"No, I like the one we have now!"

Today was our daughter's fourteenth birthday. Since I knew we were going to party at dinner at a restaurant in Santa Fe, I made an appointment to get some new tires and an alignment at Firestone at 3 p.m. Of course, they had a sitting area with a table that had magazines on it. Also, of course, above the table with magazines was a t.v. blaring loudly. Ellen's program was on, and Joe Biden was the guest.

There was only one other person seated. She was a woman in her late fifties who had her feet on the table on top of the magazines, adoringly watching Ellen suck up to Joe Biden. When the interview concluded she turned to me and said, "I wish he was President, don't you?" I answered, "No, I like the one we have now!" She turned away and did not look back my way for one-half hour. That was when another woman came in and sat down next to me. The two women knew each other and immediately began a conversation.

Meanwhile, Ellen's program ended, thank the Lord. But what came on next was even worse! A whole hour of t.v. "news" from KOAT, Albuquerque's ABC affiliate. They paid really close attention to traffic. There is no traffic in New Mexico!

Every ten minutes during the Ellen show KOAT had been teasing a story about three kids being arrested for plotting to shoot up the school where my two sons attend. Obviously, I wanted to get the details! After 50 minutes of "news" they finally got to the story of the boys who had plotted to shoot up the school. The reporter said the school would not talk to her about the boys, but that they were in juvenile detention. That's it!

Then the national news came on and immediately began badmouthing President Trump for meeting with Philippine President Duterte who has been very tough on drug dealers. This was a green light for the woman with her feet on the magazines to talk with her friend about how much she hated Trump. ABC showed Kim Jong Un inspecting something. Just then my sons walked in and said, "Let's go to the mall, Dad." We walked over to the mall where I got some ideas of what my sons might like for Christmas presents.

After the birthday party, it was a smooth ride home on new freshly aligned tires.