed limit between Pine and Payson. A posted speed limit is just that a speed limit. Are you thinking back to the time when Jimmy Carter was president and all the interstates were posted at 55 miles an hour in an attempt to cut fuel consumption? Or, are you thinking of the allowance over the speed limit that you are given before a ticket will be issued.

I read an article in the Arizona Republic some time ago that quoted someone as saying that you are “given” 10 miles over the speed limit on the freeways. However, once you hit 11 miles an hour over the cameras will start taking your picture.

However, again back in my other life, when I was first learning to drive, I think I was told that you get a 5 mile over speed limit grace. However, thinking back (and this is really hard) someone told me that you couldn't exceed the speed limit even when passing. Seems likely that the former was told to me by a friend, while the latter told to me by my parents. :-)

Good point about keeping a proper interval between cars. Lacking shoulders and guard rails that area between Pine and Payson does not leave much “correction” room should you _______________. Also, at our ages, let's face it our reaction time is as good as it had once been. So, maybe even some extra room between us and other cars is warranted.

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

The yellow signs are suggested speed limits posted just before a curve

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Bernice,
Isn't that what I said? (:
The one at JRE was put up for the ducks and geese crossing.

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Went by that yellow sign by JRE a few minutes ago and there is a second sign on top of the speed sign with pictures of ducks on it.

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Bernice,

Feds passed law that limited highway speeds to 55 to increase gal mileage, a typical Socialist Law. In states which do not comply with law the only ticket that can be issued is for “waste of a precious resource.”

Speeds limit signs below 55 are to be obeyed. Police allow a reason 5 MPH override in consideration of practical things like the fact that if the tire size is changed the speedometer is no longer correct.

As for my eyes, folks, the answer is both simple and encouraging for anyone who is nearsighted.

Those who are nearsighted have a problem with distant objects because the lens is unable to thin itself out enough to focus on the retina; it focuses slightly in front of it.

As we age our body parts shrink, including our eyes. If you are nearsighted you should experience a slow but dramatic improvement in your vision. In most people it completely corrects the problem. It certainly did mine. My eyes test 20/20 without glasses. nd have for several years now.

It's the exact opposite of what happens in your late teens, where your body tends to grow to a point where your eyes are too long.

Oh goodie! I just heard a wonderful promise from BHO. He will post online the whole text of the Socialized Medicine bill, all 2,000 plus pages for 72 hours before the vote in the House.

Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!

Now let's see….

Average person who reads well can read about 200 words a minute. Average page length is 335 words.

2,000 X 335 = 670,000

670,000 ÷ 200 = 3,350 minutes

3,350 ÷ 60 = 56 hours.

If you read, without a break, for 8 hours a day, that will take you only 7 days.

But whoops! You've first got to download those 2,000 pages. That will take….

A long, long time.

And then you have to print those pages at 8 pages a minutes (if you have a nice speedy laserwriter; if you have an inkjet….).

For the laserwriter: 2000 ÷ 8 = 250 minutes, or four hours, with 25 breaks to reload your printer.

For the inkjet, forget it…..

That's ignoring the 900 pages they conveniently forgot to mention.

Of course if you can only stand to read about two hours a day (the average) it will be approaching summer before you finish reading the bill.

Then you can go online and see if it passed.

If you're still able to read without having your eyes turn inside out.

So what am I saying here?

Would “too %$#@! little too %$#@! late” cover it?

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Only a 1000?

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

The first one has been on the internet for a long time. I think it was 1017 pages.
That is why I have been asking if anyone has read it. DUH

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

Even if they published a synopsis of the socialized Health Care Bill, it would be too long. Most legal documents in this country are too filled with _obble-de-goo_ to make them understandable.

How would it be if we get rid of 1000 lawyers?
A good start!
-Fred

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Fred,

Did you leave three zeroes off that number? :-)

Nuts! Pat beat me to it!

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

Gotta be quicker, Tom! That's ample proof that you shouldn't be going 65 miles an hour between Payson and Pine. The eyes might be better, but reaction time??????????????? :-)

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

Tom, lowering the speed limit to 55 miles an hour is a Socialist Law?????????????????? Come on, that is really stretching it.

Don't you remember the lines for gas? Don't you remember the people who bought locks for their gas tanks? Don't you remember gas prices skyrocketing?

Heck, I hated the lower speed limit and cursed every time I had to observe it. That was in the period when we were regularly driving from Illinois to Florida to visit “Grandma.” But, I never thought of it as a Socialist Law.

I suppose you have driven on the Autobahn?

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Bernice,

Socialism is a form of rule characterized by a “know better” government which passes laws which are “good for” the people whether they want them or not. A democracy is a form of government in which the people decide what they want, PERIOD!

In the case of the 55 mph speed limit the overwhelming majority of Americans were bitterly opposed to the passage of the bill; however, Congress decided it “knew better.” You can actually find those words, and others like them, in the discussions held at the time. That places the passage of the law smack dab in the aegis of Socialism.

