Tag-Archive for » driver’s ed «

Cone Carnage

08
Jun 2010

Yesterday, my oldest daughter took the test that qualified her to get a REAL driver’s license. Or as real as it gets for a 16-year-old, which means she can drive places all. by. herself.

*sniff*

*FEAR!*

The test began with a quick inspection of her vehicle. The daughter INSISTED she would drive the truck and not the van, and I had tried to discourage her from driving the truck, but I gave into her wishes because I wanted her to be comfortable during her test.

I also made this deal: she passes, I pay; she fails, she pays.

I climbed out of the truck, and Autumn was left alone to run through the cone obstacles. It involved pulling to within 2 feet of a line (she was a bit short – one point), backing into what is about the size of a parking space and then pulling out and parallel parking.

Her dad was worried about the parallel parking, but I was just worried.

When she pulled up short to the line (although we had just practiced it, and I had mentioned she look to the side to help judge), I was worried for her. She would be disappointed if she failed.

But then she went to back up into the spot, and she moved slowly and hit a cone on the far right side. She stopped and looked at us for guidance, but she was on her own. She decided to keep moving backwards, and as she did, the cones fell one by one. By the time she put the truck in park and beeped her horn, she had four cones under the truck, and she had crossed the rear line at the back of the parking area.

OK, I admit it. I was laughing. I was probably also a little bit relieved — if she failed the test, she would have more time to practice before she was off on her own and that isn’t a bad thing. I grabbed my phone and snapped a couple of pictures — I had to do it.

Autumn put the truck in drive, pulled forward and finally straightened it out and backed into where she needed to be. Despite all of the knocked down cones, she only lost one point for pulling forward. The test is designed so you lose points only when you have to change directions to adjust your position. She only did that once, and so she only lost one point.

When it was time for her to parallel park, I couldn’t watch. I was laughing, and I didn’t want to distract her. I walked out of her line of sight and looked out toward Houghton Lake. She did a great job, getting the parking on the first time.

I made my way back and the driver’s testing lady asked me how she did driving, and I responded she did a good job. It was time for the road test.

The lady directed me to sit behind Autumn, which meant I couldn’t see very much. I was quiet throughout almost the entire test. There was one point where Autumn was at a crossroads of M-55, and she was supposed to turn left. The traffic on M-55 wasn’t stopping, and the traffic across the way had two vehicles — one turning left and one going straight. Autumn pulled out, and without even thinking about it, I said her name out loud.

I didn’t gasp, and my tone wasn’t excited, but I had broken my vow of silence. The driver’s ed lady assured me Autumn was not going to turn in front of the truck, and I tried to go back to being quiet.

It’s hard. Just a little ways down the road, another vehicle did a knuckle head move and basically pulled out in front of Autumn. I gasped, which is something I would do pretty much anytime. Autumn was fine, and my gasp was NOT in reaction to her move. But I was supposed to be quiet. Both Autumn and my husband had lectured me that I could not gasp or talk during the test, and I had done both, and I had started off so well.

I clamped both hands over my mouth and stopped watching the road. Instead, I once again looked out towards the lake to get control of myself. The driver’s testing lady was great. She said she understood my reaction and that it was natural. The rest of the test went smoothly, and Autumn did great.

The lady filled out Autumn’s certificate, and we were going to be on our way. Autumn wanted to go to the Secretary of State’s office immediately.

While sitting behind the wheel with the truck in park and running, Autumn spotted a friend with a skateboard. I was getting out of the seat behind her, and Autumn leaned out the window to yell at her friend. She was excited to tell someone she had just passed, but as she did so, she hit the gas pedal, and the truck revved up big time.

I yelled. So much for staying quiet.

The testing lady was just entering her motor home, so I don’t know what her reaction was, but I was not amused.

Still, after a quick trip home to pick up her sister for a softball game, Autumn and I went to the Secretary of State’s office to apply for her driver’s license. I emphasized she was still inexperienced and needed practice. I doubt Autumn heard me. The actual application process was pretty ho-hum. There weren’t any glitches, and she was soon smiling for the camera and walking out with her temporary license.

