Good thing my head is attached

It's time to renew my driver's license.  so I drove to the express renewal office, but when I got there it was gone.  Oh yeah.  I saw last year where they had to close that office due to budget cuts.  So I drove home, and looked up the next closest office on the internet.  About twice as far away.  I drove out there, got in line, and when I got up to the counter the nice man said, "And you have your passport or birth certificate?"Oh yeah.  About two years ago we got that law making it mandatory to prove that you're really an American Citizen before you can get a state identification card (driver's license.)  So I drove home, got my passport out of the safe, drove back again, got back into line, twinkled at thence man behind the counter and displayed my passport, then proceeded to have my eyes checked, my documents verified, my picture taken, and my current driver's license punched.  The new license will be in the mail in about two weeks.  And I need to fill my gas tank.

I could have saved a great deal of time and travel if I had just read the full directions on the renewal notice, but I've been renewing my license for 40 some years now, and I thought I knew how to do it.  Things change.

Moreover, I have been listening to the Patrick O'Brian seafaring books.  Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin, at sea against Napoleon.  Life on board a warship in the king's navy -- fascinating, horrifying, astonishing.  Based all on fact, woven in with rich, complex characters, and exciting, engaging story lines.  So, when I should have been paying more attention to the task at hand,  half my mind was on board a sailing ship on the way to China, wondering how they were going to manage with everyone coming down with scurvy. Talk about a window into a different world!  The 15-year-old midshipman gets his arm broken so severely that it might need to be amputated.  The captain writes home to the loving parents that the lad has done remarkably well in difficult circumstances, they should be proud of him, and they can take  comfort from the fact that not only is the ship's doctor "A capital hand with the saw," but also that it is the young man's left hand, so loss of it will not in any way hamper his career.

Things sure are different now.  Imagine sending your 12 year old son off to sea to make his living in the world.  I know 12 year olds that won't leave home to take out the garbage!