Why I Never Throw Stuff Out

“Is this yours,” she asked? “Maybe it’s Helaine’s?”

ann's-button.jpgAs is often the case I went to dinner with Ann, Noah and Ted tonight. With a tiny bit of snow on-the-ground I had Helaine’s SUV so I volunteered to drive. On the way back Ann found a button on the car seat.

“Is this yours,” she asked? “Maybe it’s Helaine’s?”

This is Geoff she’s asking, the guy who didn’t always remember his wedding anniversary (uhhhh… late November… around Thanksgiving) or his daughter’s eye color (some pastel, right?)

Ann took the button and placed it in the cup holder for safe keeping. I planned on bringing it into the house when I got home. A small opportunity to be a hero.

Not so fast. I was just commanded to go to the car to get the button. Ann discovered it was actually hers!

This is why I never throw stuff out.

Stef Gets A License… Again

“It’s really not that hard,” she asked as she approached the examiner. She was expecting him to minimize her angst. Instead he told her a lot of people flunk!

DMV_thumb.jpgStef is getting settled in California. She called yesterday to relay word she’d gotten her California driver’s license. She had to take a written test! In California that’s the law.

  • It’s ALWAYS good to hear from your child
  • The test was hard

“It’s unfair,” she said.

Her point was she needed to take the test while her grandfather, who until yesterday couldn’t see to the end of his outstretched arm, gets automatic renewals by mail. Oh Stefanie. What you don’t know about Florida politics, seniors and driving&#185!

This was her second trip to the DMV. The first time through she waited 45 minutes to be told her Connecticut license not only isn’t good enough to get a bye on the written test, it isn’t good enough for identification either! She needed something like a passport… which she had… just not with her.

Back yesterday and fully documented Stef made her way to the station where the written test was administered. She sat and watched as the two people in front of her took the test… and failed. Oh crap!

“It’s really not that hard,” she said (though she said it as a question) as she approached the examiner. She was expecting him to minimize her angst. Instead he told her a lot of people flunk!

“I checked it over more than any test in college,” she said on the phone yesterday. This didn’t give me the warm and fuzzies over her college career, but I understand.

  • A driver’s license is very important
  • No one wants to make three trips to the DMV

Administered on paper the test runs 35 questions. She was asked about the age and height necessary to graduate from a car seat and where to sit for maximum airbag efficacy.

Would you pass?

Luckily Stef had visited the DMV website and looked at some sample tests. She got 32 of 35 right. In return they punched a hole in her Connecticut card and gave her a piece of paper to hold her the month or two until the real license comes.

Life seems good for Stef in Cali. Even from this distance I’m watching her adapt and grow.

For the remainder of her life she will avoid the DMV like the plague!

&#185 – The point is now moot because at this moment my father can read without glasses–something his son cannot do! I can’t mention that enough. It’s an amazing event and I am thrilled for my folks.

No Way To Make Friends

I’m a non-partisan complainer here, because all three candidates have heard another candidate’s faux pas and latched on to it. Politics gets defined in the gotcha moment.

Barack Obama has said stupid things.

Hillary Clinton has said stupid things.

John McCain has said stupid things.

Geoff Fox… please… you have no idea how many times I’ve stuck my foot in my mouth in nearly 40 year of radio and television ad libs.

In private, I’ve said stupid things that have offended friends in ways I never meant. Actually, I can think of a horrendous example from two weeks ago. These are words I wanted to reel back in as they were going out.

Ask Helaine. She’s been on the receiving end too.

I didn’t mean what my friend heard on the phone, or the words said to my wife in the car seat next to me. They know that. Why can’t politicians act that way too?

I’m a non-partisan complainer here, because all three candidates have heard another candidate’s faux pas and latched on to it. Why must politics get defined in the gotcha moment.

That’s not the way I want to live my life. I don’t want to be picked on because I’ve briefly screwed up. Take me for the sum and total of who I am.

Some of my friends have been friends for 30-40 years. Yes, it’s accomplishment. But if any of my friends, or my spouse, reacted the way ‘pols’ do, our relationships would be over.

I can’t respect anyone who acts that way. I can’t be alone. Are you candidates listening?