Monday Musings...
Another year...another license plate. (What? Again?) Yepper, as of 2008, we are all getting a "standard" new issue plate, unless you've opted for one of OVER 75 different "specialty" plates. And every year, the list seems to get longer.

I don't know about you, but I was JUST getting used to that sickly green fields of the heartland plate - kind of sets the "mood" for the state of affairs here.
I really liked the older white plate with the embossed letters and numerals with the gold state seal, but the plate before it (that garish red, black, and yellow plate) just didn't do anything fo me AT ALL. I can say with conviction that in the ELEVEN years I've been here , I've gone through THREE "incarnations" of plates...that's more than in over 20 years of driving in PA. At least here, all they USED to do was swap the colors (gold and dark blue). Those were ALSO the days when ALL tags had RAISED lettering on a plate of really nice, thick METAL, as opposed to this cheap-assed "decal on tin" fiasco we call a license plate. I guess PRISON LABOR isn't what it USED to be. (probably too busy in the penal system with all those "self-esteem of the inmates" issues to bother with some good, honest WORK!) You have to be a lot more careful with the plates now, or you'll accidently BEND them in half! I wouldn't be surprised if THEY are made in CHINA (maybe I should check for lead paint on those decals), would you?
But here we are..nice, new plates, with COUNTY stickers, and YEAR OF ISSUE stickers. Makes me want to consider getting into making sticker ALBUMS like my wife used to do AS A YOUNG GIRL! If there is ONE major problem I have with all of this, it's not the cost of the plates (it IS a tad high at $40+ bucks), or even the new logo...it's the fact that all the cars on my "hit lists" have to be REDONE...for the THIRD time. And we're talking way over 500 vehicles!
Someone's got a really perverse form of what they think "job security" is as far as I'm concerned. It's going to take MONTHS to get all those (new) plate numbers again. At least those with specialty plates won't be a issue; They have those plates as long as they pay for them. And most of THOSE are easy to read, especially when you know how the plate is laid out (how many digits, alpha/numeric order, and so on).
Here's a bit of irony about these plates. I saw one boomcar with an ENVIRONMENTAL plate (light blue with some bird on it) on the car.
I was like WTF???
Are you kidding me?
Another idiot had a "Kids First" plate (kinda cute plate), and was thumping down the street SO damn loud, I couldnt hear the Guns of Navarrone being shot off on TCM! Seems that driver was thinking more like "HIMSELF FIRST", instead of ANY KIDS. The "up" side to all this, is that the lettering is once more LEGIBLE! I used to hear the officers talking about how DIFFICULT it was to read the letters on the first issue green plates (after they made the letters smaller). Luckily, we still have the first issue LARGE letter plates.
Then there was the GOD plates and those teeny-weeny letters on the left of the numbers.
At distance, the D looked like an O, as well as a Q...or was that a G?
It was like taking an eye exam...every damn day!
"Please read the lowest line you can see clearly".
"Yeah, right!"
"Lemme get my 20x telescope that I look at the craters on the MOON with out, will 'ya? Get 'ya that plate number in about 2 minutes, if he doesn't see me following him all that time".
I've heard so many calls that the FWPD made on cars that they had to revise the plate number given to dispatch. An FWPD officer I rode with a few years back, told me the exact same thing. They were just too damn hard to read. So these new plates are a godsend to the FWPD and the ACSD. For ME, it's just another nightmare trying to get all those NEW numbers for the SAME OLD morons, that the city CAN'T SEEM to be able to catch (after all these YEARS) with those blown out headlights and tailights, improper license illumination, car stereos that violate city ordinances, dragging mufflers, NO mufflers, broken windshields, windows with duct tape and plastic bags, illegal neon, and so on.
One nice thing I like about these new tags...the dark blue w/ white lettering INDIANA plates look SO MUCH like the old "Municipal Government" (MG plates) plates we had on all the POLICE cars and vans in Philly...talk about "coming home"...LMAO!

Can't wait until they change them again - in 2012...can you?