Today’s post comes from Verily Sherrilee
I’ve been thinking this about California becoming the first state to legalize self-driving cars.
I was thrilled to hear this when it was first in the news, although careful attention revealed that it’s just the testing of the cars that became legal. We still have a way to go before self-driving cars will be chauffeuring our kids to their ballet lessons and baseball games without us.
Where roadways are concerned, I am the most directionally-challenged person I know. A friend of mine loves to tell the tale of the time I got lost in a church parking lot. In my defense it was dark when we came out from the concert and the parking lot had quite a bit of one-way directional signage. It’s always been this way for me, but the advent of MapBlast and GoogleMaps seems to have made it worse the last few years, as if having the printed paper in my hand somehow eggs on the traffic/street sign gods.
I keep a 3-ring binder in my breakfast room with printed directions to most of the places in my life. I grab the sheets out of the binder when I need them and put them back at the end of the trip. Some of these directions are not used anymore; I have finally memorized how to get to the Teenager’s pediatrician and it got too dangerous for my pocketbook (& my waistline) to go to St. Agnes Bakery once a month. Some of them were used once and have never been used again, like the gym in Big Lake where there was a gymnastics meet 3 years ago. I’ve added quite a few pages in the last couple of years: BiR, BiB, tim, Jacque & Lew, Steve, Caroline. Many of the sheets have been spindled and mutilated from repeated trips in the car; some of them have coffee stains. I even added alphabet tabs to the binder last year to make it easier to find the directions I want.
I expect that I’ll have this disability the rest of my life. I just hope that self-driving cars will come with GPS!
Where do you want your self-driving car to take you?
Trail Baboon 
I like to think I will never use one of these things, but what do I know?
Actually, it wouldn’t be bad for the trek between Robbinsdale and WInona – it’s such great scenery once you hit the river and (Hwy. 61) at Red Wing, and then the bluffs… it would be great to be able to gawk the whole way.
I have so many quirks about how I like to drive, though, that I’ll never get used to a driverless car. Example – I enjoy cruise control on the straight-away, but hate it on big hills where it never lets up a bit, and you go roaring over the top too fast.
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That is a fabulous drive. My sister and her husband live in Fountain City, Wisconsin, which is just across the river from Winona. You definitely should check out their restaurant/tavern The Monarch Public House http://www.monarchtavern.com. Just tell John you know me. My sisters works elsewhere (to get health insurance), but they serve great food and craft beers. Actually, that would make an excellent Baboon Road Trip! 🙂
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Maybe we have book club there some time! I certainly will check it out, Joanne – thanks.
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Anywhere! Especially any trip longer than 10 minutes, as I really don’t like driving. Like you, I am directionally-challenged, but nowhere near as organized as having all my directions in a binder — that’s a great idea, though.
Several years ago, my husband and boys gave me a really nice GPS for Mother’s Day with a big screen (before surgery when I had bad eyesight). That was the best gift ever. Now of course, it’s all on your phone, but I still prefer the Magellan GPS, although it’s probably outdated. A self-driving car with the right sensors and technology might get rid of all the asshole drivers — or not.
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yeah now they’sd be a**hole riders
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I’m thinking about a road trip / field trip – to Owatonna for the kick-off of Chris’ book. Chris – I think I’m remember June 4??? Where, what time? AND, good recommendation for a little diner for dinner?
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The book launch celebration is on June 2 at 4:00 here in Owatonna. If you like sushi, we have a nice little place called Mizuki Fusion only a few blocks from the venue (Perfect Day Cakes & Bakery). For mom-and-pop home cooking, there’s The Kitchen right across the street from PDC. For Mexican, we have Plaza Morena on 26th St. just east of Cedar Ave. Torey’s on Bridge Street just east of I-35 is one of the nicer restaurants in town. A bit pricier, but good American cuisine. Besides those and a few others, we have mostly chain restaurants and fast food. Owatonna is not a mecca of fine dining. But if you want to stop on the way home, I highly recommend Harry’s Cafe in Lakeville, just south of Walmart and west of I-35.
Chris in Owatonna
PS- You should hire me to be your chauffeur. My wife is continually amazed at my navigating abilities while driving, especially at night in unfamiliar cities. 🙂
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OK – June 2 on my calendar! Anybody else?
