Nov. 16th, 2013

sistawendy: my 2006 Prius at the dealership (Prius)
But first: on the way from driver's ed back to the old place, the Wendling almost creamed a Beemer while turning left from Redmond Way onto 148th. For those of you who don't know 425-land, there are two left turn lanes, and he was in the right one. Yeah, there are handy dotted lines in the intersection, but he tried to do the Aspie thing and obey the rule about making left turns into left lanes, forgetting about the car to his left that was turning inside him. There was some yelling, but it wasn't as bad as my reaction to his earlier disco move while trying to find the brake.

I'll give my son this: his mistakes are original.
My Aspiring Ex signed m'boy up for a collision avoidance course this afternoon so that we could get a much-needed break on his insurance. He needed a parent and a car, and since it was my weekend with him, I got to take him down to a giant parking lot near the Emerald Downs racetrack.

We spent most of the two and a half hours doing three exercises:
  1. Slalom through traffic cones - after the first trip through the cones, the instructor at the far end would signal us when to skip a cone. The part of this that made me laugh hysterically was when we did it backwards. We were nearly driving backwards in circles much of the time, instead of through the cones as intended. My poor son really needs to practice reversing.
  2. Emergency stop - go as fast as you can, then stop as hard as you can. The point of this exercise is to get the kids used to the feel anti-lock brakes.
  3. Emergency stop plus maneuvering - directed by an instructor at the far end with nerves of steel, apparently. Best part: when my son got a cone stuck in the right front wheel well. I had to get down on the asphalt and kick it loose. (Good thing I wore my less-nice boots.) The instructor called me a "tough person".

Which leads me to another thing: the instructors assumed I was m'boy's mother. He started to explain to them while he was about to do one of the exercises, but I stopped him. There were, after all, five or so cars behind us. But really, something about that instructor's vibe said ex-military. Even if I'd had time, I'm not sure I would have explained the whole situation. He did at least see all the queer bumper stickers on my Sanctimobile.

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sistawendy: a head shot of me smiling, taken in front of Canlis for a 2021 KUOW article (Default)
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