Getting a Driver’s License in a Pandemic - Well, Maybe

My daughter turns 16 here in just a few short days. Normally, this would be a cause for great celebration (for her) and great angst (for her mom!). But Covid. Due to cancellations, strict rules, masking arguments, social distancing, gathering restrictions, trending numbers, and now DMV issues, it’s cause for frustration for her and even more angst for me!

Either because a part of me has mentally adjusted (or perhaps repressed) to the brokenness of the world we live in or perhaps because as a home-schooling farm girl I don’t get out as much as the average chicken, I can sometimes [almost] forget that everything has changed. On the farm things are a little less topsy-turvy than out in the big, wide beyond. It’s pretty much life as normal inside these here fences. The livestock still needs fed on a daily basis, fences still demand fixin’, and poop still happens. A lot of poop. So it’s pretty darned easy to lose myself in the routines of the farm and forget about the chaos brewing outside the chicken wire.

However, there are moments when the reality of our new world comes rushing back like a hard slap on the face on a cold winter’s day. Attempting to get a driving permit for my daughter was one of those painful ‘cold slap moments’.

Let me back up and preface this story with the fact that we purchased an online driving course for her to complete, because you know...Covid. All of the face-to-face driving classes are cancelled indefinitely, yet she has to have the driving class to proceed. Classic pandemic catch-22. It feels like we are all constantly trying to figure out how to adapt and overcome to this new shifting reality. It’s a race that, if I am being honest, I mostly feel like I am losing. I don’t enjoy running; not even a little bit.

This particular class needs to be completed in its entirety within 12 months of the purchase date. Now normally, that’s not a big deal. This past week she finished her six hours of initial classwork, which is the necessary milestone in order to apply for a driver’s permit in the great state of Texas. This is a big moment in the life of any teen, and I was excited to take her in to seal the deal. Honestly, I was pretty thrilled to offer her a moment of light in a mostly dark year.

“Hey, Sweetheart! We’ll pick a light day in our schedule this week and head over to the DMV to get your permit!” I enthusiastically promised. Well, maybe. I didn’t know it yet, but I was still living in the good ol’ days (you know, like ten months ago) when you got up early, headed to the DMV, and stood in line for 6-8 hours while grumbling under your breath about the failures of government work. Many a new less-than-savory words have been learned in the lines of the DMV! Then you were rewarded for your stoic efforts with a little plastic coated card complete with a terrible picture of you and a whole new allotment of freedoms.

Realizing that there were probably ‘some’ new rules in regards to masking and distancing at the facility, I thought it wise to check the website for information before making a final decision about the exact day. I was greeted with the fact that all driver’s license services are now done through appointment only. For one naive minute, I actually thought, “Well, this is a good thing! We won’t have to stand in line now. We can just show up for our time slot and get ‘er done!” Farm girl optimism at its finest.

I clicked on the giant and deceptively hopeful button that exclaimed, “MAKE AN APPOINTMENT NOW!” What I got was a jaw-dropping, face-slapping reality check. The next available appointment within a three-hour drive of my front door was (insert dramatic drumroll)...March of 2021. Five months away. For a permit?? Way to steal a girl’s joy, Covid. Again.

Now, the dilemma with this (besides the freaking five months!) is that her current course expires in April of 2021. In that limited time frame we have to get her permit, complete the 44 required hours of driving education (which case be done in increments of no more than two hours daily), and make yet another appointment for her actual license. Two plus two was not adding up to four!

Yikes. I guess this farmer needs to get outside her own gates a little more!

Knowing that this was not going to work, I decided I would ‘just’ find the earliest appointment I could and drive her there...even if we had to take an impromptu adventure to the other side of the state. I plugged in city after city looking for better options. Let me tell you, the results were not encouraging! Some cities were even booking appointments into the end of May and beginning of June. Holy longhorns!

After an hour of desperate plugging, I finally located one appointment that was a measly six weeks out and only an hour and a half drive away. Funny how a little perspective changes everything, isn’t it? Remember when we used to think a 4-hour wait was excessive? Now those suddenly seem like the good ol’ days of government work, don’t they?

Our appointment is creeping up on us in two more weeks. And then my daughter can finally get her permit. Well, maybe. I’m trying to get all of our ducks securely in a row (anyone that has tried herding ducks knows this is a task) but am anxious that if one piece of paper or a single signature is out of place...we will be back to the appointment starting line. We all know that’s how the DMV rolls, after all.

Here’s my advice to you. If you have any upcoming needs involving the DMV, I encourage you to start pronto. Don’t wait until your license is close to expiration or your child’s birthday is quickly approaching. The past has passed and the present is certainly no present, so start herding your ducks now. Because you just may find that Covid has scattered your ducks to the ends of the earth and it’s gonna take a little longer than you think to sort them out. It’s a fowl year, indeed.

Grow what you love, and love what you grow,

~Lettuce Pray