Rational Insanity
Hitting the road
Marcel's got his very own car! It's a hip Kea Sportage in burnt milk, and I get to be in the second group of people to ride with him! Well, you know how it is to have your very own wheels - it feels like you could fly! Anyway, this week, I'd like to tell you about the many things I have had to go through in life on the road. Technically, I am not road legal, and perhaps, I never will be.
I began to drive about five years ago. My dad and my younger brother were the ones who taught me how to drive. Prior to learning to drive a car, I had already been a cyclist for about four years before. I woke up very early in the morning everyday and went off on my mountain bike. When I was learning how to drive, I inevitably applied the general principles of biking on a busy street to driving. Just a few weeks of constant driving practice, my dad decided I was ready for some real driving, so he allowed me to take the car to school -- on an exam morning. Of course, he still had to sit with me on my way to school because I had no proper driving documents then. Everything went smooth until the time came for me to turn into the gate of our college. When I did, BANG! I hit the right wall of the gate with the entire right half of the car's hood. The car looked like a can of sardines twisted indescribably, but it was exam morning, remember? So, I went out of the car, went straight to my exams while my dad drove the car back home, hehe.
At first, I thought that it was my ingenious conclusion that biking principles apply to cars that did me in, but later, after a number of visits to my ophthalmologist, I realize that the problem was something more. I had all sorts of eye problems, over and above my astigmatism and far sightedness. I was color blind, night blind, and I had a problem with depth and distance perception. I can't remember how they called the last one, I think it was a problem with stereognosis. Anyway, the ophthalmologist said that with all these problems that had yet no existing cure, I was doomed to never drive a car until a cure was found. Soon enough, with a scientific explanation already in my head, I realized that these were the reasons why I could not appropriate the size of the hood of the car to entrances (gates, curbs, etc.) and why I could not estimate distances from the tip of the hood to certain other vehicles or obstacles in front of me.
Like many other young boys of my age, it had always been my dream to drive my own car, but that dream goes down the drain at the moment. I will probably have to be a millionaire first so that I would have my own driver, to be able to hit the road. Well, I am not really street ILLEGAL in the total sense of the phrase because I drive a Trendy or any kind of motorcycle -- in this respect, I am sure my cycling principle would definitely apply.
Now, back to Marz; of course, because I had driving lessons with my dad and brother before, I become the back seat conscience. I keep telling him to mind his lanes, mind his gears, and bear in mind that every other driver on the road with himself as an exception should be considered crazy, hence the extra caution. I would also remind him always that he should be the one controlling the machine and not the other way around.
While I watch him twist and turn the steering wheel and slide the gears into position, I come to terms with what I didn't have before that he now has that has allowed him to become a very good driver three days after he got his car (that is of course, considering that he had prior training with his jeepney-driving cousin). I realized that aside from just my visual impairments there is one other thing that I did not have that made me a terrible driver -- confidence. When we drive a car or any vehicle for that matter, how we feel translates into bums and wrong turns and many other road blunders; when we drive a car our lack of confidence in our driving rubs off to our passengers -- which probably explains why my dad was permanently a nervous wreck while he taught me how to drive.
Let's just say that driving goes to the can for me at the moment. I will just have to write it off the list of things that I will be good at before I die. While Marz enjoys the luxury of having and driving his very own car, I will have to settle for other glamorized versions of my mountain bike -- motorcycles, hoppers, and perhaps, someday, when I have enough money, an all terrain vehicle. Now, I will just have to be contented with being a back seat conscience and when Marz learns everything he needs to learn about life on the road, then maybe I can be his sleeping, snoring, dreaming passenger.
Oh, one more thing; he also complained to me that he had painful forearms after a day on the road. Driving stresses out your forearms because of having to control the steering wheel -- he has power steering, imagine what I had to go through before with a regular steering wheel!
Be rational; be insane...every once in a while! TTFN!
I love you all! Byers!