Slowing down for the Curves?

I’ve always loved to drive. It doesn’t matter what kind of vehicle or where I’m going. I much prefer to be the driver, not a passenger. I’m always the first to offer to drive when going with someone else. Of course, my favorite is the motorcycle. A close second is the Corvette we just sold with 7-speed manual transmission. I’m currently driving a Ford F150 that my husband picked out last summer. Ford Blue with a 2 inch lift kit, bigger tires, etc. It doesn’t corner like the motorcycle or the corvette, but it’s big and blue and people think twice about cutting me off when I’m going by them in the other lane.

If I was to analyze why I love to drive, I’d probably come up with something like “it’s the freedom to go where I want, it’s being in control of where I’m going and how I get there.” Whatever…I just really like to drive. My dream vehicle requires acceleration power, superb cornering ability, an awesome audio system, a manual transmission and comfort for long road trips.

As with everything else, as I age, I have had to make some adjustments. I’ve always preferred a manual transmission. There’s something about manually shifting that really turns me on. But over the last several years, I’ve had to make some adjustments. Shortly after I turned 60 I was shopping for a new car. I had just turned in a small hybrid hatchback car I had leased for the last 3 years. I loved the small hatchback, but the hybrid just didn’t have enough power. So, I started looking at small hatchbacks with two requirements: acceleration power and a manual transmission. But, when I did a test drive with the vehicle that I intended to buy after researching which cars would meet my criteria, reality started to set in. Man, I hate it when that happens. Cuz, then I can’t go through with doing what I really wanted to do. I gotta get honest with myself about what I can do vs. what I want to do. In this case, I had to think about whether a manual transmission was really going to work for me. By this time in my life, I had broken one foot or the other (or both at the same

time) more times than I could keep track of. During one foot surgery I had a truck with a manual transmission and had to trade vehicles with my husband for a few months. Does it really make sense to have a manual transmission as my daily driver car? Honestly, not a bit of sense. So, I couldn’t go through with the purchase of that vehicle. I decided I wasn’t giving up the power, no way, but I was going to have to give up the manual transmission for a daily driver and rely on the Corvette and the Harley to satisfy that need. So, I purchased a different vehicle with turbo power and an automatic transmission. The sacrifices we make as we age. The normal circle of life, I guess. Not particularly excited about the fact that I’m in this particular phase of life, but even though I’m having to give up things I could do when I was younger, I’m not crying over spilt milk. Gotta mop it up and go do what I can. I like living too much to sit down and cry. This spring we sold the corvette. My husband could no longer drive and my hip problems prevented me from being able to drive the manual transmission. My left leg just doesn’t want to keep working that clutch. It gets pretty painful and eventually it decides it’s not going to do it anymore. Then what? That doesn’t bode well for a successful drive.

Being one half of Chick and Alice, and since I started writing blogs about my healing journey and our preparation for our 50-state motorcycle ride I find myself reflecting more on my observations of other drivers and myself in different traffic situations whether I’m driving my bike or my truck. I’ve discovered often that my driving habits are a mirror for how I live my life in general. There’s a lot I could tell you and if you continue to read my blogs you will probably hear more about it, but for now it’s all about the curves.

It seems I’ve been chasing the curves all my life, always looking for what is around the corner, heading for it with full gusto and accelerating out of the curve, looking forward to the next one. When driving, I’m a little more accountable for the speed at which I approach the curve, depending on the type of vehicle I’m driving, because I don’t want to die on that curve and only slowing down before the curve if I’m approaching it faster than I can safely make it. Otherwise, I see no need to slow down. Now, this applies to me whether it is a somewhat gentle curve or a more aggressive curve. My observation of the majority of drivers in front of me on these curves is that inevitably they slow down before a curve, even if only a couple miles per hour. I find this incredibly irritating. It’s not that other people don’t have a right to drive in a manner that is more comfortable for them, it’s just that they’re in MY WAY for how I like to drive. Unfortunately for me, it’s my problem, not theirs. That really sucks. I cannot maintain my integrity in my actions by taking it out on them.

In general, I tend to live my life the same way I drive. But as has been proven more than once in my life, I don’t always pay so close attention to how I’m approaching life when I’m heading for it with full gusto as I do. I’ve learned the lesson over and over again…and think I’m starting to at least get what the lesson is, even though I’m sure I’ll get more opportunities to really get it. I’m thinking that the lesson for me is that it’s less about the way I approach the curve, but more about the way I interact with the others impacted as I approach the curve. I’ve been sitting with this one for quite some time over the last few years. Not sure where this lesson is going, but it could be interesting. Stay tuned, you may hear more.