Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Rants and Stuff => Topic started by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on October 31, 2003, 10:12:51 AM
-
Ok, I know I'm no good on the stick shift. I first learned how to do it some seven years ago and then never did again.
Until now, when we jsut got a (really cheap) standard transmission car for me to take to work (so my wife would have the van available for the kids).
Anyway, I spent yesterday morning practicing, trying to focus on going from a complete stop into first gear, especially uphill, which is the only thing I feel I have real difficulty with. So then I take my daughter to her friend's house. This is the 2.5 year old.
And of course the car jumps a little and I have trouble getting it moving.
And my 2 year old LAUGHS AT ME!
I think she's trying to make an enemy. She's the one who told me she doesn't like Star Wars.
-
/me lol, and scares her co-workers
No, I think she's turning into you. That's exactly something you would do.
-
and how many of me do you think I can stand having around?
-
I don't know. She's a female version of you, that's different.
Wait, that might make her worse. . . .
-
SE, it's called retribution to you parents for having raised you.
-
Just make her drive next time. Get is going up around 40 and she won't laugh at you anymore.
-
Kije.... she's TWO
I want to keep my car, my life, and my daughter, you know. Not necessarily in that order.
-
I'm sure the same thing will happen to me someday, Eric. Both J.T. and I learned to drive stick, then promptly forgot.
Most of my practice in driving a stick was
1.) a cross-country drive from Ohio to Washington when I was 16. (And driving on a straight highway at 70 mph isn't hard)
2.) Driving my mom to and from the hospital a few times a year later. And I pissed off so many drivers by stalling at half the lights. :-[
Oh well. You'll get better with practice, Eric.
-
Well preferably you'd stop before you collide with something. Unless it's Britney Spears. Then you can mow her down.
That might not work if your wife is against that whole violence thing, though.
-
I already think stick shifts are evil. I *Finally* got my license a year ago September, but haven't driven since, because I learned on an automatic, and I haven't had the time to learn how to drive my standard car. Well, that's not completely true. I can go from 1st gear to 2nd, I just haven't been on a road yet so I can learn to go to higher gears and then downshift without leaving the transmission two blocks back.
-
I'm currently learning to drive. (Late, I know) I did a few lessons in a manual transmission, and although I couldn't do it, I preferred the greater level of control. Then I gave up and learnt in my families car, which is automatic. It's a lot easier, but I get annoyed at the lessened control. After a couple of years, I can legally drive a manual anyway, so I might just get my license in automatic.
Bunny-Hopping once is nothing to be ashamed of. it's when you bunny hop a fifty metre stretch you should be worried.
-
I have this to say about laughing children. They are all laughing at me. Why me? Because, everyone is looking at me. Stop it! Cut it out! I'm just walking for the love of God. Why must you ridicule me at every step?! What have I done to you? You I don't even know. No! Don't do that! Augh! No! Never! I couldn't! Stop!
And so, thats why they laugh at me, because of my thoughts. They can all see my thoughts... how, I don't care, they CAN!. Cut the film.
-
I don't believe it for a second Gemm. If they were capable of reading thoughts, I'm sure there would be much more interesting ones than yours. (maybe not entertaining, but interesting sure).
-
Funny, how stickshifts seem to be giving everyone on the board so much trouble. I grew up watching my dad drive stick. Got to help him shift as we drove. I learned the feel for it before I even sat behind the wheel. It took me a little while to get the hang of it, and it was pretty hard at first, I grant you.
Maybe you all just need to make friends with a farmer. My dad isn't the most patient of men. ALL the cars (actually, all trucks) in my family were stickshifts, so I had to learn when I learned to drive. I kept killing the new truck, so we went to the old Chevy Custom Deluxe duelly with huge side mirrors for hauling trailers and straight pipes for mufflers. Killed that too often too and nearly gave Dad a heart attack going into town to the bank when I took a corner too sharp and popped the clutch too many times. Like I said, not the most patient of men, and he wouldn't even let me drive home that day.
