Recently, I finished a bike ride on my nearby trail with Gary on a Friday. I have to overcome the grousing that often shows up before the ride.
It’s so cold.
I’m so tired.
The wind is too strong.
I am confessing that I complain before I ride.
The bike ride took care of that interior critic. I was happily climbing in the van when I realized my driver’s license was gone! I can only guess that I hadn’t zipped up my front pocket where I had stashed it. Visions of sitting at the DMV on Monday working on a replacement took away my post-ride high. We retraced, and short of re-riding the whole trail, we just headed home without my license. I was mad at myself for this self-made mess.
A day later, I searched the DMV site and realized I could get a replacement for a lost license online. How wonderful! I could replace it from the ease of home. I started to fill out the necessary information. Wait, I had to create an online account. Guess what I needed to provide to make that online account? Yup, I needed my driver’s license number. Well, that can’t be too hard to find, Right? Gary dug around and found the number listed on our tax forms. So I started to create the online profile, but the DMV required additional information to ensure my identity, like when the license was issued and other difficult-to-find information. I didn’t have all that, so I requested a mailed access code that would allow me to finish making my online profile and complete my request for a replacement. This was the classic catch 22! I needed my license to get my license replaced online.
In my frustration with the DMV, I did what perhaps some of you do; I turned to Facebook. There I saw a DM was sent less than 12 hours after losing my license from a stranger who had found it and searched for me on Facebook. He let me know he had it and would return it via US Mail. What a day changer that was!
My license was returned last week. I am still waiting on the DMV to send the authorizing code in the mail.
I am grateful for the kindness of not just a stranger but of a fellow veteran who took the time to look for the owner of the lost license. And I am grateful that with all the frustrations of Facebook, this was a case where social served up a speedy connection resulting in the return of the lost.
Has Facebook connected you in some positive way?
Just brilliant. Thank you for sharing. I laughed out loud at the remark that you are still waiting on the DMV. Such a good thought right now.
Facebook can be so cool sometimes. A friend’s cousin lost a phone in a plastic bag while tubing and someone found it and put a picture on Facebook and asked people to start sharing it and one of my friend’s shared it and so I shared it and my friend whose cousin lost the phone saw the post I shared and alerted her cousin who was able to get her phone back.
Also I recently lost my license and ran in to your sale issues with getting my license replaced online. However, I found that my car I nsurance company was a good resource for looking up all the information I needed from my lost license so if you ever have a similar situation, you might want to try your insurance agent. 🙂
What a great story Mary with a happy ending. Thanks for sharing it.
Wonderful story. You reminded me to take a photo of my license. I did so and it is now on my phone along with my vaccination card :). I once sent my vaccine card through the wash b/c it was in my bike shorts. Now I only carry a copy…haha