Steve and Judy's Travels!

That means we get to see birds like hooded warblers.

Nashville warblers.

Tennessee warblers.

And orchard orioles.

…but it was a strange experience.

Texas is the first, and only, state to require a special license to drive a big rig RV.  The new rule doesn’t apply to gassers, but diesel pushers like ours trigger the requirement with their weight; 25,000 pounds and up.  It’s not a full commercial CDL license we need, it’s halfway in-between a normal driving license and a commercial license; it’s a Class B license.

I didn’t have any trouble with the written test.  They tell you what you need to learn.  You learn it.  Then you go take a test on a computer at the driver’s license bureau.  When you pass the test, they make an appointment for you to take the driving part.  So I studied, passed the test (Although I did miss one question.  I had the answer right, overthought it, went back and changed my answer, and got it wrong.)(Yes, I know not to do that.), and got my appointment for the live-driving.  I figured I’d do great on the driving part because I’ve been doing this for twenty plus years.

The backing-up part was easy.  Drive through a line of cones on each side, then back straight up without driving over any of them .  No problem.  Then we went out on the road and drove around for twenty minutes.  As we drove back into the driveway, I thought to myself what a pleasure it must be to go out on a test-drive with someone so experienced and capable as I am.  The tester failed me.

He gave me a list of things I did wrong then explained that when I waited in the intersection for traffic to clear before I turned left, that was a ticketable offense.  The light had turned red before I got my rear end out of the intersection.  The way he phrased it was that if an officer wanted to, he could ticket me for running a red light, because I didn’t get all the way through the intersection before the light changed.  To wait for a left turn at a light, I’m supposed to wait behind the line at the intersection and let the light cycle until I get a fresh green arrow, then proceed.  He also gave me a list of other things I did wrong.  I had to reschedule.

A week later, I went through the driving test again.  Last time I wasn’t cautious enough.  I wasn’t aware enough of cross-traffic at intersections.  I didn’t check my mirrors enough.  Having thought this over, it occurred that maybe because of the limited mobility I have in my neck, he just couldn’t observe what I was doing, so this time I made a show of it.  I exaggerated my movements.  I bobbed and turned my head when passing through intersections, checking my mirrors, and monitoring the rear-view camera.  I turned my whole torso left and right at stop signs so it would be obvious how aware I was of my surroundings.  In fact, I was moving around so much, one time I noticed I wasn’t driving in a straight line and worried I would get dinged for swerving in my lane.  Another twenty minutes of driving.  No ticketable offenses.  I passed.  But I got the same list of deficiencies in my driving.  I wasn’t good enough at intersections.  I didn’t check my mirrors and rear-view camera enough.  I didn’t leave my turn signal on long enough while changing lanes.  I didn’t improve at all.

The written part is easy.  They tell you what to read to prepare, then they test you on what you’ve read.  The driving part; that was not quite so objective.  I got told what I did wrong, but not exactly when and where.  There didn’t seem to be any way to prepare for the test; just drive and see if you can figure out what they want.  I considered requesting a more thorough debriefing, but one of the ways to fail the test is to be non-responsive to the tester, or to be argumentative.  I didn’t want to take any chances, so I kept my mouth shut and accepted the new driving license.

I am now qualified to drive the bus we drive!

Brother Tom located a photo of brother Bill’s ’49 Chevy, sporting the car cooler, in front of the Carroll Park house.

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Can’t make out the name of the car-club.

Nice shot of the house too, with the bedroom balcony above the Den door.  Here is a more recent photo.  Matt and Lindsay were just there a few days ago.

The evergreen tree in the front yard grew up a little.

I was expecting Judy to be about 50% better from her shoulder surgery by now, given that she only has one functioning arm, but she’s more like 90% better.  She’s independent again, doing everything she normally does.  Except drive.  Or put on or take off her sling.  Or scratch an itch on the biceps of her good arm.

As far as the pain part goes, that has subsided.  It hardly hurts at all.  Except when it does.  And there’s Advil for that.

She can take her sling off as much as she wants now; but still for passive motion only.  Two weeks from now, she will start with the physical therapist and the therapist will extend her range of motion while she tries not to twitch.  She’s still a couple months away from doing any active motion.

We have determined that the posts in the ground diffuse the static electricity from the dam in the river.  It remains to be explained however, what static electricity is, how it happens, and why it is dangerous.  I believe I’ve figured it out.  Water whooshing over the diversion dam washes away all the electrons, building up an electrical deficit that can only be satisfied by sucking the life out of any nearby humans.

Static electricity is zombies!