After the game, both girls asked if I would ride home with my mom leaving the two of them alone. I agreed, and the girls were off. They were very excited. They made a stop at my in-laws (with my permission) on the way home.

And that is how I became the mom of a teenage driver.

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Choppy Thoughts

10
Feb 2010

I am sniffling and sneezing. Stuffy even. I don’t feel good. I have a cold, and I am on a rotating dosage of NyQuil/DayQuil/NyQuil….

I have a lousy personality. I must. I had a job interview last week. Basically the interview was “we know you can do the job, but we want to see if your personality will fit.” My personality must not have fit. That can’t be right, can it?

I am stuffy. I hate being sick.

My middle daughter, Amanda, has a boyfriend. I am worried.

Maxine smiles. Easily. She still makes a point of kissing me hello/goodbye/goodnight/goodmorning. It is wonderful. The older kids? Too old for that unless I force it on them.

It snowed. A lot. I’m ready for spring.

Autumn is starting segment two of driver’s training in March. She is just over 3 months away from being 16 and licensed.

Justin is going to be in Battle of the Books. He is excited!

Autumn and another girl in her band earned a I in regional solo & ensemble competition. They have a flute duet. They will go onto state competition in about a month’s time.

Maxine and I are excitedly gathering items to pack for our trip to Washington DC next week.

Amanda’s school said she failed an eye exam and needed to get checked. She was very worried. Turns out, she has 20/20 vision without glasses or contacts. She is now very very happy.

Maxine’s getting a LOT of phone calls from boys.

Category: Choppy Thoughts  Tags: , , , ,  One Comment

Not in the Driver’s Seat

25
Jan 2010

AutumnDriveI am a little bit more gray today. My oldest daughter, you see, has her level one driver’s license. This means I am regularly forced to sit in the passenger seat and turn over a two-ton vehicle to the girl who couldn’t keep track of her first two, possibly three, pairs of glasses.

OK, forced may be too powerful of a word. I mean, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. This time next year, it won’t have to be me that is forced to stay up past 10 p.m. in order to drive to the school and pick up children returning from away games. It won’t be me who has to spend time sitting outside the school waiting for various practices to get out and go around from school building to school building picking up the various children only to find myself at home after 6 p.m. exhausted.

But to get to that point, I need to go through this, and this, isn’t pretty, but it is getting better.

From the passenger seat, I notice that my daughter cannot do two things at once. For instance, she cannot maintain a steady speed and do important things like turn on a blinker or the windshield wipers. Never mind all the times she cannot maintain speed because she wants to do things she doesn’t need to do like turn on the radio or grab a drink.

Another aside: Is it wrong that as soon as she obtained her license, I directed her through a fast food lane? I figured she needed realistic practice, and I was hungry. Her food went cold because she had no idea how to eat and drive. I, however, was enjoying my meal.

When Autumn started driving, she tended to wiggle within her lane. That is, a cop driving behind us would probably strongly suspect she was drunk although she never crossed the yellow or white lines. This is not conducive to relaxed supervision.

She has been driving in good weather and bad. She has been driving on snowy and icy roads. And when her dad takes control of the supervision, he does things like tell her to slam on her breaks despite the ice on the road. I am not that adventurous.

I tend to say, “Slow down,” a lot even if, technically, she isn’t speeding.

I never knew 45 mph could feel so fast! But when a 15-year-old is behind the wheel, it can feel like a rocket shooting into the atmosphere.

I never knew two full car lengths was such a short span of space. When a 15-year-old is behind the wheel, it feels like she is tailgating.

The most exciting (harrowing) moments, however, have happened more recently. I have been letting her drive after dark. It makes it harder for me to see what she is doing as well as what is going on outside our vehicle, and it has ratcheted up my nerves even more.

I also suspect the girl is somehow a descendant of some type of insect because it appears she is attracted to bright lights.

