'Just Rewards (2)'
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
Teaching my DH to drive a manual was one of the more painful experiences I've had. (I worried about my poor little red car so much!) He's never reached my level of expertise, and he conceded as much when we had to shift with our opposite hand when driving in New Zealand.
eta: Neither of us ever mastered the switch of the indicator/wiper blades on the steering column in the antipodes.
I learned to drive stick by driving tractors. Which meant that when I finally drove a stickshift car, I took way too long to let up on the clutch - I had to learn that it's far easier for a car to start out in first than a tractor with heavy trailers to start out in fifth.
Plei - lots of various forms of house~ma to you.
Do you have pictures of the new place? I would love to see it!
My parents bought me a stick shift for my 16th birthday, after I'd learned on their automatics. I was SO MAD.
I started out on the outfield grass at the church's softball field--it was less than a mile away down a flat, quiet road, so I could actually get the car that far. But I didn't really get it until Army!Brother came home for a visit, saw Dad trying to teach me by drawing a diagram of gears and how they work, and also saw my utterly baffled look. Army!Brother said he'd teach me, took me out to the car, and told me what to do, basic step by basic step: "Put the clutch in. Put it in reverse. Now let the clutch out while giving it a little gas. Back out of the driveway and stop, then put the clutch in and put it in first. What you have to do is let the clutch out while giving it gas and vice versa."
Then once I'd kinda got the hang of it, he explained what Dad had been trying to do with the diagram, and I kinda got that, too. I'd like to think that Dad was a visual learner and Army!Brother is verbal/kinesthetic like me, but it's entirely possible Army!Brother just decided I was kinda slow and needed to be taught accordingly.
ETA much house~ma to Plei!
Go Plei! Lots of everything-working-out-ma for you in your houseness!
Housema, Plei!!
I can't drive a manual. I tried when I was 15 and learning to drive, but I didn't get very far. It seems like the kind of thing I should know how to do, but...eh. I don't.
The percentage of cars with manual transmissions is pretty low these days....
I learned how to drive on a manual '78 Volvo - the models with the cast-iron engine and steel body and no power steering. That thing was a fucking tank, but way comfy on road trips. As a result, I never had a problem with parallel parking until I had to drive Z's gigantor truck all the time - that was a bitch to park.
I drove manual until last year. I still miss the feeling of control, but my knee doesn't miss clutch combined with stop and go.
I would totally learn manual if I were going to be on TAR. And it's a skill I would like to have. But my friends with stick shifts are understandably wary of having someone ruin their car...can't imagine why...
His first step was to spend six months scouring the county for the most deserted road possible. A good thing, too -- on my first effort, I promptly drove into a ditch.
Heh. Me too! We were out in some farm roads in Illinois! OK, I didn't go all the way into the ditch, but I just didnt' grok quite HOW far you had to turn the steering wheel....after that, he gave up on the teaching me, and decided I could take lessons.