Friday, March 21, 2008

My First Live Blog


Sometimes I hear that term, live blogging. Usually it is associated with conferences and things like that. Today, I want to live blog from the Old Louisville Coffee Shop. I guess in doing this, I am confirming to the world (and my wife) that I am not studying like I should be. Anyway, this student driver from the Kentucky School of Driving just pulled up and tried to parallel park. She hit the car in front of her and knocked the bumper off into the street.

Clearly embarrassed, the driving instructor came into the coffee shop asking for the owner of the green Chevy Blazer. Since the driver couldn't be found, he had to call the police and now an officer is outside filling out a report. The student driver has her head in her hands and is obviously mortified. I wonder if she is worried about failing this part of her driving test. I wish I could go talk to her and let her know that sometimes these things have to happen for the sake of having a good story to tell people.

I am reminded of an embarrassing incident I had on my last day of drivers education. My instructor was my high school's athletic directer and the father of my good friend Jake. On the first day of drivers ed, I asked Coach Adair if I could peel out. I said, "Let's see what this Crown Victoria can do!" Of course, he said no and we went on our way. On the whole, my drivers ed experience was awesome. Almost every Saturday morning, we drove to different towns to get breakfast at McDoanlds (Muleshoe did not have a McDonalds yet). I guess Coach liked hash browns.

I asked Coach Adair every time we met if I could peel out. Finally, he got so annoyed that he said, "OK, if you don't ask again, on the last day, we will go to the civic center parking lot (lots of loose gravel) and you can peel out." Glory!

The last day came and I made sure that he remembered. After we dropped the other students off, we drove to the Civic Center. The moment had arrived. He asked if I was ready, and I asked if HE was ready. He told me to go for it and boy did I. I hit the gas and the tires started spinning. It was awesome! It was awesome until the full cup of coffee he had sitting on the dash board flew off and landed in his lap, staining his white shirt and his bike brand coaching shorts. We both started screaming, kind of like when Gale and Evelle realized they left Nathan Jr. behind in the movie Raising Arizona. Not one of my finer moments.

In case you are wondering, I ended up passing driver's education with flying colors (and coffee) and went on to have many driving adventures in "The Stallion," an '86 Buick Century that was my first ride. I just hope the girl outside talking to the police officer and looking at a bumper on the street passes drivers ed. Sacrifice for the sake of the story young lady, sacrifice for the story.

6 comments:

Rich Clark said...

Riley, I had no idea! You are a comedic genius!

Anonymous said...

Man, I've forgotten about all the fun we had in Drivers Ed. From a girl that had never been behind the wheel of a car until the first morning of drivers ed (and almost running through the fence at putt putt) all the way to a guy that fell asleep while driving. Good times.....Good times.

Anonymous said...

that is memorable! the only thing better would be hearing you tell it in person. - Stephanie Christenot

Anonymous said...

Riley, you sure know how to tell a story. I unwittingly read this post while I was at work and almost made a scene.

linley said...

This is money. Hilarious!

Terry Byers said...

The things we learn when our children are grown :-)
Yikes,
Mom