And where do you see bright lights when driving at night? If you guessed “the headlights of the oncoming vehicles,” you would be correct.

That is right! The first time she drove, it felt like she kept making a beeline for those oncoming headlights. It was very disconcerting. In an effort to make it home safely, I made her ride the line — the white line that is. Whenever her right tire even THOUGHT about leaving the white line, I would gasp and yell to force her to steer back to the right and away from the lights.

Also, the girl has not yet mastered the art of turning right in places that have curbs. Before there was snow, this meant the van would rise up a bit and come back down. Now, with snow, however, we are constantly in danger of ending up high centered on a snow bank. She really needs to practice turning right.

Or turning in general. She seems to have two speeds when turning — super fast or stopped. It is always nice when she decides to stop in the middle of the road and just sit there for minutes at a time (OK, probably not minutes but it can feel that way) before turning even when turning right. Some of her turns are scary.

More than once as I sat in the passenger seat, I would get the feeling that I just couldn’t take one more moment of her behind the wheel. I had served my time for the day, and I was done.

But it doesn’t get any better when I am in the driver’s seat. Suddenly, I have a driver’s training instructor sitting next to me.

“Did you stop before the stop sign?” she’ll ask me.

The good news is that this experience is making both of us better drivers. Why just yesterday, she managed to reach over and turn up the music without any swerving within her lane while maintaining a steady speed. Progress.

Editor’s NOTE: Please note that the girl was NOT driving when the picture was taken. The vehicle was in park.

Category: Parenting  Tags: , , ,  2 Comments

It’s not a drive

02
Dec 2009

…it’s a putt.

Or at least that is what my dad would say whenever he heard me proclaim that something was “driving me crazy.” The putt is a golf term (he had to explain this to me) and suggested that I was much closer to crazy than a drive….

And sitting in the passenger seat while your teenage child drives your vehicle can sometimes feel like you are just a putt away from crazy.

The first time I let her drive went pretty well. Except for one thing — whenever I would give her advice or correct something, she would respond with “I know.” I could have gone into a lengthy perturbed lecture about “if you know, why did you do it….” Instead, I let her know that it was my job to tell her things, and it was her job to listen. I suggested she say, “OK” instead of “I know.” And she agreed. This is good because I might have wanted to throttle her if she kept up the “I know” when she so clearly did not know.

The other day her dad was with us while she drove. She pulled out into the road too wide, and she went into the other lane although there was no reason to do so. She pulled back into her lane, but a car was coming form the other direction. Her dad panicked a bit. Hours later when it was just him and me, he admitted at how scared he was and how much that wide turn was still bothering him.

For the most part, she does pretty well. She isn’t good at right-hand turns. She wobbles within her lane (going back and forth but always staying within her lane), and whenever she tries to do something else, like turn on a blinker or the windshield wipers, she slows down. I’m sure this is partly because she is driving new to her vehicles, and she doesn’t know where everything is located.

For the most part, when she is behind the wheel it is uneventful. I am thankful for that. It is nice to be driven around, and we are both thinking ahead to the time when I will not have to be the one that leaves the house to go get children from practices and away games. It will free up so much of my time, and I wouldn’t mind at all.

My concern are those moments where she drifts too close to the center lane for my peace of mind…. GO RIGHT, GO RIGHT, GO RIGHT, I say loudly. Loudly she responds, “I AM. DON’T YELL.” And I wish I had one of those brakes on my side of the vehicle and that the steering wheel was closer in a minivan than it is. So far I haven’t grabbed the wheel, but those brief moments (less than 10 seconds total out of more than 5 hours of driving) is enough to make my heart beat fast and to have worried conversations with my husband.

I remember being a teen. I did not learn to drive stick easily. My parents didn’t even try to teach me. Instead, they left it to my brother and sent us out into the two-tracks behind our house in a beat-up truck. Eventually, I learned. But I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what Keith must have gone through having to sit in that seat next to me. It is easier, I think, when you are the one behind the wheel.

