Farewell My License

I am mourning the passing of my special car license plates. Iowa has vehicle registration due in the month of ones birth. My birthday is in January so that is when my registration is due. This year I didn't have the money to pay $184.50 for my car. I went to the county today to get that paid and they told me it would be $236!! Turns out that, because I was late, I would have to pay $45 to reinstate the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) special plates. The statement I received didn't show that the charge to renew these plates went up either. They were $20 this year instead of $10 as in previous years. I decided to replace the pretty, special DNR plates with the boring, ugly regular plates. My old plates were ET 454 and my new plates are 684 PPE. I wish I could get my old number on my new plates but vanity plates are about the same price as the DNR plates, so I would be in the same place I was before today. My car will be 3 years old in July so I am waiting for the cost of the license to go down, maybe next year.