Funny story about driving a stick - after learning and practicing 100% of the time in cars with automatics, on the day of my road test neither family car was available to me because (reasons). So, my mother somehow arranged/rented a car for me to use in the test from a service designed for this purpose; I suppose it was a driving school as I think about it. Plan was for the car rental person to drive to my house in the car, pick me up and drive me to the test location, wait while I took the test, and then drive me back home.
Well, he shows up in a tiny little VW…I forget the model name but this was in the 80s (when you could apparently rent a car and a human!) and of course it has a stick! In a panic, I told him I’d never driven a stick, so…he let me drive to the test location and taught me along the way! As it turned out, the car also lacked power steering - a sensation I’d never experienced before - so I had to adjust to that too. I stalled at every single intersection of course, and was hopping and jerking the car all over the place pretty much every time I changed gears. Not good.
So we get there, guy hops out, in hops the instructor, my heart is RACING. To make a long story anticlimactic, I pulled away smoothly, drove around smoothly, parallel parked smoothly (the first time I’d ever put the stick in reverse) and passed with flying colors. Still not entirely clear to me how it happened.
I drove manuals after that for years. My last daily driver with a stick was a 2007 Audi A4 2.0T. I loved that car!
Learning to drive a stick was a requirement of marriage to DH. Good times - him teaching me in the flat back roads of California farmland. Not so good in the SF hills. But overall, those days and that car taught me driving could be fun, not just practical.
Drove that stick for years until it got totaled in car accident, oh 18 years ago. It has been practical cars ever since. ?
In Cal you have to do 6 hours to get your license, but after 2 a parent can be in the car.
Cautionary tale - I bought the 6 hours back in December. Tried to schedule lessons in advance, to be efficient when he was home on break. They don’t let you schedule before you get the permit. Went to the dmv the day before Christmas at 3:00. Had Scheduled that appointment Three months in advance, so we could get real id’s for dh and I at the same time. Got there, and was told there are no appointments for the written test, and that the line for it was too long already so they turned kiddo away. And oh the dmv was going to be closed until the following Monday for the holiday. We go back first thing Monday and stand in line for an hour. He passes (yay!) and gets the permit. In the dmv parking lot, I call to schedule the lessons. None are available until the following Saturday, just before he goes back to school. We take it. I try to schedule some for spring break, and they don’t schedule out that far. In February I try to schedule, and the company no longer does in car lessons.. ??. Was going to have him finish over break, and just arranged for a new company, but coronavirus. So that, my friends, is why kiddo only has two hours. Maybe the universe just really doesn’t want kiddo to drive so badly that it is willing to shut down the world to stop him? ?
^^ That is DS’s justification for us buying him a manual (not that w e are buying him any kind of car, but he persists). I almost got him for his birthday a driving lesson to learn stick shift (which he begged for during his driver’s ed over the summer). I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t, but maybe next year. I do miss mine. Also, @CateCAParent , I agree about having DS drive you on the essential errands. I have been so nervous about it (DS got his license in September but still hasn’t driven much), but there’s really no way to learn except by getting out there on the roads. This “break” has finally allowed DS to get out on the roads a bit on his own…so far, so good.
As far as staying connected, DS’s head coach Hs been having weekly Zoom meetings/conference calls to supplement the email communications. There isn’t a whole lot more or different information, but it has been so nice to just hear voices from campus and other parents from all over. One thing is clear: the administration and faculty are just as upset and disappointed about the separation than we parents and the students are, and they have everyone’s best interests at heart.
ChoatieDad and ChoatieLT both drive sticks. DH loves his Miata convertible, “and with the radio blasting goes cruising just as fast as he can now.” We drove around for about a hour in the beautiful sunshine yesterday with The Beach Boys at full volume. Kiddo bought his first car a little over a year ago, a 2005 BumbleBee Mustang stick that he’s rebuilding and having a blast with. (He also knows how to drive a tank.) I learned on a stick, too. So much more fun to drive.
I’ve always had a stick. My parents had a Renault, a Subaru, and a VW that I learned on. I had a Triumph TR7, a Jeep Wrangler, a VW (new) Beetle convertible, and I now have a 4 door Jeep Wrangler. I’m thinking that the 4 door Wrangler will become a kid car within the next year or two and I’m in the market for another convertible stick car (or I was until the recent financial melt down) and was thinking Mustang convertible. Seems like a good mid-life crisis car. My oldest didn’t get his license until he was 19 (now he’s 21), my 18 year old still can’t be bothered, but my 17 year old is itching for it.
Update: I think kiddo is ready to drive for errands now. So long as the parking spots are angled.
Problem is, I am never leaving the house again. Long story short, went to a necessary doc appointment yesterday, and their stupid forehead laser thermometer put my temp at 99.3. They kicked me out. I test my temp all the time at home, with 2 different thermometers (immunosuppressed), and I am fine. I have seasonal allergies, but fine, I tell you. That sent me into a tailspin, though, with the what ifs.
My mental state is much better if I just never venture out into the world. Monday night I picked up take out (supporting local businesses). the deserted downtown and restaurant worker wearing gloves and a mask (yay!) was really unsettling. Not doing that again.
So Chimneydad is positive (has self quarantined for two weeks already but just got his test results) and we have 4 people sharing one open plan living space. We do all have separate bedrooms. We are not terribly sick, thank god, but a crummy thing to deal with nonetheless. Hope everybody is holding up well. We have everything we need here and I’m sending healing vibes to any other families in this predicament.
Sending you good thoughts @chemmchimney! I hope you all are not too sick and that you’re already doing no the men’s. A crummy thing to deal with indeed.
@chemmchimney That is a terrible news. With isolation and protective gears, I heard that it is possible not to spread it even to family members. Hope everyone affected recovers smoothly. Hope you have a support system going - people dropping off groceries or necessities for you. Sending you hugs. <3 <3
I thought about getting an inexpensive oxygen saturation monitor (oximeter) just in case. May not be a bad idea…