Rainey Blogs on Some Days

I took some time to think about the many things that I am thankful for. Here are a few that came to mind. 1. We attended an Army football game at West Point in October. Marcia lost her driver’s license while there. A few days later, we received an express envelope with the license. A woman who is an attorney in Houston, TX, found the license at the game, took it back to Houston, and sent it to us. 2. The four seasons of the year--Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall--teach me so much about the changes of life as I watch them unfold throughout a calendar year. 3. The opportunity to visit Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Malta on a cruise with my family. 4. Free public restrooms, which is not the norm in Europe. 5. The Saturday morning  Wall Street Journal , which I can read at a leisurely pace on the weekend. 6. The two cups of coffee I enjoy drinking every morning to start the day, and for Jerry’s Gourmet Market that sells my favorite (Lavazza) coffee at $2.99 along with a perpetual buy

And do you feel scared, I do But I won't stop and falter And if we threw it all away Things can only get better --Howard Jones, "Things Can Only Get Better," 1985. My youngest daughter recently got her driver's license. Since this is the third child to get a license, besides the parents' experiences at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), you'd think I would be an expert by now on how to navigate the DMV. But the place of which I once said, “All of the ineptitude of the entire world converges at the DMV” is always a challenge, and my trips there are just far enough apart in time that I can never exactly remember what is supposed to happen or what the process is. The first decision is always to figure out which parent will take time off of work to go to the DMV with the child. Since a school principal trumps every other job in the world, I am always the one selected to go to the DMV, even though I am the so-called head of the house. I was also s