Passed the test...

Before we get to relax on vacation…

Before we get to take off on a long road trip…

Before we get to have new adventures…

There is the TEST of all TESTS of my planning and organization skills.

What will we need to wear in different locations in different states during the next two weeks? Pack light…pack light…

What medications do we need to take and do we have enough of each? (I had to make a quick trip to the pharmacy yesterday!) What if we get some other ailment in the middle of the night? What should I take with us, without taking everything in the medicine cabinet? (Yes, we’re old. I worry.)

Is all of our equipment- cell phone, camera, etc. ready to go? Do we have all of the accessories and cards and batteries and cords?

What snacks and drinks do we need to take? Coffee and water are musts. Nothing too messy. Popcorn? Chips? Crackers? Breakfast bars? Fruit? Nuts? Raisins? Two people=two sets of taste buds.

Then there are all the details to take care of so we can leave the house…

I am tired today and ready for a vacation!! But the emphasis is on READY. List complete, 90% of tasks handled. Been there, done that a few times before!

As Gran would say, “Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise, I’ll see you back here soon!” 

 

Comments

[Classof65]

I know you're on vacation, but I just read this online and immediately thought of you. Please read it and give me your comments. I grew up in Wichita, KS and I believe that you and I have many of the same feelings about morality. This was in an email from Barbara Santee. Just read it. Please.

I am retired, seventy-seven years old, have enjoyed continuous driving privileges of 'drivers license' since age sixteen, white, and therefore have had no previous reason to be familiar with the process of getting a 'State ID'. I was appalled today by circumstances to have learned how suppressing the process is and wonder if it may be due to political design to make it difficult for less fortunate of our citizens to obtain required identification to vote in this state.

It all stated about three weeks ago. A friend who had just moved from another state told me that an employer had promised to hire him for a better-paying job if he had an Oklahoma Drivers License. So, I furnished him a ride to Department of Public Safety to get the license. I recall wondering at the time how difficult and time-consuming it would have been to get to DPS by himself without a vehicle or bus service. Nevertheless, once there and after presenting his official home state identification card, he was told Oklahoma does not recognize his North Carolina ID and that he would need an official Oklahoma Identification Card instead. He was told that to obtain such Oklahoma ID he would need his Social Security card (which had been lost with his wallet).

The next destination therefore was to the Social Security office and a long wait get a copy of his card. Instead, that office furnished him an officially stamped letter and told him that it should serve for all purposes until he received his card in the mail in about ten days. So back to the Department of Public Safety with it we went.

But once there, DPS would not accept the officially stamped Social Security office letter and my friend was told that he would have to have the actual card instead as well as a certified copy of his birth certificate.

I do not hesitate to admit that I was already beginning to become somewhat embarrassed with my home state in witnessing how my black friend was being given the 'run-around' treatment. Plus, I had not only already expended quite a lot of my own time but also my own gasoline money during the ridiculous process. But, that was not the least.

After spending an additional eighty of my own dollars to fund an expedited request to North Carolina Vital Statistics, receive his certified Birth Certificate by Fedex, and return with it to DPS, my friend was told by DPS that it was still not enough and recommenced the circular process all over again by refusing again to accept the only picture ID he has (his official North Carolina ID), i.e., to obtain an Oklahoma ID one must possess another Picture ID (such as one from another state) which Oklahoma will not accept.

If anyone can make sense of this process please let me know. But after having personally experienced being allowed to vote only by Provisional Ballot just last year at the same polling place where I have voted for the previous twenty-two years, I must continue to believe that is is designed simply to prevent minorities from voting in the state of Oklahoma. I don't really want to believe that mine is the same country that I and others have fought and risked our lives for still wants to suppress its citizens.

Potential 'terrorists'; non-existent 'voter fraud': subterfuge, not reasons. "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." I DO NOT WANT TO BELIEVE IT…PLEASE TELL ME IT ISN'T SO !

[mary]

I find this story disturbing and too familiar. When we moved back here from CA in 1991 we could not get our car inspected because we didn't have an OK license and we couldn't get an OK license because our car wasn't inspected!! We went back and forth before the inspection station finally agreed to check our car. Government process is crazy sometimes, and like you, I wonder what they are trying to prevent. Surely moving from one state to another should not be as complicated as moving to another country!

[Classof65]

And you and I are white! Imagine if we were black or Hispanic or Asian!