The Blondes DR Blog

Larimar has another run in with AMET

Well, obviously I did not learn my lesson about not driving without an original driver’s license, is it with me today, no, but later today it will be. First, after I got my car back from the mechanic, who sold me the vehicle, had a problem when on my way to work, it overheated, hole in rad, well, a fairly dishonest mechanic and a week later, the damage to my pocket book has been RD$16,000. I digress, anyhow, the mechanic told me that the placa, which is a sticker in the window of the vehicle, similar to a licence plate sticker renewal in Canada, had expired and that I needed to purchase another one, instead of going right away, because I was told that the office was only open in the morning, and I was working from 9 to 1, I did not buy the sticker.

Okay, so we had to go shopping for a baby gift, a friend from Canada and his Dominican girlfriend had a beautiful baby girl in January. As we are leaving Casa Nelson, our version of Walmart, I asked Dancing Blonde to show me where I had to go to get my sticker, as I was told it was near that store. She pointed out to me where to go, and we proceeded half a block down the street, where the AMET, basically traffic police were checking vehicles. I was first asked for my driver’s license, which I could only provide a photocopy, AGAIN, thinking that $RD200 would get me out of this spot again, I was not too worried. He then questioned the placa, a registration/inspection sticker, that was in my window not being valid, oh no, then to make matters worse, he asked that I pull around the corner.

Luckily Dancing Blonde knew we were in trouble, and got out of the back seat to help. We played dumb for a while, but then were told that the revista, another sticker on the windshield, was a fake. The AMET officer took Dancing Blonde down the street to show her what a real one looks like. Well, needless to say, she was on the phone to the mechanic, who will not longer be doing any work for us, and put the AMET officer on the phone with him so that HE could explain why the vehicle he sold me had a fake revista, obviously this worked in our favor. That was a very good thing because at that point the officer told us that my car was going to his office to be IMPOUNDED. As Dancing Blonde had the unfortunate experience of having her car towed and impounded only days before by the police, due to a mechanical problem, I knew that the minimum fine was going to be $RD2,000.

Well, now the AMET’s friend came along, so we had double the trouble, or double the propina (pay off money) to get us out of this. Anyhow, Dancing Blonde strikes up a conversation with the original AMET officer, finds out he can dance, well, she exchanged phone numbers, and a few harmless flirtations, and we were told we could leave, no fine, no car impounded, just need to go back and show them that everything is in order, and Dancing Blonde may have a new dance partner, he is good looking, has called her once, and as he said, it is always a good thing to have a friend who works for AMET!! Wow, Monday I talked to a lawyer about possible recourse, basically, there is none, so I went out and did the necessary running around and my vehicle is now legal, my driver’s license is not, and my lawyer basically told me there is nothing I can do about that until I get my residencia here.

By the way, on the way back from said “baby shower” we see the same AMET officer, get waived down to confirm possible date details……

Caribbean World Series baseball – we won!

Last game tonight is just a technicality, basically a victory lap. The first game of the series was on a Friday night, a dancing night, but we decided in the 11th inning that we would wait to go out until after the game. Well, the game finally became exciting in the 18th inning when Puerto Rico got a run to go ahead 3–2. We had last bat and basically Puerto Rico lost the game with overthrows to second, etc. and we won 4-2. Sunday night, while Dancing Blonde was dancing, Larimar was too busy watching the game to dance. But we won the game, actually it ended up not even being close. Monday afternoon, 4 pm was game time again, we decided it would be fun to be out somewhere to watch the game. After driving to all of the usual hot spots and some not so hot, we could not find anyone watching the game, so we had to come home and watch it, luckily we had beer and rum, so we felt like we were part of the crowd. When the Aquillas won the local series to advance to the Caribbean world series, there were parades, people running through the bars waving flags, horns honking, and anything that would make noise tied to motorcycles. Anticipating a repeat of this type of behavior tonight, don’t you all wish you were here to experience this??

** note from Dancing Blonde - it is very difficult to dance and watch the game at the same time. Damn men are selfish and keep us turned so they see the game on the big screen. Luckily I am multi talented and can watch baseball and dance at the same time.