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Shoot. June 4th at 2:00 would have worked but June 2nd at 4:00 won’t.
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yep
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ill go along and can take a couple riders unless that frisbee state tournament for daughters
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Hi VS. Here is the link to the PDC event: https://www.facebook.com/events/629935857161023/
Feel free to share it with others. Thanks for your interest and support.
Chris in Owatonna
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And now for my answer to today’s question. I’ll never be fully comfortable in a self-driving car until the technology exists to hook up each car to a rail or track such as they have on cog railroads or amusement park rides. That way all vehicles are locked into a safe distance apart and when one stops, all stop. When a car reaches a turn off to go on a different road, it safely detaches itself from one rail and smoothly connects to an open spot on the rail for the next road.
But I will admit self-drive cars would prevent many accidents caused by drivers dozing off at the wheel, among other distractions.
Chris in O-town
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There is an absolutely gorgeous Japanese garden in Portland. I’ll try this one time:
And there is an equally charming Chinese garden here in Portland. Plus a spectacular rhododendron garden. The Leach botanical garden has an international reputation. And of course, the most famous of all Portland gardens is our lovely Rose Test Garden (where I once photographed a wedding).
I’d love to visit all of them. In a city filled with beautiful gardens, I’ve seen just one. All are protected by being hidden among all kinds of narrow streets with dangerous traffic. For me, someone not accustomed to driving in this place, these gardens are a “you can’t get there from here” sort of place.
Would I LOVE to travel to them in a self-driving car!
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We saw the Bremen Rhododendron Gardens today. There are 4300 varieties of rhododendron and azalea there and most were blooming. It was breath taking.
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i was in wales at the rhodendendron gardens it was breathtaking. i treid and failed growing them 10 times since then. its not as easy as it looks.
makes me realize hostas are for me azailias and rhtadendrans not so much
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There are many situations where I could benefit from having a self driving car. I am usually the one in the passenger seat trying to tell the driver where to turn. I frequently make mistakes partly because, if we are using directions printed out from a computer, I have trouble understanding those printed directions. When I am on my own doing my own driving I am okay. Usually I don’t mind making wrong turns when I am alone if I am not short on time. I just look at a map to see where I went wrong. If I need to get some place new to me in a short amount of time I might be better off in a self driving car.
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I enjoy travel. I do not enjoy driving or car ownership.
I would be overjoyed to live in a society that did not assume car ownership. There would be a functional transit system and businesses providing basic goods would be within walking or biking distance.
But where’s the money in that?
Trying to plan a trip to Montreal this summer and it would be a pure pleasure to do it by rail. Not a hope, so a theoretical self-driving car would be nice I guess.
And no. I do not want to fly. Hate everything about it, not least of which is the fact that actually travelling through to rather than simply arriving at someplace is one of the joys of travel for me.
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Totally agree about the desirability of a functioning transit system. When I took my trip west last year, I didn’t drive anywhere, just used a combination of plane, train, taxi, friends who drive, bus, and public transit. It was great.
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the drive up the other side of lake michigan past chicago is wonderful. but there is one i will send that offers a thought on which way and why. i love driving and feel caged in a train.. the seld=f dirving car would let me stop. i may not but knowing i could would make alll the diference
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I predict that self-driving cars won’t displace the sorts of drivers you’d most like to see displaced– the aggressive large SUV-driving narcissists, who will consider self-driving cars emasculating and a threat to their constitutional and God-given right to endanger everyone else on the road. Self-driving cars will only make them more aggressive. They’ll regard driverless cars as obstacles, like furniture, to be overcome. Any built-in safety controls, like proximity detectors and automatic braking that self-driving cars would incorporate will only allow those drivers more confidant recklessness.
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As all of you know by now, my fear of entering freeways has completely incapacitated my driving very far at this point. I’ve also always been extremely directionally-challenged. If I haven’t been somewhere, I map quest on two sources, then write down exact directions, then draw it out on paper very clearly. My former therapist once told me, “Always leave an hour earlier than you need to be somewhere so you can get lost but still make it on time”. Several years ago, the kids gave me a GPS but I couldn’t figure out how to use it.
My trip with Steve to Portland was 2600 miles and I drove half of the trek. I have to say that this took a lot of courage on my part and to this day, I’m still proud of this accomplishment.