Me: It’s driving me crazy.

You: I thought it was a putt.

Me: It is now.

You: I know.

Me: Definitely a putt.

You: OK

Category: Parenting  Tags: , ,  One Comment

Crushing Her Dreams

17
Nov 2009

My oldest daughter successfully made it through level one of driver’s training. She will soon be licensed to drive while her parents sit next to her.

This in itself is a huge accomplishment. She should be excited and proud about the upcoming training. Her dad is good at this stuff. Her mother will be clenching her teeth, biting her tongue and adjusting the tension in the seatbelt to insure maximum safety.

The girl, however, is delusional. She is not thinking about the next three months and at least 50 hours of driving time being logged as lessons are learned.

No, she is thinking about her 16th birthday in May, her junior year of high school, which almost a full year away, when she can drive to school.

She sees herself driving around town, picking up friends, graciously taking her siblings places, and putting herself behind the wheel almost every chance she can get.

This is where her head is when she gets into the car next to me carrying the signed certificate that says she successfully completed level one.

“Can I drive?” she asks.

“No,” I answer.

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t have your license yet. You won’t until we go to the Secretary of State’s office.

“Please? Can I drive?”

“No.”

“Can we stop and see how much it is?” She is referring to a yellow Corvette sitting in a parking lot with a for sale sign on it. She has mentioned this Corvette repeatedly, and I can tell in her mind it is already “her car.”

“No. We aren’t buying you a Corvette.”

“Let’s just see how much it costs.”

“No.”

“I need a car.”

“You do NOT need a car. We aren’t buying you a car.”

“Daddy said I might get a car.”

“And you might. It will not be a Corvette.”

“I need a cell phone.” (I’m thinking that is a 180, but in her mind the two are connected: driving and cell phones.)

“You can’t get one.”

“Amanda doesn’t need one.”

“Amanda is responsible. You weren’t. No phone.”

“I’ve been good.”

“For two months. You were irresponsible for two years.”

“So I have to wait two years?”

“No, but you do have to wait longer than two months. Maybe next September when our phone contract is up. We can add a line.”

“September? I need a phone when I get a car.”

“You can get a prepay phone, and you aren’t getting a car.”

“A prepay phone is worse than not having a phone.”

“OK, no phone.”

“Well, I’ll be driving dad’s truck.”

“No, you won’t.”

“Yes, I will.”

“What makes you think you will drive your dad’s truck?”

Her dad’s truck sits in our driveway most days. My husband has a company vehicle that he drives to work, and I drive my minivan most of the time. I use the truck as a back up (read when the minivan’s gas tank is empty and so is my wallet).

“I’ll drive it to school and stuff when I have practice.”

“You are not driving your dad’s truck.”

“I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“Why would we let you drive your dad’s truck? It is the nicest vehicle we have. Why would you drive it? We are still paying for it.”

“Well, I’ll get my own car then.”

“You don’t have a job or money.”

“Dad will buy me one.”

“With what? If we get a new vehicle, it is going to be mine not yours.” (My minivan has about 250,000 miles, and I will need to replace it soon. Plus, I hope the replacement will NOT be a minivan. I hate minivans, but when you are hauling around 4 kids and their stuff, minivans are a necessary evil.)

“I’ll buy a fixer-upper for $200, and Dad will help me fix it.”

“And who is going to pay for the parts to fix it?”

“I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“What about insurance and gas money?”

“Vaughn gets $2 from everyone that he drives around.”

“Gas is expensive. We live 20 miles from everything.”

“I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“Do you think your dad has a pot of gold sitting around somewhere?”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“You will probably drive the minivan.”

“I don’t want to drive the minivan.”

“Then you won’t drive.”

“I’m not talking to you anymore. I’m going to talk to Dad.”

Later, I mention my daughter’s thoughts about her driving his truck. His response, “What makes her think she is going to drive my truck?”

Of course, he has similar thoughts about me driving his truck….

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