Blondie still scares Mon--

Took her to work again today. This is getting to be almost a fun trip. Mom is still terrified of riding with her, so she drives. Torie can't learn that way, so I got to take her to work again this morning. It's about a 15 minute trip, and at 7:40 she still wasn't ready to go. I thought I was going to have to drive anyway. But she was finally ready, and I let her have the keys. She did pretty well going down the road, and has improved much in the past few weeks. And then it happened. The dreaded 'S' curve. At the top of the hill, she muttered something that sounded like, "Fudge, but I do hate this curve!".

But, she got through it fine. As her speed dropped after we got past the end of the 'S', I told her to keep her speed up, and it would help her if she accelerated some coming out of the curve. We crested the next hill and I heard a "ppffewwthew" sound eminating from her. Thinking she was relieved at having navigated this past 1/4 mile or so, I told her she didn't do too bad. No need for the sounds of relief. She said she was fine, only a hair was tickling her nose. When she looked over, I couldn't see her face for hair (bangs?). I don't know how she saw to get through the curve- I couldn't see her eyes. Oh, well. Better I couldn't, I guess. It was pretty routine for the rest of the trip, until we got to the parking lot. I told her to try and park between the lines the right way. Into the parking spot she goes. Car goes into 'park'. Door opens, head goes out, and she's between the lines. Success!. She's as proud of herself as she can be. 1st try! It would still have been better if she was straight, but she was running out of time to argue with her--

You need to stop by the beauty shop with her and get a do that's out of her eyes, maybe she just can't see. Then set up some parking cones in the barnyard and let her have at it. Keep us posted, enjoy hearing how this goes. Sure reminds me of about 25 years ago teaching mine.

I know you don't realize it now, but one of the fondest memories I have is teaching my daughter how to drive a stick shift.

Things like this only happen a few times in a mans life.

Enjoy it while it last.

I remember teaching my oldest blonde daughter to drive a stick. 88 Ford Ranger on a gravel road. Told her to give it some gas and slowly let out on the clutch pedal. After 3 times of immediately jerking and killing the engine, she asked "How hard do you have to push this gas pedal to make it go?". She was using the brake pedal for gas. We both had a good laugh. She eventually mastered the clutch.

While we do not consciously think about it, the things we do are planned out in our mind before our hands, feet and mouth do them. She has not given thought in advance to what she is doing. She needs to drive that route in her mind several times. Have her sit down in a chair and talk through the trip several times and explain to you exactly what she is doing along the way.
For example, I could not conduct an orchestra because I do not have a concept in my mind as to what a conductor actually does.

Yep, I remember those days. Three daughters and one son. Every one of them learned on an old seventys-something Ford F-250 with a 4 speed. Made very good drivers of three of them!