A self-driving car would solve all of my driving issues IF it’d work to safely enter a freeway, that is!
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I’m sure it would. It certainly couldn’t do a worse job of merging onto the freeway than a lot of drivers I’ve seen.
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I look forward to self-driving cars more for my son than for me. Son#2 is on the autism spectrum and probably COULD learn to drive but he hasn’t pushed it. He is very good with public transit and I’m happy to leave it at that for now. It would be nice for him to be able to get some places more quickly and directly than public transit allows.
Though I do appreciate how green he is.
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I know the feeling. My 18-yr old son with autism is in process of getting his license and just finished driving lessons. He does well and should be fine, but occasionally gets distracted by his own thoughts, etc.
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I want my self-driving car to take me to wherever I’m going after dark. My night vision is terrible – can’t judge distances properly – so I avoid driving at night, especially in neighborhoods that I’m not intimately familiar with. Driving on the freeway, any time of the day, also doesn’t feel safe because of all the aggressive and/or distracted drivers.
Yesterday we were on our way to dinner with friends in Golden Valley, when Hans commented on a silver-toned car passing us. It was a Maserati, going way faster than the speed limit, with expired tabs. Next, after we had turned off from the main road and where in a residential area, he blew right through a stop sign. Guess none of the rules apply to you if you drive an expensive car.
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Where would I go in my self-driving car? So many places. Destinations near and far….I would visit my friend in Vermont and my friend in New Mexico. I would visit my friend in Portland, OR and youngest daughter in Seattle. I would travel up to the north shore at night while I sleep so I could start the day already there. Heck, I’d take the circle tour of Lake Superior while I’m at it. I would visit all four corners of this fair state and many points in between, the more famous sites as well as whatever i find on back roads.
Obviously, I’m planning to have a lot of free time and less responsibilities here when I get a self-driving car. And a lot of money.
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VS: a question related to my interest in learning styles/brain functioning: What are the sheets on your binder like? Maps, verbal steps. By street names/numbers? By landmarks?
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Print outs from the computer. Usually just text but a few have maps. And several now have comments in my scribbled hand writing when the pc directions didn’t turn out to be all that clear.
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Do you read street signs, look for specific things, like white house with pink shutters?
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If I am getting directions from a person, I like streets and landmarks. Computers are dreadful with landmarks.
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Somewhere where I will not have to see, hear or think about Donald Banktrumpcy.
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I enjoy driving and am not directionally challenged, so a self-driving car might take some of the fun out of being in a car for me (heck, even switching to a hybrid or electric car is giving me pause mostly because I don’t want to give up the fun of my manual transmission…). I have resisted GPS because I want to know where I am going in the broad view, not turn-by-turn – though I have learned to appreciate it’s uses.
If I were to make use of a self-driving car, I’d use one for road trips. I would love to go back to the Black Hills – I haven’t been there since I was a wee lass – but the long stretches of driving, or more particularly not being able to just watch the scenery go by, would be better if I didn’t have to be strict about keeping my hands at 10 and 2.
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I’d like my car to drive me to Rock Bend. It could drop me off and then go find a shady place to park itself for a few hours. Then I could call it to come pick me up.
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Perfect.
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it would be great to have a self dirving car to go out drinking. just stumble into the back seat and slur the directions to the robut brain little jerkfce behind the wheel
also the weekly trip to the plays on broadway and the doctors office in denver. get a mini van and jsut set up shop in the back with a couch tv library and maybe a van hot tub. a little refrigerator propane stove and a portapotty. heck you could
could we set it up so semi’s could be driven by self driving cabs. and taxis and with amazon delivering with drones and self driving delivery vehicles i think its possibel no one would ever really need to leave the back seat.
can we get a sherpa? its a really big sel f driving car
my passenger delivery system got tested in the news this week with two verions. one with theairtube like the tube for the drivein banking. it was tested and worked for its maiden run
predict san fransico to los angeles in 30 minutes for 20 dollars
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this train is so fast i am posting it 10 days before it is posted on the internet
http://www.livescience.com/50936-hyperloop-test-track-california.html
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I think I would get motion sickness.