So that night I complained to my boyfriend, how my dad was never going to let me drive again, and he (the boyfriend) took me out on his dad's tractor, and we went around their barn in circles, again and again, till I didn't kill it anymore (it's VERY hard to kill a tractor even if you pop the clutch).
And I've been driving stick quite well ever since. Dad even lets me drive the tractor from time to time--not that he had the patience to take me around and around like Tim did.
So there you have it. Go out into the country and make friends with some farmer.
-
Gonna go into the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches.
Gonna go into the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches.
-
I've actually figured it out, i thinks. I'm doing pretty well, even on starts.
-
Mostly I think it takes practice. And sometimes it takes someone impatient to make you get it right.
My dad took me out to the desert with his manual truck, and I got to drive on a dry lake bed. Almost gave him a heart attack too. I think it's best not to count on your parents to teach you how to drive.
Test drove a stick, but I cheated and kept the gas down until the clutch was in, which I'm pretty sure floods the engine. So I ended up with an automatic. My husband has a manual, but I have been too lazy to make him teach me.
-
heh, in afurther development, after returning to the Springfield-Franconia metro station after dinner with EUOL and Tage, I was reversing out of my parking space in the parking garage. Pretty proud that it was going on the first try, I kept a careful eye out behind me for oncoming traffic, and started to turn into the driving area. COmpletely forgetting that there was a concrete pillar right next to me (in my defense, it was actually not where I could see it out the driver's window, but more behind the car, so I didn't see it when I turned my head over my right shoulder to look out. It was a stupid place to put a pillar, imo). So now I need to get the bumper re-attached. HOpefully I won't pay more for that than I did for the car itself (*shakes fist*)
-
whats with you and cars?
-
For the record, my wife managed to fix that bumper before I even got a look at it in broad daylight. That was pretty cool.
However, here's my lunch break story:
I went to target to look at toys. (no, I wasn't planning to buy any, though I've gotten into this nasty habit of grabbing some Magic cards every time I go...) and when I turn off the car, I realize my sunroof is still open. Since I have a boom box in the car, this is in the category of "not good." So I turn the key so I can close it and...
Nothing.
AT ALL
I open the door, the seatbelt doesn't even open. Grr...
So I get a jump, finally, and instead of checking out a store, like I wanted, I decide to drive back to work instead of being late.
Only the car stalls again, only this time in the middle of the left turn lane of a major intersection. Grr...
Again, I get a jump from a very nice lady who managed to turn her truck around and face me in the left turn lane.
When removing the jumpers, the clamp holding the cable (the cable that's a part of the CAR, not the jumpers) to the negative post slips off. uh.... yeah... so
At least it's not a dead battery, but something's gonna have to happen there, because it's pretty much as tight as it gets. But yeah, expect more mazda rants in the future.
On a similar yet unrelated note, I lament, as does Cake, that I have no cars without stick shifts or bucket seats. My wife and I were on a long drive, and there was no snuggliing, because even in our automatic, there's miles between us. Gr....
-
My wife is a big proponent of manual transmission. I prefer automatics. Sometimes we argue about this. So it was no small satisfaction when my wife, who decided to show me up in front of my extended family, asked all of my die-hard mechanic uncles and cousins which they preferred. And they said that manual was a little cheaper to maintain, but they'd prefer auto for everyday use. Ha! And they kept going on and on about why, and my wife just had to eat it all in silence. Ha! We don't argue about it anymore. She still thinks she's right, of course.
-
HA! way to show your wife she was wrong!
I like the automatic for snuggle reasons. Also: cruise control
-
No--you see, I didn't show my wife anything. I just sat back and enjoyed. Didn't even rub it in afterward. Didn't have to.
I like the benefits that come with being on good terms with my wife, so I enjoy being right in silence.
-
WIMP!
what's the point of being right if you can't gloat?
-
I like certain other things better than gloating.
-
you need a playful wife, so you can do both.
-
I need a husband with a better sense of humor so *I* can do both.