Further update: I'm done!!! Spent this afternoon with the BAR location in Santa Rosa, then a repair shop in Santa Rosa to get the brake & headlight certificate (this took about an hour) and then to DMV to stand in line there for an hour to turn in my 4 1/2 pounds (it seemed) of paperwork and pick up my plates. Total elapsed time 29 days. Actual amount of time spent: 9 hours (1 hour at DMV initially, 3 hours off work to travel to and from CHP and deal with them, 5 hours off work to travel to BAR, brake place & stand in line at DMV).
There's got to be a way for the state to make this more efficient. The CHP assigned me my chassis number for a VIN, the BAR people told me I failed the test and then stuck an exemption certificate on my firewall - seems like both of these could have been handled (or not handled) by DMV if they would just coordinate what they're doing. Anyway, rant over. I'm just happy to be done.