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Hyperloops are old news:
http://www.newstatesman.com/future-proof/2013/12/londons-victorian-hyperloop-forgotten-pneumatic-railway-beneath-capitals-street
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Hi —
I like driving and I’m not directionally challenged either.
Was up in Golden Valley on Friday and traffic was heavier than normal on all your roads up in ‘The Cities’. And I had the big fancy RCTC truck… Hwy 100 gets a little narrow in the construction zones. I’m just saying.
Had lunch at JJ’s Clubhouse. They have grape pop. And I had a chicken Pot Pie. And I listened to jazz on 88.5 while I was within reception range.
I planned a road trip out East this summer but we don’t have the time for the route I planned. (Kelly’s exact words were ‘How much time off do you think I have??’) So we’re flying out there.
(Niece and her husband are in Charleston SC. We’re spending a few days on a boat (anchored in the harbor) and a few days in a condo downtown.)
I agree the drive can be fun.
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This gives me a thought.
What some of us really need is a self-driving workspace.
A lot of jobs, mine included, don’t involve physically being with co-workers or in the company workspace taking care of patients, clients, equipment, whatever all the time. A lot of work can be done remotely from a computer (or knitting machine in my case).
Imagine your workspace on wheels, doung the long stretches of tiring driving while you get income producing work done. You still have the joy of seeing the landscape changing as you travel through it. You can make stops for meals in interesting places, you can pull over for that historic site and take a break.
Sure-8 hours of travel time probably won’t yield 8 hours of billable labor, but for some of us, it would get around the idea that travelling for a month would mean you would go a whole month with zero billable labor.
If I could set up shop in a train car that was parked in my garage while at home, but could easily connect with a rail system to anywhere on the continent (and even go on the boat train to get across water), oh the places I would go.
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getting wifi for your lapptop makes that possible now except you need to buy the train ticket too. if you ahd a self driving car….
daughterand i put in 10 hours yesterday drving to lawrence college in appleton wisconsin. i love driving. the hillary cinton book was so boring on te way there we listened to eat pray love on the way back. (i like that one.)
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wont it be nice when the wi fi market is so advanced that you can access ted talks and tyoutube videos driving down the raod as they call out to you.
elizabeth gilvert has one of the all time great ted talks ( she is a great speaker dont you think?)
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There is a guy down near Stockton, Minnesota who has more or less realized your fantasy. I toured his railcar a few years ago. It’s a completely restored executive car once used, if I remember correctly, by vice president Harry Truman. At the front of the car there is a viewing/seating area with large windows and padded seats on either side. The car is carpeted throughout. There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms and at the back is a roomy dining room and kitchen/serving area. Best of all, the railcar is on a siding connected to a main line. When he wishes, the owner can arrange for his car to be picked up and taken anywhere the rails go. He often takes friends up to Duluth for the weekend.
His private siding leads into a large metal shed where he keeps his railcar and also a vintage handcar.
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I never thought about the possibility of putting your own car on the existing track. I guess I thought it was all owned by the big rail companies and they wouldn’t be persuaded to let a private entity use the track. That’s pretty cool if you can do that. Bet there’s some serious licensing requirements there, though.
The Minnesota Transportation Museum has an old executive railcar that you can walk through.
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Oh, I want one! Do you think he still does tours of this, Bill? Stockton is right next to Winona.
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Linda, that old Pullman exec cat was always a must see ehen we went there. I could really see myself living snd working in there.
Trick is getting your own siding to be able to get connected to whatever train was going your way. You woukd of course have to have the car inspected routinely to ensure it was rail-worthy and pay a mileage fee for being pulled and maintaining the rail line.
Sure, people who can work on computers can do this on AmTrak right now, but that’s maybe a half hour if my work week.
My youngest aunt and uncle are selling their home and becoming full-time RV-ers. She has a mighty sweet quilting studio set up in the back of that thing and there is a way that something lowers onto her worktable to make it a sleep space at night.
I admit, I am realky intrigued by hyper-efficient tiny spaces with lots of built-ins. Roll-top desks woth secret compartments? Love’em. Ditto steamer trunks, murphy beds….
I like places that LOOK really spare, but actually contain hives of industry. I coukd never be a real minimalist.
