New Califormia Driver License and ID Cards Released

“See it, Touch it, Trust it”

California DMV goes high-tech

By Gregory S. Cleghorne

Freelance Writer

California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) rolled out their newly designed and more secure driver license and identification cards today (Wednesday, Oct. 6) at the DMV field office in South Sacramento in an ongoing effort to improve driver license and ID card security.

The DMV’s supercharged cards are accompanied by the department’s new mantra, “See it, Touch it, Trust it,” referring to the license’ new look, feel and difficulty to counterfeit.

“The new security features, coupled with advanced technology, make California driver licenses and ID cards some of the most secure identification documents in the country,” said George Valverde, DMV Director. “We are confident they will be well-received by residents, business and law enforcement officials.”

Sacramento resident, Nicole Nesbitt, was understandably concerned about any monetary changes involved. “As long as there’s no additional cost, it’s cool,” she said.

One of the changes is the vertical format for the under 21 ID card, but the rest of the information remains the same. The high-tech models have more than just a new paint job. When the cards are held to a light, the image of a bear appears in a star-like formation and when held under ultraviolet light, embedded information is revealed. When touched, the cardholder’s raised signature and identifying numbers can be felt.

Annually, the DMV issues about 8.25 million driver licenses and ID cards to Californians and since the cards are designated as the state’s primary identification document, law enforcement officials and the DMV say it’s critical that it’s secure and accurate.

“We make millions of stops every year,” CHP Officer Mike Bradley said. “This will set the counterfeiters back about seven to 10 years.”

The cards, which have not changed since 2001, are the product of a joint task force including the CHP, DMV, Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control (ABC) and The Department of Homeland Security.

Matt Paulin, DMV Chief Deputy Director, summed up the changes with a touch of nostalgia, “The days of altering California licenses with a pen or a marker are over.”

Cardholders are not required to get new cards until the old ones expire unless they want one. Valverde said, “When it comes time to renew your card, DMV has many services that are offered online to help customers avoid going into to the field offices.”

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PHOTOS:

1501 - Matt Paulin, DMV Chief Deputy Director addresses the media with Steve Lerwill, CHP Division Chief, right and Jott Condie, far right, Executive Director, California Restaurant Association at the DMV South Sacramento field office.

1516 – Matt Paulin, DMV Chief Deputy Director explains the changes to the California driver license and ID cards.

1527 – CHP Officers Mike Bradley, left, and Adrian Quintero examine new license and ID cards

1536 – CHP Officer Jeanie Hoatson gives a news cameraman a close look at the new license and ID card.

1544 – Long line curls around DMV building in South Sacramento the day the new license and ID card are released.

1547 – Driver license replica.

1548 – Under 21 ID card is now vertical.

What a difference a few hundred days make...

I saw my son for the fist time this year.
It had been going on ten months.
I was about to induce labor had I not and it would not have been pretty.
But as usual, God is so very good...

This is what happens when a real 'mother' decides to make life difficult for a man who is trying to see his only child and a son to boot.

What makes women or men do that sort of thing.
What makes men or women turn their backs on their children and not look back?
I'm glad I am not one of those men, but now I can understand why some do.

If you have a heart to care, the pain is tremendous.
Like Everest high and cold at times and marathon exhaustion at others; volcanic hot in some places and as difficult to navigate as the twists and turns of insanity .
But then there's Faith.
I don't know why it works, but it does.
It's the Novocaine to a root canal and a parent's kiss on a child's scraped knee...
Sometimes, as a passionate person - for people and causes - it's difficult to let go of things I feel deeply for; like my son.
But I made up my mind a long time ago, no matter what it took and no matter what challenges I was to face, as long as I lived I was not going to leave my son.
Sure, they say 'suicide is painless' and the thought visited from time to time but...
If I had taken that shortwalk, today would have never come for me...
For my son...

Tears may come at night but Joy comes in the morning...
Thanks Mom for preparing me for days like the ones I have been through...
And Thank You for NOT telling me there would be days like the ones I experienced...

The sun kept coming up, or rather, the Earth kept turning when I thought all had come to an end. I kept living... The tears fell, I slept and I learned to forget.
Now I need to learn to forgive.
Others and myself...
God is so good.

So, after many, many low days and thousands of miles - sometimes running, sometimes just traveling, now being where I need to be - the day came.
A Saturday.

