Blondie- TGIF

donjr · Dec 30, 2011

While much improved, she still needs work. I guess it will come. Mom is still terrified to take her to work and let her drive, but she is coming along.

Told me this morning after she wrenched out an 'S' curve, that she'll never be a race car driver. Says she just doesn't like curves.

A bit later, she told me she would rather just drive on roads that were straight. Good luck on that one for the next 30 or 40 years.

This weekend, I'm gonna take her down to the firehouse and TRY to teach her how to park. She got into the parking lot straight this morning, but must have been shaky still from trying to roll the car going into the industrial park too fast. But the car was still not centered in the space. I explained to her that while she was straight, if she left her car there, she would come out in the evening to find it impossible to get the door open because the car in the next space would be too close. "What would you do?". So, she backed the car out, and proceeded to park it back into the space at an angle this time. She then looked out of the door at the line, looked back at me with a big smile, and said, "There's plenty of room to get out now!"

Unngghhhh--

Chip812 · Dec 30, 2011

The way my Dad taught me where my tires were at all times is he made me crush aluminum cans one at a time... He didn't allow me to just sit the can under the tire either... I had to set it out where I could see it and then run over it with a tire... I had to alternate tires too... the back tires were the worse... I had to steer around the can with the front tire... We had a bunch of cans that needed crushing....

8)

IaGary · Dec 30, 2011

Another 6 months or so of taking her to work and she'll have this driving think down.

Don't give up now.

~})

Ky. Hauler · Dec 30, 2011

Did you get to keep the recycle money?

Goose · Dec 30, 2011

Reminds me of a couple of years ago, I was easing through the drive at a convenience store.

There was a beer can lying on the drive, so assuming it was empty I hit it with my left front tire. It wasn't empty, it was unopened and there was a guy at a gas pump leaning over the hood of his car washing his windshield.

Yep. With a big "whoosh", he got the whole load in the seat of his pants. I disappeared in a hurry.

greenbeanman in Kansas · Dec 30, 2011

she told me she would rather just drive on roads that were straight.

Kansas still has room for new residents.

Dachshund · Dec 30, 2011

I have a nephew who is 29. He's never had a DL - and thank GOD for that! I had him out on a straight country highway about 10 years ago. He was all over the road, in both ditches, swerving, pumping the gas pedal, slamming the brakes, etc, etc.
When we got back home I - literally - got out and kissed the ground......
Some people we just destined to stay on the passenger side of the seat....

CWL · Dec 30, 2011

"she told me she would rather just drive on roads that were straight.

Kansas still has room for new residents."

Hey now, I saw a curve just last week....... It did confuse the truck some though.

onefarmer · Dec 30, 2011

Practice make perfect ok maybe at least "somewhat better". But it still takes time.

My parents, besides driving tractors since I was 8, saved out a few acres of a field and let me drive an old car around on it all I wanted. When I was 16 I sure knew how to drive, just needed to brush up on traffic laws.

RayP(MI) · Dec 30, 2011

After 37 years as a Driver ED Teacher, may I offer a little advice? Go down to the local farm supply store and get a bunch of yellow plastic step-in temporary plastic fenceposts. Set up a course out in the pasture far away from any obsticles, teach her to park out there, before you take her out where there's real cars! If she hits a post, no big deal, just stick it back in the ground, and away she goes. And don't stand outside the vehicle while she's practicing! A New Jersey mom was trying to teach her daughter that way, got run over and killed!

Wardner · Dec 30, 2011

How many fender benders will it take before you surrender? Or better yet, how many cars do you have and are willing to sacrifice? I think I would start her out on a riding lawnmower or snow blower. Give her some low impact OJT. You may only have to buy a few mailboxes.

At the other end of the scale, I was dating a woman at the time I had recently bought a tandem axle, long wheelbase, IH truck with a 13 speed RoadRanger. I couldn't believe how quickly she got the hang of it. In just a couple of miles of back roads, she was shifting it without using the clutch which, of course, is how they were designed to be shifted. I could have let her gone grocery shopping by herself with a few more practice sessions in traffic.

Just wondering if it might help if she dyed her hair another color?

