This weekend has been very low-key.  I am still working on travel arrangements for April vacation to visit colleges for Ariel.  I also was working on updating information for the high school crew team that I am the parent president for.  So unexciting.  We have been watching the Olympics in the evenings, and that has been entertaining.

Off to a bike ride before dark!

Today was VERY uneventful.  I never left the house, except to go for a three-mile run (or slow jog, as the case may be).  My primary focus was to recontact several college people about upcoming college visits for myself and Ariel.  I hadn’t heard back from a couple of important contacts and do not plan on traveling all the way to the West coast without having the needed appointments arranged.

This is my first blog, inspired by someone I love, peacelovechalice.  I don’t think people are really interested in the boring details of my life, and all of this technology is not second nature to me (being somewhat older than many current users), but it’s worth a shot.

My daughter (I’ll call Ariel) recently started driving, having gotten her license before Christmas.  Well, this was her first week to drive to school every day.  [Her school has almost no parking for students, and we would have to pay for a daily spot at a local church, but she received a concussion a few weeks ago and had to postpone her mid-year exams (high school) so had to drive this week to make up exams after school.]  Anyway, out of the five days that she drove, these are the four adventures that she had:

1)  On Monday, after her exam, Ariel drove to her piano lesson in a neighboring town, and the brakes went out on the car she was driving.  She had the presence of mind to stop at our friends’ house right on the way and call us.  My husband, whom I’ll call Brad, would be the mechanically-inclined one to pick her up and look at the car, but she had to wait about 45 minutes, as he didn’t have his cell phone on [he feels that he only needs to have it on when HE needs to use it].  He was able to meet her and have her drive the van home while he drove her car, using the emergency brake when necessary.

2)  On Wednesday, when she drove the van for the second day (since her car was temporarily out of commission), when she came out to the car after her make-up exam, she discovering that someone had (probably) backed into the van and left a huge dent in the bumper.  The bumper was partially hanging down.  The person left no note, so it was a hit-and-run.  Anyway, she called me to find out what to do.  I was running errands so did not have access to a phone book, so I told her to call her dad to get the phone number for the local police.  Twenty minutes later, I called to see how things were going, and she said that she hadn’t gotten ahold of her dad [his cell phone was not on AGAIN, and she didn’t have his work number, which is weird].  So, she had sat there for twenty minutes.  I gave her Brad’s number and then realized [this is the problem with not finding technology to be second nature] that I could have looked up the number on my Blackberry.  Anyway, when I got ahold of her again (as she was on the phone when I tried to call), she had called the local police, who had no one on duty, so they sent the resident state trooper.  When I talked to her, the trooper was supposed to be on the way, but she was really cold.  I told her it was okay to turn on the car and get the heater going; she just couldn’t move the car.  The trooper did come, look at the car, and take her statement.  She then drove home.

3)  On Thursday, Ariel was able to drive her four-wheel drive car as Brad fixed the brake line.  A forecasted light snow fall ended up being a snow squall that dropped about three to four inches of snow during the day.  All after-school activities were cancelled, so she was supposed to come straight home.  After a few phone call discussions (between myself, Brad, and Ariel), we decided that the roads weren’t too bad and she should drive home slowly, using the four-wheel drive if necessary.  This was her first time driving in any snow, so I was a little nervous.  She made it home fine, which ended up being a better option than leaving the car for us to pick up later, as there ended up being white-out conditions (very unusual for here) from about 5 to 7 P.M.

4)  On Friday, Ariel again drove her car for an after-school exam.  After the exam, she was driving to a friend’s to pick up something she left there a month ago, and she was not able to restart the car when it stalled (it has a standard transmission, which she is getting better at using).  So, she had to sit in a cold car for thirty minutes while Brad drove over to pick her up.  He was able to get the car started and get it home.  The battery connection was not tight, so it was a quick fix; however, it was more time that Ariel had to wait to get rescued while she was cold and frustrated.

What a first week of driving!  And, by the way, before you claim child abuse for us having an unreliable car for her to drive, this is the same care that our older daughter, Matilda, has driven for the past two and a half years with almost no problems (other than the clutch cable breaking about a mile from home).

That’s our interesting week for Ariel’s first week of driving every day!