A0085

The process seemed simple enough. And it was. Much simpler than my son and I had initially believed.

For months, Sage had asked me to buy him the Parent Taught Drivers Education course from Aceable. At a sale price of $74 (originally $115), plus $15 for instant certificate delivery, and $20 for the Parent -Taught Driver Education (PTDE) program guide, it was a bit costly and not within my budget at the time. Last Thursday night, I bought him the course and the certificate delivery whilst he bought the program guide. He was now set to learn to drive.

We both thought he had to complete the entire course in order to get the driver’s permit. And that it would take months to do. It was only six hours that he needed to complete, which he managed to finish in one day. The rest of the course he would work on after getting the permit.

The next step was scheduling an appointment at the Texas Department of Public Safety and gathering all of the documents. Last Friday, when he checked the DPS site for an appointment, the earliest one he found was on the fourth of September. Since his VOE certificate was valid for only 30 days, we would have needed to get a new Verification of Enrollment from school. Based on the current circumstances, that was not an option.

My son did further research online and found a Reddit discussion for Austin where someone mentioned same-day appointments that could be available from 07,00 to 10,00. Early this morning, he was lucky and found about nine available appointments. We scheduled the last available one in Austin at 09,40, as I needed to do some work before leaving. My taking time off so ‘suddenly’ seemed to be a great issue, which really was not. Next time I will opt to take a sick day.

The drive took exactly 22 minutes. We arrived a few minutes early, but had to drive around the parking lot a few times to find a place to park. We managed to find a spot right in front of the door as someone had just left. Even then, we were seven minutes early.

Once inside, we checked in for the appointment at a row of tablets along the wall, and waited. My son was holding the ticket he received for his place in line. Ticket A0085. He also held the black 3-ring binder which held his application and supporting documents. The birth certificate was not needed since he had his passport.

After about 20 minutes, we heard the announcement. ‘Number A0085 is now being served at counter 8’. We handed over the documents and waited for further instructions. As the lady handed us the filled-in paperwork she finished reviewing, we signed our names, filled in our address, and dated the documents in the highlighted areas. My son then had his thumbprints recorded and his photo taken. He also took had an eye test. Then we paid the $16.00 and went on our way. The entire process, including the waiting, took about half an hour.

‘Now I can drive home!’, I heard him say as we walked out into the parking lot. I shot him a look that made it clear that was not going to happen. Though we had practiced on occasion for the past year or so across the street on the school parking lots, this was not the same. It was perhaps ten times that he drove around the parking lots of both the middle and high schools. He did well, but this was not an accurate representation of the real world.

On our way home, I pulled into a shopping area along FM 2222 and handed the keys to my son. I moved into the passenger seat. He sat in the driver’s seat. We were both a bit apprehensive, but he did quite well, going through two roundabouts by our apartment complex with no issues.

Once home, we managed to empty our minivan from the move. Two months after our move, the zebra chair and large Sarouk Persian rug was finally in our apartment. Afterwards, we continued the real-life driving lesson to go buy some salsa at Flores Mexican restaurant. Now that was a bit more frightening, at least to me. Still, he did quite well. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed. Tomorrow, we continue with the lessons as we drive back to the restaurant for our gallon of salsa.

The second hat of August 2025