registration situation

In South Africa, your vehicle registration comes in the form of a small circular disc which must be displayed in the lower corner of the passenger side of the front windscreen (windshield – as you will…). This happens in other places as well – Pennsylvania for instance – however, when you are required to affix something to your car in Pennsylvania, the cleverly supply you with that something in a self-adhesive format. But despite the South in it, this is still Africa, so of course the registration disc is not self-adhesive. More, the disc doesn’t even come in disc format – no, it comes as part of a regular sheet of paper and you need to practice your cutting skills to make it in to disc format. Then you have to find a circular sticker larger than the (not un-reasonably sized) disc so that you can affix the much discussed disc to your car.

In any case, the annual change of the vehicle registration disc was due to take place while I was home home (see previous entries for explanation on that one) so I figure I will pick up some circular stickers while there. What is the point of representing the local grocery store when I can in some way represent Cleveland and we all know I’ve got the I-love-Cleveland-bug in a big way? And the sticker has to be there for a year anyway, so… I figure I’ve got a pretty wide range of sticker choices, haven’t I? So I start looking.

The first stop is the Indians store back at the Mentor mall because I’ve got to go there anyway. No circular stickers though. No problem. I go up to Lakeland to visit some friends. No round stickers. Kent State – nope again. Record Rev. No. Big fun. No. High Tide. No. Record Den. No. At this point I start getting desperate because the only place I can really think to go is Ohio Surf & Skate and I really don’t want to have to make that stop because Ultrasound has moved next door. So I try tower city – like 3 different shops. No love. The Rock Hall. No. The Science Centre. Nope. I even went into Hot Topic to have a look and was rather relieved when I didn’t have to purchase anything from them. I went really crazy looking for one, just one damn circle sticker. I was obsessed and time was running out. It had to be done. The Surf & Skate mission was planned. I walk in and as the stickers are pretty much the closest thing to the door, I went straight for them. Oh it was such a lovely sight to see so many stickers all piled up next to each other. But wait, whats this? One and only one sticker that is a circle big enough to affix my vehicle registration to my windscreen. And to top it all off, I don’t even recognise the logo. So I ask Tim, in fact I explain the entire non-adhesive vehicle registration situation to him. Tim tells me it’s a new shoe company. He shows me the shoes (I mean if I’m going to be representing them for a year, I at least want a look at their products). Not my favourite shoes, but at this point I was desperate and I took the sticker (in addition to a few other stickers & a t-shirt to add to my Cleveland collection). Relieved I walked away.

Today I affixed the vehicle registration to my car with my new sticker of a shoe company whose name I have already forgotten. And as I came back in and sat at my desk I realised that the damn sticker doesn’t represent Cleveland in any way at all. Its just a shoe company, despite the fact that it was purchased at Ohio Surf & Skate. A bit of a let down really. So when I got in the car to get some lunch this afternoon, I had a good long look at the sticker. And the crazy thing is that I had memories of the places I had been in the quest for the sticker just flying through my brain and I realised the sticker actually represents ‘my’ Cleveland better than any other sticker could hope to do as it took me everywhere I had to go. So some unknown shoe company is actually representing Cleveland to me for a whole year instead of me representing them. And now I know better. I’m starting now for next year. And I am accepting any and all donations from well meaning parties. In fact I think I will start a sticker chain mail…