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or not…
lets buy a few old cars fix uem up and rent out party train cars. bun beds for the boys
panorama for he rockies
if time is important ok but if youre just wanting to go do something cool a rent a train for a family/group/organazation social metup.lets go to yellowstone trvel group. washington ds
new orleans,
ill bet it cold be fun designing containers and box cars to be traveling pods for train travelers. hmmmm put together 10 or 120 of them so you can have a dining car etc… to heck with california zephyer and the prices they charge. we fix up a 3000 dollar container and rent it to the whole family for 1000 a month with four containers on a rail car and 20 up to 20 per run. it could be a great fun business model. take a run to denver in the winter sking or to the smokies for a little spring blossom time it could be fun
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Barbara, I was able to tour the executive railcar because I was with some friends who are rail aficionados and who knew about this guy somehow. I didn’t get the impression he gives regular tours or even that he wants the existence of his railcar widely known. Keep your ears open, though. Sometimes once you are aware of something, you catch references to it you would otherwise have missed. Your best bet will be through someone who already knows him.
That’s assuming, of course, that he still has the car. It has to be very expensive to maintain.
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tim – regarding the private railcar idea.
I like that! But– (I know, ‘But But But—‘ Don’t be that guy Ben!)
Mind you I don’t know nutting about running a railway so I’m asking. And yeah, I didn’t know you could just ask to have your own car pulled by the train. But I suppose every business that has it’s own cars is doing the same thing.
And our business is ‘recreation’. Right?
As much trouble as Amtrak has keeping a schedule these days I guess it’s good we’re in the private car. Wake me when we get there.
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With my luck, they’d hook my car into a string of oil tankers.
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volvo introduced a car in which the passengers seat is a des space wher the driver can sit in the back seat when not driving and have the desk in fornt of them all set and ready to go. i love that idea. now if you just get the driver plugged into the equation you have something.
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Catch Folly Beach, right across the bridge from Charleston, if you have the time – nice funky little island.
Nice that you found someplace with grape pop!
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(This is for Ben…)
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Yes, on Folly Beach; we’ve heard of that. Been there before so have been to Fort Sumter and we have a few favorite food places already in mind.
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Sandy had a library patron who lived 4-5 blocks away. Very intelligent, had a graduate degree. She could navigate herself to the library on foot in a small town with square blocks and numbered avenues one way and numbered streets the other. Someone would walk or drive her to the library at about 6 or so and Sandy would drive her home at nine. She did not know left from right. She, of course, had no driving license.
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left with the thumbs trick is my favorite
point your fingers to the ceiling with the knuckles toward you.. point your thumbs at each other. the one that makes an L is the left one
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Believe me, she and everyone else had tried everything. It was an odd disability.
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I suppose if you are dyslexic or have a brain injury you could look from the left hand to the right hand and back again all day, wondering which one is the “L”.
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We drove the back roads around Verden and Neddenaverbergen yesterday with the 24 year old daughter of my second cousin. My did she drive fast! We saw the house built in 1673 where my grandfather was born and raised, the family fields, and the church where my great grandparents were married and everyone was baptised and confirmed. The roads were twisty and very narrow, which is odd given that it is so flat.
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Wow. The house is 340-some years old and still standing?
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Yes, with relatives still living in it. It was the typical farm house in which the barn was attached to the house. The part of the structure that housed the farm animals has been turned into a living/dining room. On many of the houses in the village you could see gouges in the bricks from mortar rounds from the Second World War.
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Yes, with relatives still living in it. It was the typical farm house in which the barn was attached to the house. The part of the structure that housed the farm animals has been turned into a living/dining room. On many of the houses in the village you could see gouges in the bricks from mortar rounds from the Second World War.
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I don’the know why that posted twice.
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I like empty-headed driving of which I used t do quite a bit, such as across Nevada or the Dakotas (well, that I got sick of) across Kansas. Wichita to Santa Fe was a favorite. Sort of Zen or something.
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i feel that way about new ulm and worthingtom mn
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i could do the charles kerault on the road schtick where you travel the country meeting the locals and finding interesting suff everywhere.
theres always something
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Do you know about Atlas Obscura?
http://www.atlasobscura.com/
The sites are all over the world, but with the search engine, you can pinpoint any region.