And then, walking through a simple, white door there he was again.
A tall, young man of 12 years of age. His hair, dark and thickly curled like wool, rested on his head like a warm blanket. The sight of those curls led me to memories of my elder brother Merrill's hair lying just above a furrowed brow and thick glasses, his squinting eyes darting from subject to the next brush stroke as an oil-soaked, horse-hair brush he held glided across a hand-stretched canvas. His work, portraits, still life, city scape, imagination creation or landscape left me awestruck. He was the kind of illustrator who could draw a figure with five lines better than I could with a thousand and five.
His work, indelibly etched in my memory, faded as I looked again on my son's handsome face; a smirky smile creeping across his face and I think mine too.

Our eyes met awkwardly but like old friends.
He seemed unsure to me. His step a little tentative, his greeting subdued.
Outwardly, I was reserved and cool, but inside, it was times square at New Years.
His one-word answers bothered me a bit, it was as if he had an internal harness he hadn't quite learned how to release, but I'm sure he'll tame that lion too. I'll be glad to help.

We sat, talked and played video games on my laptop for what seemed a light and timeless forever like at a wedding reception or a vacation's walk on a perfect, far-away beach.
And after a snack of sandwich cookies, a game of chess.
He told me not to let him win when I moved a piece he knew I shouldn't have.
After a while, his responses were two words, then three then more...
It just got better and better.

But as time goes by, the reunion ended too quickly.
As we prepared to depart I asked him if I could touch his head... His hair...
Like a dad does to his son.

He said yes and I did. He seemed to welcome it.
There's no gauge to tell how much I missed it, missed him...
I asked him for a hug and he said yes.
But before I held him again after so long, I asked him if I could pick him up
and again, he said yes...
That meant a lot.
I picked him up and felt like I was picking myself up.
I closed my eyes and was both there in the moment, in the room ...
And not.

I watched as he headed for that white door again.
I so didn't want him to leave without me.
The wait until next time is always pregnant.
I wasn't sure what he felt.
Did he miss me?
Was this just obligatory?
Had HE moved on?
Had he turned his back on me?

I was about to turn and sit and fade into countless thoughts and questions and uncertainty.
Then, as he made the last turn out of the room, the last turn I could see him and he me,
he turned, looked at me with a fondness and waved good bye.
Not a full cruise ship good bye like I may not ever see you again, but more like a, 'see ya later' kind of wave...

When he was a tiny thing, we had a level of spoken and unspoken communication that only people with close relationships can understand.
At that moment, I felt it was still there between he and I.
And it felt good. I hope for him too.
It was the indescribable feeling I was missing all these long miles, these long hours and long, long years.

While it was not the best time we spent together, it was the most wonderful time for me.
But then again, when you're starving a tea biscuit tastes like a gourmet meal.
This was a really good tea biscuit though.

The best times we had were way back when he was an infant, a toddler, a first grader...
At least now he can remember our time together.
I'm looking forward to getting to know him all over again.
Having new adventures and making new memories.
I look forward to the first time we go scuba diving together.
Or sailing or cycling.
These last few days, I have actually been looking forward instead of back.
I have been thinking about life instead of death.
I have been thinking of love instead of hate and indifference.
...Of being clean instead of dirty.

There's s much more to say, but it will have to suffice when I say I had an unusual visitor come and stay with me for the rest of the day and several days still afterward.
A visitor I hadn't seen nor felt nor held in a very long time.
The visitor was a smile...

Something I hadn't done in quite some time.
And for a while, a peace...
One that passed my ability to understand it...

Now, parts of me are trying to tell me it was a dream, that it never happened.
But it did.
And if I can hold on, it will happen again... And again... And again...

I want that peace to stay with me.
I want to be with my son.

Shalom

My Mom Skyped Me!

It started off like a typical Memorial Day.
Someone was raising a flag down my quiet, Rancho Cordova Street - a suburb of beautiful, downtown Sacramento. And that's about where typical stopped.

One story below my window, I see fragrant, white gardenia blooms - pushed up en masse by recent warm weather - covering a thick, green bush like picnic popcorn bursting onto manicured grass. I slowly navigate to my apartment's front door, open it and take a deep breath of cool, morning air then make my way to my computer to check my email and maybe do some online homework.

Not too long after going online, my Skype program lit up my screen and a familiar tone and lyrical, futuristic, electronic beep melody chimed from the computer's speakers. I looked but didn't immediately identify the caller, but chose to answer it anyway - it was a holiday after all. And I'm so glad I did.
To my joyful surprise, it was my Mom!
And, slowly, it began dawning on me that she was calling me on Skype, the free (for Skype to Skype users) video, audio conferencing, IM and text internet messaging service; the same service I was attending some of my online classes through.
I asked her to get the program or ask brother and sister to download it for her and finally they did! Hoo-Yah!

