skibigsky's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where I come clean. Again. Okay, so my deep-dark secret that I alluded to in the last post, (and that everyone IGNORED, I’d like to add, *ahem): I can’t drive. Well, that’s sort of true. I don’t have a license (yet), and have never had one in my life. Yes, I have owned vehicles (hell, I own two right now, as well as a 5th wheel), but I have not known how to drive. I have ALWAYS either a) relied on friends, b) faked it for various distances (look, I’ve OWNED cars, it’s not rocket science), c) carpooled and bought gas, or d) relied on public transportation. And I sort of have an excuse for my license-less life; I went to a snobby prep school for high school, and driver’s ed was not in the curriculum, so in the summer I was stuck with my mother teaching me to drive (I’ve had a learners permit 3 times, counting currently, thankyouverymuch), and she is probably the single-most timid driver on the face of the planet. Then when I went to college, I didn’t have a car, or friends with a car (well, I had one friend who did, it was a clunker, and one of the times that I had a real live permit, I drove it down to southern Utah with her for a family thing, at about 55mph the entire time). And once I left the dorms, I relied on public transportation, and friends. In Montana? I faked it. Then, when I came back to Utah, I bought a Blazer (yes, you can buy a car and get it insured without a license…) and pretty much had Tennis Pro drive it. Then, when I moved in with Mr. V., I bought the Pacifica (see above about buying cars without licenses) and while I drove it occasionally, I mostly carpooled or had Mr. V. chauffeur me. Needless to say, the whole chauffeuring thing grew pretty old pretty quickly (“But, gee, honey, I thought you LIKED spending time with me…” Yeah, whatever…). And I’ve been driving on and off – getting Mr. V. back from the hospital on occasion – all sorts of good stuff like that. Yes, I am living proof that you can be 36 years old and not have a driver’s license. (Even if it is sort of embarrassing to admit it. And sort of more embarrassing to admit that I But we (I) finally decided that I was probably risking it a bit by driving without a license, and hence without insurance (for me). Sooo, this summer my big task has been to get legal. In Utah, if you’ve never been licensed (or have let your license lapse), you have to go to driver’s ed. Doesn’t matter if you are older than the hills. You have to go to driver’s ed. The school I chose (there are tons of them, because of the requirement) had three options: 1) sit in a classroom for 9 evenings with a bunch of teenagers, and then observe 6 hours of driving, and drive with an instructor for 6 hours, 2) take 18 hours of on-line ‘education’, an online test, and then do the observing and driving, or 3) do a ‘home-school’ option, where they give you a textbook, a workbook, a state driver’s manual and require you to take a written test, as well as the observing and driving. Since I’m really anti-social person (and was bike racing, and couldn’t take up the time with the classroom, or the teenagers, for that matter – although notice the classroom people have NO test), and didn’t want to have to deal with 18 hours of being online I did the home school thing. Which resulted in an inordinate amount of writing (and copying from the text book). Which is actually okay. I tend to retain things that I write down, and generally DON’T retain things that I see on a screen, or are merely told to me. Now I know what makes a car ‘go’ from the moment you turn the key. (Hush. I have been blissfully ignorant of the inner workings of a car until now. That’s what men and AAA are for. And yes, that is a completely sexist and ‘helpless female’ statement. No kidding. I haven’t had a driver’s license. Of course I play the ‘helpless female’ card. Although I have been a member of AAA for 13 years.) I also learned enough to take the written test and get a 98% (one answer I didn’t know, and the other I was right – and the instructor agreed – but the Almighty Answer Key said I was wrong, and I let it slide, since I only needed 80% to pass). And in the course of the last week, I have done all of my observing and driving. 6 hours in a car with teenage drivers. One of whom was actually very good, the other of whom (I spent 4 hours with this one) was a cute girl, but a prime example why teenagers have to have a learners permit for 6 months before they can take a driver’s test. Sweet kid, but a little clueless. Anyhoo… And I did my 6 hours of driving. 4 hours with a guy who was clearly missing a marble or two. Fought in Korea (which gives you some idea of his age), and both days (each ‘drive’ and ‘observation was 2 hours) had me stop someplace, and took pictures. Apparently, he did this with everyone – and not lewd pictures, just pictures of stuff. Like in Park City there is this ‘paint-a-moose’ project where different artists painted/dressed up moose statues and they are place (and occasionally moved) around town. We stopped so he could get a picture of one of the moose. The second day we went to a bread store, and he got a picture of me with one of the bakers. We did a little practicing on stuff like parallel parking and 3-point turns and crap, but mostly it was ‘drive to Salt Lake, drive around a bit, have totally inane conversations and drive back to Park City’. Today was my last day of driving, and I finally got the official Park City instructor (they are closing the PC branch due to too much competition from another school, and they have been farming out the students to other instructors, hence the old geezer). Since I have been driving (shhh… but I’ve been driving myself to and from driver’s ed – I just park far enough away that they don’t see me getting in to my car by myself and driving away….), I told the guy exactly what I needed to work on: parking, specifically parallel parking. We spent about an hour on the parallel parking thing, and then we did the obligatory ‘freeway and country road’ driving. Which meant that I drove 70mph on the freeways and 60mph (5 miles above the speed limit, exactly, thankyouverymuch), and just cruised around, as this is not an issue for me. So… Since I REALLY want to get legal, I’m debating whether I give this local school a shot (and hope to hell that I don’t hit the curb when I am parallel parking – automatic fail? You have GOT to be kidding me. But whatever, it is what it is), and hope to hell that I don’t hit a curb – tough with the Pacifica, or wait a week (and a weekend autocrossing) and do the school in Salt Lake that sets up cones for the parallel parking part. Dunno. Mr. V. and I have our own traffic cones (no, really, we do – it’s for autocross training, and car testing) and I could practice the parallel parking in the Pacifica, and give the local school a test. I think it would only cost money – I think I could still test at the other school in a week. I just think it is a bit harsh to fail someone for hitting a curb parallel parking, especially when almost no one in the universe parallel parks anymore. Eh. Whatever. I’ll be legal soon. Finally. After 300+ years. If I can learn to parallel park that is… As an aside, when my Dad lived in Qatar, he had to take a driving test there, and he had to back a half mile up a hill. The ONLY hill in the ENTIRE country (his test was designed by, and administered by Brits), but he had to back up it. I guess the parallel parking thing is sort of the same thing. Sort of. I’ll keep you posted. And forgive me for my duplicitousness. But I’m coming totally clean now. No more secrets. You know it all. For a little humor (and far too realistic view) of driving in Utah, check out this link. 7:56 p.m. - 29 June 2007 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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