Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Learner's permitting
The Assassian's comment to my post below reminds me of when I was learning to drive with hand controls. It's not a hard thing to do at all unless you have zero motor skills and your instructor is too busy flirting to watch you navigate the road...you get a knob on your wheel that all truckers have, and some gadgets like on a motorcycle for acceleration and braking, but sometimes you also get a little dicey with the devices and your car does the opposite of what you had wished...I was learning how to park and pull out in a totally deserted lot at Barnes&Noble when all these mothers with strollers suddenly came streaming out the door -- I finally rolled down the window and shouted "New driver of hand controls here!" Boy you should' ve seen them scatter......a few days later I almost took out a grocery boy picking up stray shopping carts at Kroger but he dodged too quickly.
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10 comments:
Haha. Um...oops. I bet he discovered he was pretty fly at the high jump though!
Sounds like me with manual transmissions. I learned to drive an automatic first then when I had my license I learned stick at my own pace. 'My own pace' meant kangaroo jumping around the neighbourhood and giving myself whiplash. And scaring pedestrians. And errant cats. It's funny though how weird placement can be. The gearstick and handbrake in the UK are on the left so you change left-handed. This seems normal to me, especially as I am left-handed and I grew up there. Here in the Americas it's on the right. To this day I still look hopelessly amateur changing gears in the States. It just seems so wrong. This is why I drive an automatic. Truly. It's for the good of humanity!
OMG!! All the flashbacks.Lol. My mother tried teaching me to drive stick one summer. After about 3 nights of crying and this isnt going to work she thought what the hay lets try it again. We get out to the street to get in the car and we both hear a neighbor kid yell "Clear the street SHE is back!"..Yeah we both went in and she bought me an automatic.
Oh the flashbacks! Too funny!
Thank you for visiting my blog. I've enjoyed yours and would like to follow please, pretty please!
Hand knobs?? I have never heard of that...but, I have experienced the lady with a stroller bit as a new driver!
My father insisted I learn to drive a manual transmission, and even though I choose to drive an automatic these days, I'm glad I can drive a standard. But his methods were a little extreme. There was a steep hill at the end of our street. One day for our driving lesson, he drove halfway up the hill, stopped and put the emergency brake on. Then he got out and told me to get behind the wheel. He then wanted me to continue to the top of the hill. We nearly landed in a ditch because the car rolled so far down the hill between me trying to let up on the clutch and take my foot off the brake to hit the accelerator. I was eventually successful, but not before my father and I had a hell of a screaming match replete with expletives. I still have a little PTSD from the experience.
How funny--reminds me of teaching my daughter to drive--scary, but so worth it! Once she got the hang of things, she became an excellent driver and is now a valued back-up driver in our home. Also wanted you to know that I read your cat story yesterday--I didn't comment then because it sent me into some quiet introspection about my sweet kitty that I lost a couple years ago...I'm glad your little guy is holding his own for now.
So funny. Wish I could have seen that. You needed a megaphone attached to the car that would allow you to shout to the world. Come to think of it, I could use that in the pick-up lane at school. Thanks for the idea:)LOL Holly at lifelaughlatte.blogspot.com
Oh boy. That sounds hard!
Manual? What's that? Never heard of it (kidding of course) and would NEVER want to try my hand at it. Nooooo
Push gas, car go. Simple. I like it that way.
Haha, this little story really made me laugh out loud. Not like LOL, but literally... I laughed, out loud ;)
So happy to have come across your blog, I could read here for hours!
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