Car Insurance and Other Woes of Being a Grown Up

There are some serious perks to being a grown up. You can eat whatever you want. You can go wherever you want. You can stay up as late as you want, watching rubbish TV and eating cheesies and sour jujubes until you explode. You can be a couch potato. You can bicycle across the country. There no limits to your screen time. You can go strawberry picking whenever you want (and there are strawberries available). 

Here are some perks of being a grown up in Saskatoon:

Swedish Pancakes for breakfast. Whenever I want. 

Going strawberry picking. Whenever I want. 

Fresh veggies from my own garden. Whenever I want.

More strawberry picking. Whenever I want.

Peonies blooming in my garden!

Have I mentioned the strawberries?

Peonies in my house. And piano practice only when I feel like it.

Bike rides along the river. Whenever I want. 

I'm not sure if you've got the point yet, but I'm really excited about strawberries. 

Seeing a thistle on more bike rides and being reminded of Little House on the Prairie. Whenever I want. 

More bike rides in the Land of the Living Skies. Whenever I want. 

Being a grown up is pretty great, actually, but there are also some serious drawbacks. Like having to deal with bureaucracy on your own, rather than having your parents do it. 

I've been on a several week long journey to transfer my identity as a British Columbian over to a Saskatchewanian (person from Saskatchewan?) and have only begun to see a tiny prick of light at the end of the bureaucratic tunnel. 

You might ask, what's the problem? Just deal with it like a grown up and get on with your life. I'm a teacher, so I have all summer to deal with it - true. (And teachers are clearly grown ups who didn't want to have to deal with real world problems like only two weeks of vacation every year. Perk.) But I annoyed nonetheless. It's been eating into my free time. 

So here is my issue: 

I have to get a Saskatchewan Driver's License, change my car insurance to Saskatchewan insurance, get Saskatchewan Health Care Coverage, get Tenant Insurance, change my passport to my married name, change my address for all sorts of fun things (banks, Canada Revenue Agency, CAA etc.), and then make sure that all of those things above have my married name on them. And I have to bring my marriage certificate, in a DO NOT BEND OR ELSE THIS IS VOID to each and every place where I am trying to change things. So far I haven't bent it. 

However, things are not that bad. There is light at the end of the tunnel: 

I have a Saskatchewan Driver's License. 

I have Tenant Insurance.

I changed my name at the bank and at VISA. 

But, even after all of that, here is the super frustrating thing:

In Saskatchewan your car has to undergo an inspection before it can be insurance in this province. I took it in today. The mechanic says that the car needs $2300 worth of repairs, before it can be passed and thus insured. We have to order a part in and it won't be here for a week. So I have to wait (at least) another week until the car can be insured. 

Before we left Victoria I very diligently (like a good grown up!) had the oil changed, the brakes done, and a left rear tail light case replaced (long story - short version of it, is wash your car by hand, do not go to the drive through car wash). I put a goodly sum of money into the car - nearly as much as what they say I need to do now. And now I need to bite the bullet and get the car fixed. Because come September (October? November?), I'm going to be teaching again and would like a warm car ride to school. I don't want to bike to Warman, SK in - 30 degree Celcius weather. 

So, such is life. Car bills happen. I'm a grown up, I can deal with it. Even if I am on summer vacation.