Paul from MI · Dec 30, 2011

One of the most pleasant aftrnoons I ever had was watching my son try to teach my daughter-in-law how to drive a 5 speed truck in my field south of the house. She never did learn, and they now have all auto trans. vehicles. Still, it was fun.

donjr · Dec 30, 2011

Automatic is bad enuf- more than one pedal. And, a PHYSICALLY MATURE 19 year old. I'm afraid her bombs might get in the way of the stick if she were able to figure out flat shifting. Yeah, you could change her hair color, but I recall that if you put lipstick on a pig, ya' still got a pig--

donjr · Dec 30, 2011

Great idea, thanks. Using cones down at the firehouse. We've got plenty, and a parking lot big enough to do EVOC training with fire apparatus. Plus lined parking spots and curbs to work with. But I like your idea--

Anonymous-0 · Dec 30, 2011

It can't all that bad, if she reads this ongoing saga it will no doubt instil in her boundless confidence.

donjr · Dec 30, 2011

Been there- done that- about two weeks ago--

donjr · Dec 30, 2011

Ain't no way I would try to go to Kansas, but if you want a boarder, maybe we can work something out---

donjr · Dec 30, 2011

Mom did say I've been drinking more recently, now I know what to do with all those cans--

donjr · Dec 30, 2011

kinda off the subject, but when I was in Nuclear Power prototype school in Connecticut, we had a 'gedunk' for meals on the site. Couple of rowdy sailors started putting the mustard, mayo , and ketcup packets on the table and beating them with their fists. Things blew the end out and had condiment all over the place. One guy- Timothy O'Connell- placed a mustard pack on a table, and not being bright enough to figure out there was a 'breach' end and a 'muzzle' end, whacked the 'muzzle' end. Black uniform. Yellow mustard.

When the 'authorities' saw the mess, and started to look for culprits, he did kind of stand out like a sore thumb. I think it took about a week for him to clean it all up==

donjr · Dec 30, 2011

Another six months of taking her to work, I think I'll have this DRINKING thing down---

donjr · Dec 30, 2011

If she reads this, it may make her want to drive me to an early grave. We picked her up on the way home this evening- her boyfriends' truck, which he just got (used Dodge), has apparently decided it couldn't take the 'operator abuse' anymore and has a good case of 'clutchitus'. She says she isn't too sure what is wrong with it, but "it makes a grinding noise when you let the pedal out, and a rattling noise when it goes, and won't go very well." Great diagnosis, Ms. Badwrench--

oldtanker · Dec 30, 2011

Just stop! You let her move in and now yer playing dad to her! Suck it up and "drive" on!

If you spent as much time with her in the car as you do on here telling about it she would be an expert driver by now!

Just pulling yer chain a bit!

Rick

Dachshund · Dec 31, 2011

Hey - when I got married, I had to teach my 21 year old bride to drive an AUTOMATIC! She knew how to drive a stick......

donjr · Dec 31, 2011

Someone's got to do it. Her real dad is a lifer bum in the airforce. Hasn't seen her in several years, only child support was what they made him pay, and that wasn't much- kids all over the place, and on his third or fourth marriage. We bought her a class ring- he didn't even send her a Christmas present. I've been her dad for about 16 years now. But her schedule is to sleep from 10pm to 7 am, get us to haul her ___ to work around 7;30, work until 5 pm, get picked up by her boyfriend and stays out until 10pm, when the cycle repeats. On weekends, he picks her up around 9 am, and we might see her when she comes through the back door at 11pm, and heads into bed. The only training time I get is between 7:30 am and 8. Wish I had a life like that. You can't yank my chain as far as she does, anyway. She's already broken it a couple of times.

buickanddeere · Dec 31, 2011

Give up before she kills somebody.Driving is not a right.

James Williams · Dec 31, 2011

Don,how many more years is it untill she comes to you and says dad your to old to drive,and she will be your main sourse of transportation,Also where are you located in MD,you cany be to far from me

jimmy

Anonymous-0 · Dec 31, 2011

Sounds like your the only ones giving this girl a chance to have a good productive life not on welfare ect. That makes you top notch in my opinion. Don't give up she needs help and your the only hope she has. Good luck

buickanddeere · Dec 31, 2011

It's nothing negative about the girl.

Some people can't sing, carry a tune, dance, draw a picture remember righty tighty lefty loosey, set a digital clock. Nor can some people play checkers, chess etc as they can not see moves ahead or remember the moves each piece makes.
You would be shocked at how few people can use a multi-meter and trouble shoot electrical equipment. They can not keep volts, amps and ohms straight in their heads. Nor can they interpret the readings on the meter to what is happening un-seen in the electrical equipment.
Some people can not play baseball, tennis etc to save their souls. It's about hand eye coordination, judging distances and speeds as they vary and simultaneously remembering road rules and the location of controls in the vehicle.
Doesn't make a person good or bad. Just means that 10-25% of the drivers out there should not drive a vehicle.
Should everybody also obtain a license to fly airplanes as easy as the motor vehicle license? Or look at how simple it is to obtain a class G light car/truck license compared to a class B school bus license.

donjr · Dec 31, 2011

Northern Harford, 6 miles s of Pennsyltuck--

Blondie- TGIF

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