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interesting
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one of the guys in my start up group is trying to figure out how to list all the cool places in the world to go to if you are passing thrugh. it encourages the listing of what you consider to be a good place to go to. . aimed at millennials more than boomers.
ill ask him if he knows about htis thanks bill
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I’ll use Clyde’s good comment as a launching point for my greatest concerns about self-driving cars. From a distance, it seems desirable for cars to run by themselves. That would seem to make time available for pleasant things. But the way things keep going in our modern economy, whatever free time we gain via gadgets is sucked up by increased work expectations.
Driving as we know it now can be a relaxing, positive, low-stress time. (I know it can be the opposite, too.) It is an activity that demands vigilance, and yet part of the mind is free to float and ramble. I used to write articles in my head while driving the small roads of northern Minnesota or Wisconsin. It was a sweet time to look at changing foliage and spot wildlife. But if cars start driving, how will we use the time made free? I know for a fact mig will want to knit or do some other productive work. I know bosses will figure that since we are not driving, we can be answering email or responding to clients’ calls.
Technology keeps promising to make our lives nicer. Instead, the pressures to do work just keep flooding into parts of our lives that used to be OURS. It is common now for workers to feel guilty if they sit at home and don’t respond to all the emails and calls that keep coming in.
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if you cant say no life sucks no matter how you slice it. you can say electricity is imposing on our self reliance but you wouldnt give it up the computer does mess with your cuhoices but you sit ther ejust the same.
self driving cars will suck up your soul? go live in a cave
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We already have this, Steve. The grace of the check being in the mail, travel time, all gone.
I would say you can accurately figure out a person’s social standing by how much waiting they have to do.
Your payment must be received exactly on the dot by the computer or a penalty is automatically tacked on. But a check issued to you must wait to be processed until the day our office processes payments (and if that day happens to be a holiday, you’ll be waiting until next week).
Some jobs already require you to have a reliable internet connection, carry a cell phone and get on a plane, ready to work at a moment’s notice.
But if you need to contact our company? You will have to wait until our normal business hours.
If a self-propelling vehicle lets me work while I am actually getting to go someplace of my choice, I’ll take it.
Many Americans get no paid time off and not surprisingly, don’t make enough to take time away without pay. They go nowhere. Still others need to take their dwindling paid time off to take care of family issues that can only be dealt with during “normal business hours”.
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My travel anxiety is back. Tomorrow we leave Bremen for Amsterdam, and have to change trains in Osnabrück. We have only 12 minutes to get off the first train, find the correct platform, and get on the next train. It can be done, correct?
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Piece of cake…
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no sweat. when you get off the train you can ask anyone in broken dutch odor english and the next platform is as simple as walking down the platform going down the stairs looking at the wall where the trains are posted if there ihappens to be no one there to answer and getting up the stairs 50 or 75 feet away. nothing to it. and in that part of the world they have helpers all over the plae to make sure you are looked after.
go hang out in the dining car and have a beer and meet the locals. it is a great trip
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That should be plenty of time, Renee. And even if you miss your connection, there are Intercity trains from Osnabrück to Amsterdam about every two hours.
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Train stations are great places to people watch. If you miss your connection, find out from which platform the next train to Amsterdam leaves (chances are it’s the same platform as the connection you missed), get yourself a cup of coffee, find a bench, and enjoy the hustle and bustle of the station. But I’m betting you’ll have plenty of time.
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and when you get to the train station in amsterdam check the site bill mentions amsterdam looks good starting with the penis fountain
http://www.atlasobscura.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&lat=52.3702157&lng=4.895167899999933&q=&formatted_address=&source=desktop&nearby=false
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As Bill said, it was a piece of cake. On our way to Amsterdam.
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I love it – the TBB as travel advisory…
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Our only glitch today is son leaving his phone in the car of the private transport guy assigned to meet us at the Amsterdam train station and drive us to the hotel. The driver phoned right away when he realized he had it in his vehicle and said he would bring it back later tonight. We expect him soon.
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Phone is here. All is well. Happy Whitsun, everyone.
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Morning all.
I’m off today – the garden is calling me and this afternoon I’m taking the Young Adult for our annual “school is over manicure/pedicure”!
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Love your rituals, VS.
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I submitted a brief guest blog just now, a revisit of one I wrote a few years ago. I do have another brief sketch from my short story collection I could submit.
