the good, the bad and the ugly

We have been doing a lot of running around lately doing all the little things that need done when you lose a family member. Some of things we can do ourselves but some require Rudee's Mom to be present. She  is 83 and loves to have a "day on the town" since she can't get out on her own anymore. The other day we had to go to the courthouse where she had to sign some papers, afterwards we stopped into a small restaurant to eat lunch. We were in Danville Indiana which holds onto it's "small town" status even though it is in the shadow of sprawling Indianapolis. The restaurant was decorated as a 50's style diner complete with jukebox and the waitress' wore poodle skirts. Lunch was good and Rudee's Mom wanted to pay for ours. She is on an even more of a fixed income now and we were not going to let that happen. She ended up "sneaking" a $20 bill to the young man at the cash register that just happened to be next to our booth and had heard us discussing her finances. He rang our bill up and, without saying a word, reached into his own wallet and pulled out two $1 bills to cover the rest of our check. He then brought the left over change and gave it to Rudee's Mom as if her $20 covered the tab. I didn't know what to say, what a nice gesture for a young man to make! We guessed him to be about 18 years old, his Mom and Dad can be proud of him for sure!
As we got up to leave Rudee went up to him and said "I saw what you did" and he just smiled and said "what?". She gave him the $2 back and thanked him as we walked out the door. She also slipped a $20 bill into her Mom's purse when she wasn't looking too. :-)

So that was the "good" part of this post, now for the "bad and the ugly".
We got our paperwork from the RV dealer to transfer our license plates and apply for our title. We headed for the DMV anxious to get it "out of the way". I always dreaded trips to the DMV and Rudee refuses to go without me! We arrived and took a number. There was only one other person in line but we still had to take a number. :-(
We got called up to the desk pretty quickly and I told them what I needed and handed over my small stack of paperwork. The lady behind the desk was very nice, her name tag said she was the assistant manager and, if age was any indication, she had worked there for a long time. The registration transfer went really easy so I decided to get my address corrected on my drivers license. The post office decided last year that they were changing all the numbers in the shopping center where our UPS store is at. We have been changing our address on things all year long and I just had not bothered (or maybe "avoided" is the right word) changing it on my DL. The nice lady started reviewing my information and typing it into her computer. "You still 210 pounds" she asked. "Well ...... not really" I said taking a big gulp and giving her a number a little closer to my actual weight. Ok I thought that was going to be it, then she looked up at me and, right in front of my wife, asked me. "Do you still consider your hair color black"? What the heck lady??!! Rudee began to laugh and told me I still had a choice, gray or skin tone! Deflated I had to admit "no, I guess it's more gray now" as I lowered my head and slumped into the chair. I suddenly realized I was the only guy in the room! I was out numbered and didn't stand a chance. it was worse than when I was a little boy and my Mom would drag me to the beauty shop to get her hair done!
I finally made it through the "inquisition" and got my picture taken for my new drivers license. That is the "ugly" part because they substituted my picture for a balding, gray haired, slightly pundgy "older" looking guy! I couldn't get out of there fast enough! To this day I get cold chills when walking by the door to the beauty shop and now I am getting the same thing from the DMV. :-)

We are planning Thanksgiving with our grand kids and looking forward to spending the holiday with family. Last year at this time we were in the oil fields and eating a turkey dinner from a styrofoam box. I'll keep you posted.