A lot of years back, a driver's license cost four dollars and allowed one to drive any thing on the public roads as long as it didn't have steel wheels. I doubt any of you saw the signs along the highways "no steel wheels allowed". Society was changing from wagons to vehicles with tires. Moving on, a few years after that one had to have a chauffeurs driver's license to drive anything for hire or anything more than a half ton pickup or family car and that cost six dollars. I kept upgrading as the laws changed. I don't remember what I paid for a Commercial Driver's License, around twenty four dollars I think. Took all the written tests to upgrade and had a full endorsement to drive anything legal on the highway along with hazmat materials. Looking back I was fortunate to be upgrading as the laws changed as I was basically given approval without question because I was already driving and hauling darn near everything before each new law went into effect.

What brought all this to mind was I spent six and one half hours at the DMV (ODOT) yesterday to change over my CDL. Unlike a lot of horror stories I've read about and the long wait lines at the DMV, I wasn't waiting in line. Ten minutes after I walked in the lady was looking at all the paperwork I handed her to get a new CDL. They were extra nice about it but obviously never run into someone like me before. The lady spent three hours working though the system. Called the main office in OKC and spent a couple more hours faxing all the data back and forth. More time trying to make the system understand the data input and more time coordinating with the main office. Finally after paying a hundred and fourteen dollars she handed me a sheet of paper supposedly good until they mail out a new CDL in two to four weeks. Gov Stitt and his exec order was probably bogging everything down. They were having to work around it even though Oklahoma Law agrees a passport is legal proof. And that was when I remembered the four dollars for my first license. The officer handed me my license when I gave him the money.

Besides driver's ed, documented hours with instruction behind the wheel, minimum age 16 and half unless special circumstances, there is a ton of restrictions before one can get a driver's license. I was so fortunate to be born ahead of all that in a state where cowboys still came to town wearing chaps and spurs. (really) Farm kids, ranch kids were driving by they time they were five or six. Child Protection Services would have had a cow if they had been around back then. Two boys who started out in the same grade as me never graduated as they were killed in farm accidents. The percentages were probably better for us though than those who grew up in big cities and gang infested neighborhoods.

I dressed up, added jewelry, makeup, etc before I went. I have decided those gov cameras hate me. Just like my passport photo, I've seen road kill that looked better. Hope I never have to pull out my driver's license nor my passport to prove who I am. Next challenge is the VA and insurance. They already turned me down twice. Now I have everything they said I had to have to change my name and gender marker. We'll see.

Never give up. Might not ever achieve what one desired but then if we never try we failed before we started. I pray I have encouraged those of you who desired something in your life, such as someplace you wanted to see but kept putting it off. Maybe reconnect with family or friends you left behind in life. Maybe write that story you kept going to but couldn't find the time or the will to put the effort into it.

Life marches on and it isn't going to make us do any more than go into survival mode. If we put off wishing we had instead of doing, one day we will realize there is no more time to make that wish come true. On August 1, 2022 a couple of medical people told Kelly I wasn't going to live through the night. Maybe it was because I was in too much pain to care, there weren't any regrets. It certainly wasn't the name or gender marker change as the court had already granted me that one.

Life is meant to be lived, not worn until it's worn out.
Barb