Pumpkin time, and wildflower id

Trip to the farm this morning to top up on apples and a sweet potato, to keep me going till the produce box arrives Friday. 

They're all set up for pumpkin picking, and leashed dogs are allowed, nice touch.

 The farmstand lady was in stitches over an owner with an excited big dog, trying to get him to pose, despite all the distractions -- people! Cars! Funny things in fields!

And a shot at a wildflower id.

This grows a lot at the edges of woodland, near goldenrod like a natural bouquet, peak season now, lovely October day to walk and admire. I think its common name is New Jersey Tea. Ceanothus Americanus.

 If anyone else knows another name, it has a few, please tell us. And if I'm wrong on the id, definitely tell me.

Meanwhile back at Motor Vehicles..my son over the last three weeks, has spent three separate days off, trying to renew his driver's licence. 

This is a guy who works six days a week, hours waiting, turned away twice when the agency maxed out for the day. Today I got a text at 5.30am, God help me, to say he was on his way to try again. Five hours later he texted success.

He was there about 6am, and there were about 100 people already in line, who he thought, had camped out.

I fired off an angry tweet at the mva and the gov saying their failure to plan definitely planned to fail. Just one more furious citizen here!

The agency in the most heavily auto-populated state in the union, closed for four months with NO contingency plans for reopening. The director claimed they couldn't know there would be a backup.

Given that it's their regs, their records, wouldn't you think they could hazard a guess as to the numbers that would storm the stations trying to fulfil deadlines for legal renewal obligations?

 And how many could never be done online, such as licence renewals with new in-person agency-created photos? Driver testing?  The licence renewal is the urgent one, since you can not function in this state without a current licence. 

Yes, fuming. But at least he's good for a few years now. My own isn't up for another year. Maybe they'll have found out how to cope by then. Not holding my breath. 

Every new governor for the last 50 years has sworn to improve the agency. But beyond changing its name, painting the buildings and installing a new computer system already outdated before operational, the general public hasn't seen much change. Costs of licence, registration etc have gone up,in inverse proportion to the level of service. 

But it's still a lovely fall day. It's almost like compensation for the horrible events of the time, many man-made.