Our forefathers did not set up this nation to be run by the people only when they do what Harvard law professors, and other great geniuses, think is best for them.

“I suppose you have driven on the Autobahn?”

Sorry, Bernice. I don't get the connection. Could you explain?

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

Tom, it's just the love of speed you exhibited when driving 65 miles an hour when the posted limit is 55 and then justifying the speed saying that the real speed is 65. Thought you would be right at home on the Autobahn. :-)

Just read your post again about your eyesight. As I understand it as we age we get farsighted. Therefore, those things up close are hard to read. — Just the opposite of nearsighted that as you said we are more likely to experience when we are young.

Gee, just think about it. This string started with the comment that they are closing some motor vehicle offices. Well, maybe we are not too far off topic. Afterall, you do have to take an eye test whe you apply for a driver's license. :-)

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

I went to Pine to day and the only signs I saw were 55 or less.

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

“Tom, it's just the love of speed you exhibited when driving 65 miles an hour when the posted limit is 55 and then justifying the speed saying that the real speed is 65.”

Bernice, will you do me a favor? Will you please go back and read what I said? I said that my natural inclination is to dawdle. I HATE high speeds! I am forced to make the best time I can every time I go to town because of matters which are beyond my control, and which—believe me!—I would be happy without! I genuinely resent your implication that I like speeding when I went to all the trouble of making it perfectly clear why I have to make the best time I can.

And the speed limit is 65, not 55 as posted. If it were 55 you would be ticketed at 61! Don't blame me for screwball laws. I don't write them.

“Just the opposite of nearsighted that as you said we are more likely to experience when we are young.”

Close. We don't experience it when we are “young,” but as we begin to approach adulthood, usually in our mid-to-late teens, and progressing into our twenties. The interesting part is we don't lose our ability to focus well up close. That's a matter of being able to tighten the lens muscles. And equally interesting is the fact that the lens muscles generally retain their ability to relax or contract; it's just the eyeball itself that changes its length.

My vision now is almost exactly the same as it was when i was a kid. A nice gift from old age I think.

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

OK Tom, I assume you are referring to A.R.S. 28-701 B 3 when you say the speed limit is 65 on 87 between Pine and Payson. I say the posted speed limit,55, is the legal limit. I realize that virtually everyone has come to believe that the speed limit is 10 miles over the posted limit but an officer may, in fact, cite you for 56 on that very stretch of highway. There is no mandatory tolerance for the speed limit that I have ever been able to find in the statutes.

Perhaps David would give us the skinny on this topic.

I can tell you that last summer when I drove through Oklahoma, on the turnpike signs specifically said speed limit 70 mph 'NO Tolerance'

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Mike,

Don't disagree with you.

By the way, you been house hunting. Saw a Harley parked out in front of the house next door when some folks were looking at it.

Boy, Pat. You need new glasses. There must be another fifty signs on that stretch of road.

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Tom.
We were talking speed limit signs. Stay on the subject. (:

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

Nope, no house hunting for me!

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

Tom, you say you dawdle, but then you say you go 65 miles an hour in a 55 mile an hour zone.
:-) What is your definition of “dawdle?” :-)

Chief1942 (Ronald Hamric) says…

Tom,
I think you might be confusing the number of signs that set the “maximum” speed limit (White with black letters) with those that have “recommended” (yellow with black letters) speeds for curves and such. Don't you find it amusing that even though the number of lanes double on the Buckhead Mesa stretch, but the speed limit does not increase 1 mile per hour. Certainly wouldn't know that by observing drivers when they get to that portion of highway 87.

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

Tom, I was diagnosed as being nearsighted when I was in 5th grade, with my left eye being the one with the biggest need for correction. My eyesight continued to worsen as a grew older (I became more and more nearsighted.) Now I am farsighted in my right eye and continue to be nearsighted in my left eye.
So if I want to read something up close, I close my right eye. If I want to see something far away I close my left eye. Or, finding it hard to always remember, I simply continue to wear glasses that correct my problem.

Nearsightedness is hereditary — it runs in families. My kids had no chance as both my husband and I are nearsighted.

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

“:-) What is your definition of “dawdle?” :-)”

The rate at which you absorb what I say in my posts.

Here' s a quote for you from this string, 12 March 2010 at 6:31 p.m:

“My natural inclination while driving is to dawdle. Back when Lolly and I used to go to town together (oh, what I wouldn't give to see that day again!) I used to pull off the road three or four times on the way to Payson to let others go by. No hard feelings. Vaya con dios.

But now I have to do everything I have to do, including the drive in each direction in no more than three hours. That sometimes means I have to quit in the middle and just come home.

Therefore, I make the best time I can. I do it, however, according to my own private set of driving rules. They're nothing special. Same ones I've used for years. Don't inconvenience anyone, don't speed, don't break the law, don't do anything dangerous, and be as polite as possible.”

Would you please read it this time?