It's been a while, but last evening after dropping Jonathan off at his Scout meeting, Oldest and I swapped seats and she got to practice her driving.
As I said, it's been a while, mainly because she has shown little interest in investing the necessary seriousness to the task, and the fact that after the time she took Mom with her, Mom vowed never to go with her again, leaving the pedal-gogy to me. Me, who has so much free time to go and drive around aimlessly for hours on end. With every nerve in my body stretched like piano wire. With the added tension of trying to LOOK like I'm calm and relaxed and just having a wonderful time as mailboxes and culverts jump into my peripheral vision.
But, after some difficulty pulling out of the parking lot of the Methodist church, the rest of the trip was uneventful. There are plenty of nice, low-speed streets around, mixed in with some higher-velocity sections, as well as the usual assortment of suburban dangers--bags of grass clippings at the curb, joggers, bicyclists, kids, dogs, gaggles of well-toned-and-tanned women doing their fast-walking in tight shorts and sports bras.
Okay, so the last one was more distracting to me, and it was nice to be able to leer and gawk without worrying about driving over a curb.
We stayed out for an hour and some change. A very nice evening for a drive, so much so I rolled down my window and listened to the quiet and to the shush of the tires on the wet road and felt the nice cool air. We had a rain yesterday afternoon, which was great for tamping down the dust and washing away the heat, and the trees and grass were all cool and lush. Even got her to drive down to the service station and fill up the tank, all by herself.
Only bobble was when she was having to do a driveway-assisted three-point turn, and she very nearly got herself a mailbox as a trunk ornament as she was backing up. "I WAS PRESSING THE BRAKE!" Uh, no--the brake doesn't make the engine race. Otherwise, though, she did pretty darned well for herself.
Still, I wasn't able to release the tension on the piano wires until she was in the house.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at June 13, 2006 08:21 AMMy sister's neighbor -- a 16 year old boy -- was pulling into the carport a few days ago. He accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake and RAN OVER HIS MOTHER! It broke both her legs, but she is otherwise okay. No word on whether he ever wants to drive again.
Posted by: Kathy at June 13, 2006 10:21 AMThat's horrible, Kathy! Please relay my prayers for her speedy recovery, as well as to her son. Stuff like that can really be a terrible burden on a kid.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 13, 2006 11:06 AMKathy,
May our merciful God grant PHYSICAL recovery to that mother and EMOTIONAL recovery to both of them. As Terry said, that can be a terrible burden for a kid.
Terry,
What vehicle are you teaching Oldest to drive in--the Focus, Odyssey, or the Volvo? I was thinking the Focus had a manual transmission, but I could easily be mistaken.
Posted by: Stan at June 13, 2006 11:42 AMThe Focus--the Odyssey is a bit too ponderous, and the Volvo is still awaiting surgery for replacement of the front crank seal. And it's too uncool for her, even if it were running.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at June 13, 2006 11:52 AMThanks for your prayers. They were all terribly upset, but so grateful that it wasn't worse.
Posted by: Kathy at June 13, 2006 02:22 PM