Very hectic week. Surgery for Sandy Wednesday, rather straightforward but with lupus and a history of strokes there is a risk. There is a growth but everyone says not cancerous, but I’ve heard that before. Sandy is hyper. I am calm. Daughter has surgery Friday, very straightforward there. She is calm, except everyone wants to tell her horror stories about SOMEONE who had this same surgery. People are supportive, don’t you know.
SUGGESTED NEW QUESTION: ARE YOU CALM OR FRAZZLED WHEN FACING THE STORM?
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Thanks, Clyde. I wish Sandy and your daughter the best as they face surgery. I’m sorry people have been so thoughtless as they describe poor experiences with particular operations. They obviously don’t know much about what is likely to happen.
I have tried to imagine how calm I would be when tested by something scary. I’m not sure I have ever had to “face the storm,” or at least not since I became an adult. I once was tested by a violent hailstorm, and I was surprisingly heroic then. But that hardly counts.
One of my theories is that most people are braver than they expect to be. That is based on two notions. First, life throws us challenges that are far more threatening than anything we expect. Second, people are generally as brave (“calm”) as they need to be. When I put the two together I conclude that, sooner or later, most of us have to deal with something really frightening. And when that happens, most of us do better than we might have expected.
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Morning–
Thanks for coming up with a new question Clyde.
I’m pretty calm. On the outside. I have made the 911 calls and been the voice of calm and reason.
And many many years ago when mom came to me with a sewing machine needle stuck through her finger, I used my pliers to pull it out.
And yet I get nervous butterflies about finding a parking spot at major concert venues or events downtown.
And I get butterflies before i light a big show. (Will everything work? What if a fues blows? What if the software gets a bug??) But once it starts, then I’m OK.
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Aren’t pre-performance butterflies normal? I think so. And a good working professional (such as yourself) usually learns to harness that nervous energy to make it help them.
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Yep, absolutely. I tell the young kids all the time; ‘Focus that energy!’
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I’m calm but I didn’t know until about 15 years ago. When Young Adult was about six we were working in the garden and she took the dandelion popper (that’s what we call it) and headed toward a clump of dandelions. I really wasn’t thinking it through to let her have at without some instruction. Less an 30 seconds later she can rushing over to me with her hand over an eye and blood starting to seep out through her fingers. (All of you who have met Young Adult, please take a breath right now as you know from meeting her that she has two good eyes!) Despite the fact that I was SURE she had gouged her eye with the stupid tool (and stupid dirty tool at that), I got her to calm down and take some deep breaths and take her hand away from her eye. PHEW! Eye intact, but a cut just at the edge of her eyebrow, bleeding profusely. Just 3 stitches. (I did cry later than night after she went to bed.)
As a postscript, last weekend when we were doing stuff in the yard, she thought it was funny to point out a dandelion that I had missed. “Go for it” I said as I handed her the dandelion tool. “This didn’t go too well the last time I tried it” she quipped.
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I just received a text from daughter, who is having a large mahogany bed moved in Fargo “One of the movers has only one hand!”
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I’ve no clue where this story’s dialogue’s wandered because my internet went down. A month ago, my email stopped working intermittently. Four hours at Apple store who said “It must be your ISP”. Called their tech who said I needed a new modem which I had my geek grandson install. The problems with emailing persisted, only this time, every web site I visit began to buffer endlessly, so my ISP sent another tech last Thursday with another new modem. Same issues, so ISP tech by phone tried to reset it from there.
And that’s where the whole cascade of issues ended up with no internet service whatsoever. Given that each day begins with hours online, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Seriously. At first, I filled in some time by reading my dozens of old People Magazines. Then, two days ago, I tackled my unending property needs. Weeding, trimming, planting flowers, mowing, etc. Today was my last one in purgatory.
Yet another ISP tech showed up, told me that the modem installed five days ago was DEAD, and installed my third in two weeks.
All I can say at this point is that my anxiety about all things technical has redoubled. If “it” can go wrong, “it” will. This certainly has me questioning my dependence on computer usage, though.
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I aspire to calm, but I get pretty frazzled. Sometimes it helps to take a deep breath; sometimes not.
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Not calm. Sometimes I can manage it, but not for long. Anyway, what’s the fun in always being calm?
And l bet any of you calm people that if you spent several days with a certain set of twins that none of you would be calm at the end of it.
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