Well this is how I avoided a ticket…..in a roundabout sort of way. I had the car and noticed that one of the stickers expired this month. I thought it was the inspection sticker so I went to the gas station today and the mechanic told me that I needed the registration sticker NOT the inspection sticker.

Now before you all burst out laughing and wondering how I could not tell the difference between the two stickers I need to explain. When I got my first car five years ago they gave me the registration when I did all the paperwork. Right. You guys already know that. Then every year when I needed to renew the registration I got something in the mail which I would mail back. I lived at the same address for a long while so the tax office always sent me the paperwork at that address. I always got the reminder a couple of months early so I always had a new sticker when the old one expired.

Then I moved to Fort Worth in 2005 and joy of joys they let you do it online so that is what I did. It was great being able to do that online so I was all set. Then I moved back here to WF last year but my registration was current when I moved because I bought the Lancer around this time so I got the paperwork from the dealer.

Since I was accustomed to getting something in the mail I assumed the sticker that was about to expire was not the registration but the inspection. Now you guys and gals see where I am coming from. Anyway I decided not to panic because I figured I could just go online and do my registration. Wrong. It is not done in my county online.

I called the office and they said that I would have to come in or mail the forms in. Well I was about to go class for the day and by the time I got out the office would be closed. I was also thinking that I might not have time to do it tomorrow and that would mean that on Friday I would be driving illegally. The person I spoke to said that I would get a ticket if I ended up driving with the expired sticker.

So I ended up asking a friend to drive me to school and I sent him with a check and a letter to the office to get my registration sticker renewed. Whew!!! And I saved myself from getting a ticket. This also means that although I spent $62.80 for the whole process I could save money by not having to pay a ticket.