Don’t Be a Donkey

We went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday last night.   Eight of us, all neighbors on our street, had a very filling dinner with some robust conversation.   Somehow we got onto the topic of young drivers and our own experiences learning to drive a car.   We each have children, with some of us getting closer to having new driving-aged family members than others.   Suffice it to say, none of us are ready for that yet.

I have a very specific memory of the first time I ever drove a car: my mother took me to a large parking lot on a weekend when it would be empty.   She gave me some good information about driving and then let me get behind the wheel of her car.   I have no idea how I drove—most likely very slowly—but I can tell you what I do remember: the car felt huge.   It had so much mass and just felt heavy, like a block of lead with leather seats.    Being able to control such a large machine simply by turning a wheel and pressing some pedals was both novel and frightening.

One of my neighbors told us about her memory of early driving, specifically about her driver’s education teacher.  He told the students many things about driving but the one thing he kept saying was, “don’t be a donkey.”   She said it wasn’t until later that she realized he was telling them not to be jackasses when they were driving.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has hit commercial susceptibility.    If whatever he’s watching has commercials for children, specifically toys, he wants every one.   He doesn’t even realize he’s asking for every single thing that’s being offered, he just gets excited as each new commercial starts and says he wants that nerf gun or light saber or flying disk.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Today in the car my daughter was wearing her sunglasses.   She said to me, “I putted my glasses on top of my head like daddy does.”  And sure enough, she had her sunglasses up on the top of her head like my husband does all the time.  It was cute, but I was hopeful.   Had she seen dad doing this recently?   I asked her when she saw dad put his sunglasses on top of his head.   She said, “a long long time ago when I was three.”   Oh well, maybe next month after we get a refraction done and a correcting lens on her right eye.

Lack of Fitness Update:   I’m running a marathon tomorrow.   I haven’t done much running in the last month.   I hope I remember how to run.   It’s going to be freezing at the start and very windy.   It’s going to be an interesting race.