#34 – Drive – Modified Motherhood

I probably meant, what drives you, when I picked drive as word #34. It’s been quite some time since I made that list., Now, with a 15-almost-16 year old who has his permit and who needs to learn to drive, that is where my brain is headed.

I hurt my hand this morning. My jerk dog bolted for the door. When I went for her collar, I got my sad little right hand pinky finger under it, and she decided to keep going anyway. A bolting 70 pound dog has no consideration for my tiny delicate pinky. I went from a sort of dull ache in my finger to a throbbing pain radiating over my entire arm over the course of the last 2.5 hours. This relates to driving because I drive a stick shift, which I have to take out later today to take the aforementioned fifteen year old to guitar lessons.

Yah, my teen is way cooler than I ever was at that age. Then again, he isn’t doing any of the stupid shit I was doing at that age either. Which either makes me an amazing parent or him an amazing, well-adjusted kid. Let’s split the difference and say both are true.

Back to driving. He has been practicing in the Sequoia. See, I learned to drive in a big blue conversion van. Do they come in any other color? So I am convinced, to this day, I can drive anything. I think it’s important to learn to drive in an enormous car. So huzzah for having an enormous blue Sequoia. He has also been practicing in a tiny hatchback. My sister is amazing and has taken him out in her car. I have not let him touch my car. I have not let my sister touch my car ;)

My car is a 2009 and miraculously has not needed a new clutch put in, or any really major work. *throws salt over shoulder•spins three times•spits* So I am not really interested in letting him learn to drive stick on my car, especially when I am not in a fiscal position to have any repairs made should they be needed. I have seriously perused used cars in search of an old manual that I won’t mind being a “throw away” vehicle.

But my arm hurts. Badly. And I am wondering if a crash course in driving stick isn’t in order for the day.