FWIW, Zen, I learned to drive on a manual transmission. It was harder, but my dad's logic was, since you're learning anyway, learn it all at once, rather than learning to drive, being freaked out, getting over it, then having to freak out all over again learning stick.

She needs a driver's ed course but there's none around.

Is there only the one high school (the one she attends, which doesn't offer driver's ed)? Because if there's another high school that DOES offer driver's ed, maybe some kind of deal could be worked out for her to take it there?

Is there only the one high school (the one she attends, which doesn't offer driver's ed)? Because if there's another high school that DOES offer driver's ed, maybe some kind of deal could be worked out for her to take it there?

It might be too late in the year for driver ed, but I just remembered that my school (which held summer school for the county) did all the driver ed for the whole county too!. So maybe there is something like that (although you would think the school would have told her) .

And I just want to say, "DUDE. You are turning 40 in ten days. You sound like a college freshman who just read Ayn Rand for the first time. STOP IT."

HA. I just start saying things like, "Hope you don't need roads! If your house catches fire, I hope you're okay with the fire department waiting to put out the blaze until you pay them!"

Is there only the one high school (the one she attends, which doesn't offer driver's ed)? Because if there's another high school that DOES offer driver's ed, maybe some kind of deal could be worked out for her to take it there?

Oh, I hadn't thought of that! She's in the "rich kids'" school (because they had a program for kids with ADHD) and all of her friends were apparently taught by their parents. Maybe there's a course at the other high school she could take.

I've just been chatting with her and I think I've convinced her that there isn't anything more important she can do with her inheritance than buy a car. (She's already spent half of it on clothes and make-up and an expensive iPhone.) When this kid says she NEEDS something, she probably means a lip gloss.

ION, there is a very fit young man on my patio with his shirt off. This is making me nervous. Now I have to go put on a bra.

Oh yeah, for whatever reason, I did driver's ed at a public school not the one I went to.

I just got an email from my massage place about a discount on cupping, if you book during the Olympics. They are very entrepreneurial!

ION, there is a very fit young man on my patio with his shirt off.

Did someone sign you up for Beefcake of the Month?

That is entrepreneurial indeed, Jesse!

Is there only the one high school (the one she attends, which doesn't offer driver's ed)? Because if there's another high school that DOES offer driver's ed, maybe some kind of deal could be worked out for her to take it there?

That's what I had to do--my school stopped offering it so I had to take it through another nearby high school in the summer.

That said, if she's 18 she may just need to study the rules (no class needed) and ...isn't there anyone else who knows her and would let her learn on a rural road somewhere with no traffic??

(In my state(?) if you got some grade (A or B?) on an official drivers Ed course, you still had to take the written test but no driving test!! Otherwise you did both, but there were different rules for over 18 and under 18)