How to get your car inspected in Virginia. No. Really.

I think I’ll make my introductory paragraph exactly one sentence long.

And follow up with a short fragment.

And then something in italics!

But let’s face it — I’m a bit loopy on the notion that Plagiarism Week ’09 is just about halfway done. It makes me wonder: will I get everything done that I wanted to? Will I have to just put stuff on the back burner for next year? Will my choices for Plagiarism Week ’09 affect the friendships I’ve kindled across the blogosphere?

Will they? (See? I can do short fragments in bold type as well.)

I’m not going to worry about that now. Instead, I’ll give you a sneak peek at what I’ve been doing over the past two days in my life — using pictures. Because that’s what Plagiarism Week ’09 is all about.

We in Virginia has a special ritual which we undergo with our cars every year. As a relatively recent transplant to the south (from one state up), I was pretty amazed at the nature of this annual tradition.  But it’s something I’ve been able to get used to.

Unless everything goes wrong.

How to get your car inspected in Virginia.

1. Look at the date on your inspection sticker. Mine says “1-09.” so it means that my inspection needs to reoccur in January.

2. Procrastinate until the end of the month and go at the last possible moment to a gas station / garage. There will be a line, probably. That’s just the other procrastinating shmoes.  Solidarity!

3. Look for a sign that says that, yes, they do inspections.

4. Find out if this is one of the two years you need an Emissions Test. It costs about 1 1/2 times more than just the standard vehicle safety inspection.

Rule of thumb: if you can’t renew your registration online, it means you probably have to do an emissions inspection.

5. Give the nice mechanic your car keys. And money. ($16 for the safety inspection; $28 for emissions. Ouch!)

6. Wait. Outside in the cold. Make a phone call and forget to take pictures during this part of the journey.

7. Get told that your Emissions Test passed! With flying colors!

8. Get told that your safety inspection, however, failed. Why? Because of broken orange glass on the turn signal! The very same broken turn signal that you passed with for the past two years!

9. Hang your head in shame when they slap a “rejection” sticker on the inside of your windshield.

10. Make an arrangement with the garage owner — you’ll pay him to fix the part when he gets the part in (the next day) and he’ll overcharge you.  However, he won’t make you reinspect the vehicle again because everything else passed.

11. Bring the car around at the requested time and watch it not get worked on for a bit.

12. Finally, the guy whose job it is to fix it will fix it for you.

And then — the sticker is affixed! Giving you the privelege of doing the same thing again in January 2010.

Just one more sentence fragment to finish this off.