Ellen greeted me, was operating the computer at first and told me Mama wanted to talk to me. I felt a little giddy, like a kid who got picked to play in a playground, pick-up game of ball.
And, although I am a little old to worry about Mom wanting to talk to me, that familiar twinge of, 'Uh-Oh, what did I do' came and passed in a microsecond. That fleeting feeling didn't fully go away until Mom's cherub-like face filled the screen. Her well-groomed, thick head of more silver than black locks flowed from the top of her head like a cascading waterfall, resting on her shoulders like a calm lake. Her face lit up as she saw me and her warmest, cheek puffing smile quickly replaced a look of anticipation and slight bewilderment. She spoke a joyful, 'Ooooh, hello, Greg!'
"Hi Mom!" I replied, realizing how much my voice had shifted up a few octaves to sound like a school kid again.

"Oh, wow, I can see him!" she said in transfixed amusement.
She marveled at being able to see me through my sister's computer. But, as mom usually does when she hasn't seen me in awhile, she took great joy in pointing out that I had lost weight - for a change.

She usually is the first one to tell me I gained weight by puffing her cheeks like Dizzy Gillespie did when he blew his horn. Certainly not the way I wanted her to remember me nor point out, thank you very much. But that's what mom's do; at least that's what my mom does.

We did some catching up with Ellen refereeing disputes in time line and conduct like who tormented whom about posture when we were kids just as Ellen was reminding mom to maintain her posture now. I think we are mutually thankful for the admonishment.

And then we talked about things mother's and sons talk about; how am I doing, really, am I eating right, getting enough sleep, am I dating anyone... Oh, and 'what's all that stuff behind me she could see in the background?' Ratz! I think I told her I was still moving in... H-yah.

We talked about gardening and how her yard was in need of some tending to and how, if she could get me to NYC, I would take care of the tall grasses threatening to squeeze out her herb garden. I told her I'd be happy to - I am overdue for a NYC reunion. She jokingly offered to send me a helicopter as my coach. My sister and I clowned her a bit, telling her a 'helo' wouldn't make it in one shot from Cali. I think she knew.

I think EC said mom was too cheap to have Alzheimer's but sometimers was affordable. Mom laughed at each option - she is of the Blessed and Healed, Praise God; she is quite spry and her faculties are intact. I forget more things than she does. I am healed too! I'm claiming that!

We had a Grand time, talking for a few hours, catching up, laughing and telling each other how good we looked. It's always good to talk to mom. Shes quite a character and a Blessing to us, the community and anyone she comes in contact with!
As for me, if mom doesn't tell me I look good, who will? One rarely asks, 'how do I look?' to just anyone; they might just tell you the truth. But with mom? She usually always says, 'I look good.' Unless my face is getting fat. Then I get the Gillespie cheeks... Thing.

After a while, the novelty seemed to wear off and she tried to get off the line, assuring and me that 'I' (meaning me) had other things to do. But EC laughed from off screen, confirming what I already knew from many past experiences trying to keep up with mama. EC and I both knew that Mama, unhindered by being past her octogenarian years - like that slowed her down at all - has a calendar of things to do and plenty of blue-haired friends to do them with!

Well, God Bless ya, Mom! I and we all love you now and always.
Happy Memorial Day '09!

And thanks for the Skype call!

Me? I'm just fine.


(Top left: Mom's 90th Birthday invitation -pic from Point Loma, California (I think -Hawai'i maybe?), center top, Mom and me @ San Diego Airport, below, Mom portrait, bottom, Mom lookin' hot with sons Rodney and Merrill in the 50's.)

When Super Heroes Go Bad

Thank God I never saw my childhood icons
on the down and out...
I mean, I could understand Popeye, maybe.
He was a sailor after all.

C'mon Blue Power Ranger...

No Caption Necessary

I didn't even have to ask this Californian if he was...
Well; u know.

Eternal Damnation! ... Uh... JK

Great News!
I got the best religious pamphlet message I've ever received this morning.
It showed how, in a month to month progression,one could go through the Bible in a year. That was kinda cool.

But the best part was a disclaimer on a separate piece of paper that read: This book was printed before we had correct Biblical knowledge of God's judgment process. Therefore, please disregard statement within it that speaks of such things as Eternal Damnation. Thank you.

That's the best news ever! Yes, I was worried... A little...

Happy Resurrection Day

I'm Grateful...