It’s Official

It’s official. We are now honest to goodness Alabamians. Yesterday we drove down to the Pickens County Seat in Carrollton to get our Alabama drivers licenses. But of course, as with everything with us, it was not without some confusion.

Pickens County is very small, so the man from the Department of Motor Vehicles who issues drivers licenses is only there on Wednesdays from 8 AM to 1:30 PM. We arrived about 10:30, signed in, and only had to wait about 5 minutes before he called us in. And of course, we were not prepared. We had our Florida drivers licenses but we also needed a second form of ID, preferably a valid passport or a certified copy of a birth certificate, along with two pieces of mail that proved our new address.

It’s only about a 15-minute drive, so we ran home to pick up the documents we needed. Our passports expired a year ago so that wasn’t going to work, but we did have our birth certificates, along with the mortgage to our house and a couple of utility bills. When we got back to the courthouse in Carrollton we were called right in, and the gentleman handling things was very friendly. Things went through for Terry without a hitch, but when he started doing mine, it turned out that my Florida license was flagged.

I try to be a law abiding citizen, but when something like that happens, you instantly start questioning yourself and reviewing every sin you committed since puberty, wondering what has finally caught up with you. Did I have a parking ticket I didn’t know about and failed to pay? Did I go through a toll booth someplace and not pay? Am I gonna go to the slammer and have to share a cell with Sweaty Eddie? As it turned out, it was a data entry error someplace in Florida. Back when we got our licenses there years ago, they entered the first four digits of my Social Security number wrong.

With that resolved, we left and went across the street to register our Ram pickup. We had registered the van and the Mustang several weeks ago, but those are paid off. We still have a lien on the truck, and we needed some proof of that, since Florida holds the title until the lien is satisfied. I managed to get a statement from the credit union holding the lien that met Alabama’s criteria, and now that’s one more mission accomplished.

We had not had breakfast, so by the time we were done with all that we were both hungry. We stopped at a little place in Gordo called Tasty Wraps, enjoying listening to all the small town talk as we ate. Everybody knows everybody around here, and if they don’t know you, they know some of your kinfolk.

Back at home, Terry spread wildflower seeds in the two strips I tilled up for her on either side of the barn road. Then she used a rake to pull some dirt over them, and hopefully before long we’ll have some pretty flowers growing out there.

Then she helped me add the new fiberglass poles to the deer fence around the fruit trees and we got that project completed. We were happy to see that all of the trees are doing good, some of them have new leaves or buds coming, and the two blueberry bushes are full of small berries, just waiting to grow up and be picked.

All in all it was a busy day, and there was even more going on that I will tell you about in tomorrow’s blog.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Big Lake Lynching, the second book in my bestselling Big Lake mystery series. When a young Apache man is found hanging from a tree on Cat Mountain, Sheriff Jim Weber and FBI agent Larry Parks go on the hunt for the killers, and by the time their investigation is over, the idealistic cover is ripped from the little mountain town of Big Lake, revealing old prejudices, resentments, and hatred. In their search for justice, Sheriff Weber and Parks encounter Native American activists, a kinky couple whose passion burns as hot as their tempers, a teenager with excess baggage, and a father and son team of small town bullies, to name just a few.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. And suddenly, I don’t have the munchies anymore.

Thought For The Day – I am a huge fan of inappropriate behavior.