The Bunch Deal With Horrible DPS Waits, Cold Weather, and the Beginning of the End of Basketball Season

 

Most of T's team showed up to practice wearing the EXACT same shade of blue. We thought it was funny. T always wears the same shirt to practice and now apparently is the trend setter!

This week we reached a new level of how stupid people can be.  The government isn't known for how effective their policies are, but instead how stupid and repetitive it is. This week's winner in "how stupid can we be" is none other than the Texas DPS. Let's jog our memories back to a couple of years ago when A was getting her license. Texas was requiring everyone update their license to have the stupid tx symbol on it. This was called "real id" and was going to be the holy grail of proving your identity.  We would submit all the paperwork ( that we already submitted to get the license in the first place) and this "minor" inconvenience would be worth it when we could just show our id and be permitted on planes and have everyone who needed multiple forms of id's know that when we flashed this magic id card the government had already done all the work and you were you. I had to renew my license two years early because of this rule and the wait times at the DPS became astronomical because everyone had to get it done before the deadline. Now, fast forward two years. L is getting her license and we need to go to the DPS. Instead of waiting 6 hours in line to get one, you now have to make an appointment. The earliest appointments for a new license is mid April. However, the DPS prominently displays on their website that "a limited number of walk INS are allowed each day at each location". I made L an appointment for mid April and decided to get up to go early in person( you know "walk in") and wait in line to get one of the coveted walk in appointments. Imagine my surprise to learn that the DPS will not let you in without an appointment. What happened to those available walk in appointments you ask? Apparently, walk in appointments in crazy government language means you get online at 7:58 am and try to schedule one of the 50 appointments they release each day. However, I can't even see if there are any available times because the system makes me CANCEL her existing appointment before I can even see if any times are available sooner. I am not willing to cancel her appointment with only a slim possiblity she will get an earlier appointment. I also have to bring all the documents again to prove who I am. Apparently, they don't trust their own id system! Ahhhhhh! Moral of this story: The DPS is beyond stupid and L will get her license in mid April.

In better news, T's basketball team is the number 3 seed his division. We have 2 tournaments this week, one in Sherman and one in Mansfield, and then basketball season is almost over! Yay! His team has traveled far more than the older teams and played twice as many games. I will be glad to have more time for school and doing anything other than driving around all day. Next month all we have is 2 games and the state tournament and then thankfully we get a break. One of the games will be in Weatherford which hopefully means my in-laws will be able to come see him play. 

T has been working hard on trying to dunk. He is getting really close.

A has started back to school and is practicing her restraints on the cat and dog. Noelle runs from her now and it turns out Maisy is too "full figured" for A to do the restraints  properly on her so we are going to my mom's to use her little dog to record A practicing restraints on a dog. Maisy weighs about 70 lbs, but my mom's dog is only 15 lbs so it will be a lot easier for A to handle her. 

My life every morning that it is below freezing 🥶.I have to break up the ice on the horse troughs and scoop all the ice out with my metal strainer. It takes a while. I hate cold weather.