Driving Tests and Their Discontents

[mallorys_camera]

UGH. This is so frustrating! RTT refuses to take extra driving lessons at that driving school because they have their own teaching agenda, which apparently is not RTT’s learning agenda. And all his other friends besides Cooper – who is finally back in rehab – drive stick shifts, so he can’t borrow a car from them.

And there’s no one I can borrow a car from.

I mean, there might be people I could borrow a car from in a pinch, but that would be for me, not my kid-who-only-has-a-learners-permit. And I can’t really blame them for that; I’m not sure I would loan a car to a kid who only had a learner’s permit if I didn’t know the kid personally.

RTT does not seem the least bit bent out of shape by this.

So, probably I shouldn’t be either.

“I’ll just reschedule the driver’s test for some other time,” he told me breezily.

And I thought, Right. Well, you’ve got a job now, and that job is close enough to your Dad’s home so that you can bike there. But I am 100% positive that they will lay you off in September – and then, all of a sudden, not having a driver’s license becomes a crisis again.

Why not just be proactive and get the damn thing now?

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I wish I could figure out some way to get my hands on a vehicle with an automatic transmission for three days so I could just go up to Ithaca and get him through that damn test.

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But I can’t. So, there’s no real reason to go up to Ithaca.

I would like to plot a substitute adventure.

This heat wave has kept me pretty close to home, but the travel lust is upon me.

I am straining at the bit here. I need a road trip.

Comments

[thisnewday]

You know, I learned to drive with an automatic but then learned stick because I thought it would be fun. (Besides which, my motorhead friends with their '57 Chevies wouldn't be caught dead in an automatic, back in the day.)

And the thing is, once you learn, it's JUST like riding a bike. If you haven't done it in a while... you'll fall off and bust your ass, lol.

Anyway, still wishing you luck with this. Isn't it amazing how, even though you tell them what might lie ahead, it's still up to us to bail them out when it confronts them...

[mallorys_camera]

I learned on a manual, but every car I owned for the next 35 years was an automatic.

But then, five years ago, a friend of mine was selling her manual Saturn Ion. And no one would buy it at the price she was asking because it was a stick shift. And then she offered it to me at such a low, low, low price that I would have been an idiot not to buy it. So I did. And I was terrified to drive it, but that lasted maybe half an hour! Really.

And I just have to disconnect from the RTT thing. He's a grownup. He'll figure it out. Or he won't! But regardless: Not my problem.

I think the real deal is that I need to go exploring somewhere for a few days. Shake the dust off the inside of my brain.