Sweet driving lesson yesterday

I found this pic on FaceBook, I like it

written  May 13

 It was Sunday. It was a beautiful day. I didn’t want to go all the way up to the DMV and practice my tushy turn there.  I know I will have to do it eventually. To pass the test I have to be able to do it in that tight space without even touching any of the cones.

But when you wake up on such a gorgeous morning.  And it is a peaceful Sunday. Who wants to be driven for long distance on busy major boulevards past all those big stores and thru mall traffic. All you want is a variation of the peace and beauty you have out your window right now.

Plus the tushy turns are all about passing the road test.  I can already do them well enuf for real life. What I really need is practice driving outside my own tiny residential neighborhood where I am usually the only car on the road.

I need real driving practice.

So I decided what I would do instead is drive truck once around my own neighborhood to warm up. Then drive it over to Rosemont and Pima which is a mile on the other side of my neighborhood. 

Switch seats with Jim.  Have him drive it over to where Glenn Road starts.  And then I would drive the truck on that quiet back road all the way to the other end of Tucson and back again to my swim club. 

I thought that would give me lots of practice with lights, 4 way stops, driving with other cars on the road.  Driving thru major intersections.

So when Jim called at 9:30 I said “it’s too pretty a day to go to DMV.” I told him my plan instead. I said “my Y pool opens at noon so pick me up at 11.”

He was in an up mood when he arrived and so was I. It really was a beautiful day and finally we had both gotten a lot of sleep. We were both well rested.

I got in the drivers side of the truck. Stepped hard on the clutch to switch it to first gear and instantly the truck began slowly rolling.  “Fine” I thought, “I’ll just steer it out of my driveway.” 

But when it got to the middle of the street and I kept pressing on the gas nothing happened. “I must be in the wrong gear” I thought. And switched gears. Nothing happened again when I stepped on the gas.  

“Am I in first gear?” I asked Jim.

“You’re in the right gear” he said.

I stepped harder on the gas, “maybe because it is a slight hill” I thought. Nothing happened.

Finally it hit me I had forgotten to put the key in and turn on the motor.

Instant I did that the car was willing to run. Good thing because I was stretched across Baker Street and finally a  car was coming.

“It was because I forgot to put the key in and turn on the motor” I said to Jim.

He couldn’t stop laughing. He said “after 2 years of driving lessons, you haven’t progressed. You have regressed.”

It seemed like an inauspicious beginning to my first real driving lesson since last November, 6 months ago. After being pulled over by Officer Jeffries back in first week of February I hadn’t been willing to leave my own neighborhood.

But now I was ready to. It was time for me to start driving.

I had already decided that instead of switching seats with Jim at the corner of Rosemont and Pima I would pull into the little driveway behind the building on the corner to switch seats there.

Because that is where the whole drama had taken place.  It was in that driveway behind the building that Officer Jeffries had made me pull into. And parked behind me.  And major drama had taken place there.

The Letter From God for that morning, yesterday morning, had said "Bless everyone and everything. This is how you turn the earth into golden light."

So before Jim had even called at 9:30 am I knew I was going to go back to that driveway so I could bless it, so much turmoil had taken place in it.

I didn’t tell Jim my plan. He thinks my new age stuff is cuckoo. But he saw me pull to the right as close to the bike lane as I could get (without going in it!) and signaling as I drove slowly along looking for that driveway.   

“What are doing!” he said. “This is how you got in trouble the first time.”

I didn’t say anything. Turned into that driveway when I saw it and pulled up to where I had been before. But this time I was happy and peaceful and looked around and saw all the pretty trees ahead of me and around me from the yard it was adjacent to.

“We'll change seats here” I said. 

“Why!” he said. “You can drive it to Glenn.”

But I knew the energy and concentration it would take for me to drive to Glenn and Craycroft would use up my whole mind. I wouldn’t be willing to drive on Glenn all the way to other end of Tucson if I did that.

He said “You chose the worst place to change seats!” He meant now it was hard for him to pull out into all the traffic on Pima.

So he drove the truck to corner of Craycroft and Glenn for me and pulled up into the church parking lot on Glenn.  It was filled with cars. I guess Sunday service was going on. 

But I was happy. I had blessed the place where the trauma had happened which took away the booboo that place had given me. And I hadn’t used up any of my energy and concentration. Driving there had been a warm up for me.

So we switched seats in the church parking lot. I remembered to turn the motor on this time, and I pulled into Glenn and began driving.

And I was really driving Glen Road very expertly. All that driving around my own neighborhood did pay off. For the first time I was comfortable switching to third gear and didn’t drive the whole way in second. I had the turn signal down pat. 

I wasn’t relaxed behind the wheel, I was concentrating so hard. And I wouldn’t let Jim try to chit chat with me while I was driving. “No talking while I am driving” I said.

And everything was going along fine. I had traveled quite a distance when Jim said “There is cop car in front of you. Don’t pull up along side of him.”

I never used to be bothered when Jim pointed out a cop car near me. I always thought “a girl learning to drive because her husband went to Heaven, what cop in the world would want to give me a hard time.”

That was before Officer Jeffries busted my ass.

Even tho I knew I had not broken any traffic laws, for the first time I noticed I never drive with a seat belt.

I even remembered for the first time that the first thing Officer Jeffries had said to me— after license and registration and we had gotten it all out for her— was “Were you driving with seat belt?”

“I don’t remember” I said to her.

And she let it pass.

Thank God.

She had too many other things to get me for when she discovered my Learners Permit had expired.

And saw that I was driving barefoot. “You’re not allowed to drive barefoot!” she said.

LOL Officer Jeffries, as I found out in court last week, had only been on the force few weeks when she pulled me over. I was the first one she had pulled over.  Her partner, the experienced man cop, was there to help her.

I saw the cop car in front of us, my blood ran cold.  I don’t want to drive anywhere near cops anymore. What if I make a mistake!  Plus I realize I am not wearing a seat belt. 

Neither Jim nor I ever drive with seat belts.

As soon as I saw the cop all I wanted to do was to pull off Glenn Road into one of the residential neighborhoods and get away from him. I watched carefully so I would not pull into the bike lane and finally made my turn.  

I was going to drive around that residential neighborhood at first but to my surprise I discovered I had used up all my concentration. My mind didn’t want to work, it wanted to relax.  

“Fine” I thought, “I’ll switch seats with Jim right now and he can just take me swimming.” 

It was the first time I had stopped before my mind was completely shot, before I was completely wiped out. I was happy.