Anxious morning

I am sitting here fretting over the morning. Tuesday we gave up on getting a driving instructor to come here before mid-July, and so we hired someone to ride around with me for a few hours. Yesterday I drove around Denton for a few hours, this morning I am going to practice parallel parking, and then try the test. I do not have high expectations, and I keep telling myself that if I fail I can always come back in a week or so and retry. But even with that I am still nervous.

Beyond that it has been quiet here. We had a surprise rain storm yesterday afternoon, the weather types had said 0% chance of rain, yet around four, there was booming and the ground became wet.

It is Thursday already. This week has been a fast week.

Whether I get my license today or not, I am going to have to go get groceries soon. The cupboards are emptying.

4:10 pm
I was at Texas DPS at six this morning, I parallel parked until seven, and then went and stood in line until 8. I managed to get a exam time of 8:50 and was pleased. At the designated time, I was told that the examiner was doing CDL's (commercial licenses) this morning and could I come back at 2:40. I looked at my associate, and he agreed to return (have to have a licensed driver when cruising). So, I went home, stressed and tired, napped a bit, stressed some more,and then shortly after two I returned. We sat in the sun for 20 minutes (no ac in the car :0). The exam went ok, made one error when starting (did not look over my shoulder when leaving the parallel park, even though I had practiced that same thing a billion times this morning). The examiner is from Africa, and has a heavy accent, so he was hard to understand at times. On top of that he babbled a lot and was distracting. The manual said do not talk to the examiner, yet here he was talking, and what could I do? Any way, I passed (Yeah! I am a DRIVER again!)! The computers were down, and I was told to come back in a few weeks for the actual photo taking and paying of bills. Until then I have a temporary license, and can drive to the grocery store first thing in the am! I am excited!

I did not mention this before, but when our original trainer canceled on us Monday, we put an ad in Craigslist, uncertain of what kind of response we would get, but feeling desperate. No way was I waiting for a driving lesson until July 11 (Wendy's birthday after all). I received a dozen replies to the ad we placed in about fifteen minutes, selected the best one, and gave him a shot. What did I have to lose but time. He was late the first day, but was on time and willing to go the extra mile (pun intended). He is currently unemployed, recovering from a personal tragedy, and needing some cash. We (Carol and I) are very happy we could help him and help ourselves. Even with the delay, it cost about half of what the driving school wanted.

So, first thing tomorrow morning I go to the hardware store and the grocery. Stay off the roads. :)

ps it is warm today. 97 feels like 102 and still an hour of sun to go.

7:20

Having a hankering for some yummy vegan strawberry popsicles, we hopped in our car, went to the store, came home all in 20 minutes. How cool is that? Guess I have become used to the inconvenience of transit and walking. It may take a little while to get used to having a car again.