License, Registration, and Hanging some Fans

So in the last couple days we've gotten our new driver's licenses, and spent a bucket of money on some ceiling fans. Throughout this I've noticed some things that are done a little better here, become freakishly annoyed with my credit card company, and learned that the people who create the instruction manuals for installing ceiling fans are either completely incompetent, or diabolically evil. The jury is still out on that one.

Motor Vehicle Division (MVD)

Part of Friday was spent at the MVD getting our registration and licenses taken care of for all 3 vehicles, plus the trailer. They do things a little different in the valley of the sun than my former home in the valley of the rain. In Oregon, you walk in to your local DMV, you bring a coffee (it's freaking cold out), a book (preferably something long), and a snack (you might starve in there). If you're getting a normal transaction done you can expect to hang out for at least an hour before being seen, then be told a random amount of money that has to be paid by cash or check (who the heck has checks anymore?), of which you won't have nearly enough, so you'll need to go use their ATM machine (if it even works) and pay their $4 transaction fee. If there is any minor thing wrong with your paperwork you'll be sent back through the entire history of the vehicle to track down the guy who bolted the tires on at the GM factory and have to make sure you have his blessing in order to proceed with the transaction. It's a complicated and convoluted process that really no one (including the poor person working behind the counter) really understands. 

Here on the other hand you go up to the information counter, tell the person what you're hoping to accomplish and get assigned a number. If you're just doing your driver's license (out of state even) you'll be in and out in 30 minutes. Quite remarkable when you think about it. If you're like me and go in with a stack of registrations/titles, and need a license as well; you're in big trouble. It might take you a little over an hour. Now this was mostly because the guy behind the counter had to go ask a couple questions on some of my paperwork (couldn't find the motorcycle registration, and the trailer I bought I had to pay sales tax for), but these would have likely sent an Oregon counterpart in to some kind of shock. He did make one minor mistake (didn't include my motorcycle endorsement), which I thankfully noticed before it actually became a problem. Within 2 hours I went back and got that taken care of as well. It was pretty quick and they let me cut in line to get it taken care of. Overall it was a very positive experience. 

The only thing we weren't really able to get done was our custom plates for the Jeep, but that was just a matter of visiting a website and ordering them so really simple. I'll say it's really odd looking at my wallet and seeing an Arizona driver's license in there, but I kinda dig it. The biggest upside is I don't have to deal with that again for another 30 years. 

Hanging Ceiling Fans

So when we bought our house it was pre-wired with 5 spots for ceiling fans. Since we had no light in any of these rooms (well we did in Den but that's it) we decided to order some fans. We picked 5 fans, 2 for cheap ones for the guest room and exercise room, a really cool one for the master bedroom, a fun one for the den, and one that was kind of a disappointment. Putting them up was, shall we say "interesting". 

First I started with the exercise room, it was a simple white fan and was pretty easy to hook up. My only major hitch was that I wasn't really sure which wire went to which switch on the wall. A little bit of Google and I was able to figure it out. Initially I thought the instructions were somewhat lacking, but later learned that I was mistaken. I figured since they should assume that common people would be installing these fans (they are only $25) they should make it easy for them to understand, I guess I was wrong, but I didn't know how wrong. 

Next I installed the one in the Den, This one was pretty easy as well, though it was kind of a pain getting the blades on as it had a weird angle to it. Couldn't really get straight on with it, but it did work. I followed this with the Master Bedroom since we should be getting our bed any day now. We got a really cool fan with twin blades and a center mounted light. This one was a little bit awkward to hang up, but the worst of all was putting on the freaking blades. Again, they seemed to think that the non magnetic screws would easily be threaded through a tiny hole while up on a ladder and holding the blade in place. Seriously a giant pain in the ass. 

Then I moved on to the living room disappointment. When we saw the pictures on line we thought it was kind of a medieval theme (candle like light fixture with shades that looked kinda cool, and what looked like wrought iron metal for the blade holders and light). Well it was actually more of a "hunter/woodsman" theme. As for installation it was the worst experience I've ever had putting up a fan. This is the only one that we bought that wasn't a Harbor Bay fan (it's a Hunter fan) and the installation instructions should have been written in Klingon for as much sense as they made. Everything involved in mounting it was super tight so you really needed 3 arms and super skinny/tiny fingers. The instructions didn't specify which wire was the power for the light vs. power for the fan so I wasn't able to wire it to match the other ones (too big of a pain in the ass to take it down and rewire it), and installing the light fixture was both incredibly difficult and painful (it's heavy and you've got to hold it up with one hand while putting the screw in with the other). The only positive thing I can say of this Hunter fan is the blades were super easy to put on. I guess if you can't get the whole thing right at least make the part the other company screws up better?

Sigh, on that note, I still have one left hang, so I guess I better get to it.