way to go ohio

Remember all the trouble getting a Swedish drivers license earlier this year? Phew, glad that is over. Sweden makes it tough with the thought it will improve the driving on the road. In my small pool of friends when another immigrant joins the DL club you always have to give a congratulatory pat on the back. It really is an accomplishment and makes you feel one tiny step closer to being part of the mainstream.

In a terrible twist of irony I thought that Swedish trait of doing everything very thoroughly right all the time was going to doom my Ohio DL renewal. At the strong advice of some other American expats I sent in to renew my briefly lapsed Ohio license - you just never know when you are going to need it, they said. Most of the renewal process is paperwork except for an eye exam by a licensed optometrist because I wear corrective lenses. On the Ohio eye exam form were six little words that made me nervous though: 'Did they pass the colorblind test?' Yes/No Gulp. If you know any of our family history the youngest three male sibs inherited the gene for partial colorblindness or color deficiency. Yet all three sibs and a colorblind nephew have passed the official Ohio test and had Ohio DL since they were teenagers. To my knowledge colorblindness has never played an issue in any of their driving.

Long story short, the thought of those six little words in the hands of a Swedish licensed optometrist made me anxious. You see, the normal Swedish standard of doing things is the right way - the most thorough, highest standard we can possibly set for ourselves, all the time. And walking a Swedish optometrist into an unscripted, unfamiliar terrain, i.e., 'colorblind test', they are going to reach for the playbook that is familiar: the highest possible standard. Ironically, Sweden doesn't require a colorblind test anymore for their drivers so when Ohio writes, 'Did they pass the colorblind test?', I knew I was in for it. It's not the Swedish standard lady, it's the Ohio standard. Sure enough, they brought out the dreaded dots... http://colorvisiontesting.com/ You are suppose to see numbers on them. To be honest, sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. Do I have to be able to fly a plane to drive a car? Not like I'm going on any bombing runs. Oi!.

In Ohio to renew your license you look into the viewer on the counter, read the lady the numbers, tell her which side the light is blinking and it's picture time. Case closed, non issue. Been doing it since I was sixteen. They never brought out the dots. Sweden had to. It's in the wiring. They had to. I expected it. And they didn't disappoint me. Needless to say, the Swedish doctor and I looked through not one page of dots but ten. Some numbers in the dots I could see, some I couldn't. At the end of the test she slid back over to the form and confidently said I'm sorry, but you did not pass. She apologized but said she had no choice but to check no, even though it might mess up my Ohio driving privledges. We finished up. I paid my money for the appointment, smiled politely and left with my tail between my legs. I had no choice but to send it back to Ohio anyway and hope for the best. I did ask the optometrist to list what colorblind test it was, just for the record, kind of like listing the cause of death on a certificate. Mon sent the packet off a little over two weeks ago in the mail. I thought the worst case scenario is I might be able to look in the viewer on the counter back in Ohio to renew my license whenever I get back there.

Without as much as a second question I received my renewed Ohio license in the mail yesterday within 2 weeks, even with international mailing times. Phew. Finally, somebody who understands me! Needless to say, it's a small thing, but a really big thing. I'm legal again in Ohio til 2012. Funny, but my Swedish license is good til 2018.

I don't even want to think about what it will take to renew it.