I had a scare the other day.
I was about to drive home for lunch when a delivery driver pointed out my expired license plate.
There are two people in my world who help me out with making sure my vehicle insurance is renewed in time. One of them is an insurance representative. He not only warns me when my insurance is about to expire, he also brings the paperwork out to my office. How handy is that!?
No, it doesn’t cost any more to buy insurance that way. I highly recommend it.
The other person in my world keeping me in line is my wife. She happens to be ridiculously organized. Some might even describe her as obsessively so.
How could both of them have failed me?
I couldn’t have faulted the insurance representative. He had just been in a serious car crash and was yet to be released from hospital.
If there’s one thing I should have learned long ago, it’s not to question my wife. Perhaps I’m a slow learner.
So there I go, pissed off about being stranded at the office, calling my wife with “that tone”, to complain about not being able to come home for lunch.
I live three minutes away from my office. I’ve never encountered members of the RCMP en route. Sure, it may be a significant fine, I don’t really know, but I would never have gotten caught.
What kind of Nervous Nelly would miss lunch over the small risk of a fine?
Actually, the prospect of a fine did not enter into it.
What mattered was the prospect of bankruptcy.
If your plates are expired, you are not insured.
Many things in life, like giving your wife “that tone”, can be forgiven. Our world is full of second, third, and fourth chances.
Be one day late with renewing your car insurance, however, and you can say goodbye to some or all of your personal wealth if you happen to cause a crash on that day.
There was no way I was going to play Russian Roulette with my family’s financial security. I was going to be stuck at the office. Hence, “that tone”.
My wife, on the phone, walked me through pulling the insurance papers out of my glove compartment and reading the expiry date that was still two weeks away. I had just forgotten to update the day of the month sticker on my license plate when I had reinsured it the last time. My insurance was still valid.
My wife hadn’t failed me. She never does. I’m just slow to learn that.
Thankfully, I must be holding a mitt-full of “get out of jail free” cards because “that tone”, yet again, wasn’t used against me.
Take care never to drive with expired plates. It’s irresponsible to your family, and also irresponsible to the innocent victim whom you may injure in a crash.
Oh, and “that tone” is probably never ok anyway.
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