Get this.

We bought a brand new car, as you already know if you read my blog. We bought the car down in Jacksonville, mainly because we had a straight-forward salesman (Bobby Mitchell from Hyundai of North Jacksonville) and because the dealership had a huge selection of Elantras.

When we bought the car, we were told to wait a week or two before we headed to the DMV to get our license plate. I waited… uhh… 29 days. My temporary tag was to expire after tomorrow.

I went to the DMV today to get my plate transferred to the new car, and the title information has not yet been sent to the State of Georgia. Fine, no biggie. I suppose I can understand the delay when a Florida dealership is sending tax money (determined by county) and title information to a different state.

So I hand over my Florida temporary tag to the nice lady at the DMV, and she exchanges it for a Georgia temporary tag that is good for 30 days.

Now here’s the funny part.

The Georgia temporary tag is basically made out of the same material as a manilla folder– that card-stock like material that is a quite a bit thicker than normal paper, but not sealed in any form or fashion.

The lady at the DMV says something like, “Now, Georgia law requires that you put this on the back of the car where the license plate belongs, and not in the window. Since it’s made of paper, it will get ruined if it rains. You probably want to go to Kinkos and get it laminated.”

Whaaaaa…?!?! You mean to tell me that either some genius in the state legislature or some bureaucrat, or some combination of both, have mandated temporary tags that absorb water must be displayed on the outside of the car, exposed to the rain…?

Unbelievable. Believable.