The Endless Parade

Yeah, it's the weekend again. The endless parade of weekdays followed by weekends continues. Week by week, month by month, year by year it mounts up and continues to ride by. I'm ok with it though as a spectator and observer. I'm a bit too self aware to be a full fledged participant at times and at other times I dive right in and join the parade for a block or two.

I offer commentary on how I see things, much like many MANY others who feel they have something to offer the world at large. I've earned a humble readership over the past few years and while it's mostly me-centric in terms of content, it's also reality as I post it. There isn't much I haven't talked about here and it'll continue to evolve over the upcoming years.

So why the self evaluating post from the macro term "endless parade"? Well that leads me to the micro. A landmark of growing up has happened in my life. I cosigned for a vehicle for Thing 1 yesterday.

Here's the story. When I was in high school I worked continuously. I had a paper route from the time I was a freshman until the time I was a senior. Here's the cool thing to balance out the fact that I got up at 4:30 every morning for years on end to help support my family and I. I was driving at age fourteen by myself around town with no one around. That's when I learned to drive in deep snow, on ice, in pouring rain, and on dry pavement. I love driving on bad roads, I'm good at it.

This was the age before cell phones replaced land lines so if I got into trouble with the car it was a walk to get back home to get help. So I made sure I didn't get into trouble, very much.

The point is that by the time I was eligible to get my license I was already a seasoned driver with years under my belt. It was a small town and not uncommon for kids to drive at an early age so it really was no big deal. The town cop gave his approval as long as I didn't wreak havoc around town.

This brings me to yesterday. For a teenage girl getting her license is the greatest thing in the world, apparently. Thing 1 learned that they were not giving driving tests yesterday because there was still some icy patches on the road on their course. This ruined her life...for about fifteen minutes. In the midst of her world ending because she had to wait until Monday to take her test Thing 2 chimed in with the question, "what if the zombie apocalypse happened Monday morning?"

This understandable made me giggle to no end, ending Thing 1's world further. I told her to cheer up because I had negotiated with the car dealership the price of a 2007 Dodge Caliber. Initially she had to come up with nearly seven hundred dollars down. She didn't have and I didn't have it to give. The price either had to come down or she had to pick an older, cheaper vehicle.

The price came down. Now she has money to purchase insurance, tag, title, tax, and a tank of gas:) Her wold stopped ending for a bit as she pondered herself in a car of her own. So now Thing 1 will have a car of her own to pay for, a lesson in responsibility that every teen needs to learn.

We'll have a new driver and one milestone of life out of the way.