Legal and Of Age

Older son Alex turned 18 a couple of weeks ago. He's discovered a few things. Hey, I'VE discovered a few things.

I discovered that not only is he old enough to rent R-rated videos and see R-rated movies, he's been old enough to do that for a full year. Yeah, 17 on that one. Chalk one up for the "involved parent".

He discovered that you have to renew your driver's license when you turn 18. Trade in the provisional license for a legal one. It's a vertical card in Texas, rather than a horizontal one, so bouncers at the club can quickly identify the over-21 crowd, but a lot of the restrictions placed on new drivers are now released. The new improved license costs $24, and you have to have it. That old license expires smack on your 18th birthday.

He discovered THAT about 3 days ago when he was getting ready to drive a friend home and on a whim, I asked him to please check his license. Oops. You'd think we'd learn on that one...the same thing happened with older sister Elizabeth. Maybe we'll all get it right when Isaac turns 18. Maybe. In the mean time, he's been walking around as Public Enemy #1 with an expired license. He didn't drive his friend home after all, not that day.

It wasn't any news that he would have to register for the draft, but what he didn't realize is that it's not as simple as they make it out to be. You CAN go down to the Post Office, fill out a card and drop it in the mail. Yes, you can do it that way. OR in these advanced times, you can register online. Go to the Selective Service website, fill in your pertinent information, and in a few days...they will send you a card through the U.S. mail which you can fill out and take to your local Post Office and mail back to them.

He also discovered that he's teetering on the edge of "over the hill" already. It seems that his favorite childhood toys, the "Transformers" robots, have been re-released as "vintage classics". That's startling news to someone so newly legal and of age.