The Appointment

Yesterday, my sweet daughter came down from Austin to take me to get my driver’s license renewed. It was miles away over many crisscrossing highway overpasses with lots of big trucks going 90 miles an hour and she knew I’d never attempt it, much less find the place. So… though we had “an appointment,” a thing I had taken literally, when we got there and opened the door to enter the building, there wasn’t an empty seat in the place.

We were instructed to go to a machine, answer a bunch of questions and take a number. Uhuh. So much for having an appointment.

Finally, two seats were vacated and we got to sit down. And wait. And wait …

However, it was not boring. There was this woman on my right, who’s account of a family quarrel, centering around her husband’s latest misdeeds, helped pass the time. And boy, they were corkers! (as they used to say.) I could hear my daughter’s quiet snickering on the other side of me. Well, you learn things every day, though some, I’d just as soon not.

Finally, my name was called, and we went to window 7. I have to admit I was nervous that I’d have to take a written test, and when the woman asked for my license instead of my ID, I blanked. My license had expired; that’s why I was there, but I did have the papers to be there to get my new one. Anyway, my daughter looked at me like I had lost my mind, and took my wallet from me and extracted the driver’s license – which had expired, and the woman looks at it and then at me, like I probably shouldn't be driving.  Anyway, I handed over the necessary papers and stuff and she had to go make copies. For some reason it took forever for her to come back. When she did, she handed me back the sheet I’d filled out while we waited, and by one of the questions she had marked, with a yellow marker, a place for me to initial. I looked to see what it was, and where it had said “hair color,” I had checked both grey and brown, because it is. I had to initial away the brown. So much for her vision!

Then she asked me if I wore glasses. I said I did to drive, but sometimes I didn’t really need them because I’d had two surgeries on my eyes. I could see the doubt on her face. She told me to back up against the wall, which I did, and she held up an eye chart and asked me to read this line near the bottom. I rattled it off and she got this big grin and said, “Girl, you don’t need no glasses.”

I chuckled most of the way home.

Needless to say, my FS picture needs updating. It’s probably about 10 years old. (then again, I may leave it :)