Shifting Gears!

My Bioptic training has officially shifted gears.  Today it was finally time to for me to sit in the drivers seat.  My appointment was a 1:00 but it ended up being pushed up to a partly sunny Monday at 12:10.  I was so busy at work today I had no time to feel nervous or excited.  But one thing was for sure, I definitely was not forgetting it!  I had been thinking about this day all weekend.  Hoping and praying nothing would mess it up if it's meant to be.  


When I arrived outside Jennifer and I battled my new velcro attachments.  I didn't realize they would make it hard to push the bioptic through my red filter.  (I just put the velcro on today.)  Once that situation was resolved we went to a empty parking lot where the real work would begin.  She asked me if she should assume I know nothing.  I told her I have driven with family a few times in my life, but just assume I knew nothing because it's the truth.   She laughed and we parked.  I got in the drivers seat and she showed me the break, the gas, and the gears.  Then we spent some time adjusting the mirrors electronically.  She got out of the car to demonstrate where my blind spot is and told me to be sure I was not seeing the side of my car in the side mirrors.  Once everything was lined up she showed me how to look at them and said it would be most important when changing lanes.  She then taught me how to backup looking backwards, over my shoulder, to the right.  This seemed awkward.  My neck hated it.  But she and I both knew this would be on the driving test, so I best get used to it.  Her car seems very quiet, you can barely even hear the engine running.  She also did something that may help a lot of drivers.  She put a black cloth over the dashboard to obscure sun reflections.  Nice touch.  


I got a little frustrated that I could not see the gear shifts well at all.   Her car had a stick shift attached to the wheel.  The gear letters are on the dash and have a tiny square that appears around them when selected.  The wheel was at times in the way when not straight and also the gear display was just so tiny on her dark dashboard.  Red filters do not help when trying to read a shadowed, unlit dashboard.  The newer cars have gears like the ones like pictured above, so these are much easier to read.  In fact, I got into a friends car tonight and was delighted with how big everything was and his backlighting and special placing of the speedometer was really awesome.  I love technology.  It was big enough I could see the speed from the passenger seat.  Anyways, on Jennifer's training car, teeny tiny everything.  There are some things you can do to enhance the dash like buying a sheet magnifier and cutting it to fit your dashboard.  See www.maxiaids.com if you're interested.  I will decide if I need one if I ever get my own car depending on the display style.  


After adjusting the mirrors I took the car out of Park and we began to roll forward.  Then she told me to turn.  I immediately brought up the problem I have with using the wheel is not knowing how far to turn it to straighten the wheels back out.  She acknowledged this is something that is not natural that I must get used to.  I also made an instant mistake;  I put my left foot on the break.  WRONG!  She said I better not make her tie my foot down.  She said my left foot will not be useful.  After that, Jennifer showed me how to pivot my right foot from gas to pedal.  I never knew any of this.  I always assumed people used whatever they were comfortable with.  I also never knew until this past week that signs exist just under bridges to let you know what street/bridge you're driving under.  I was then instructed by Jennifer to do a few circles around the parking lot.  Once I was comfortable with that, she instructed me to drive to a parking spot to see how well I could park between the white lines.  I did so, forgot to put the car in park, she reminded me, and got out to assess my accomplishment.  Well no accomplishment here...I failed to line it up.  The car was way to one side and crooked.  With that she got her "doo-dad thingy" out of the truck.  It was something she stuck in the middle of the hood to help me judge my ability to center park.  This bought to my attention that the middle of the car was in fact far to my visual right.  With some practice lining it up visually, it was time to try parking again.  This time I got out to examine my work I was happier with the results.  I was lined perfectly straight with the lines and just a tad too far to the right.  


What next?  I drove around a little more and was now gliding along trying to make sure I stayed on "my side' of the road, not veering from lane to lane.  This seemed to come easy, but then again there was no oncoming traffic to my left I could judge by.  Next she told me to give it some gas.  I did and started going faster then I was comfortable with and began hitting the break.  That was not what I was told to do.  She encouraged me again to let off the break and give it some gas.  I did and again did so apprehensively, slowly and gently.  At this point she pushed my leg down some to force me to go faster.  Sneaky, but effective.  I was still scared.  lol  Good thing I did not know what was going to happen next.  She was pretty happy with my handling of the car and told me to keep driving to the end of the parking lot toward the road.  Then her next words were "I probably shouldn't do this but you're doing so well, why don't we take a right onto that road."  Now I KNEW I'd be sick.


She just told me to take this car into REAL traffic on a REAL used road, in a downtown area with ONE ways and tons of red lights and idiots crossing.  NO WAY.......yep.  We looked for oncoming traffic.  I was so slow to turn my curb I like to have never gotten out of there.  She said most people are going too fast when they turn a curb anyways.  I felt so inadequate being in the midst of the traffic chaos.  But then something happened or didn't happen I should say.  I started driving and didn't run into the other lane.  i did not hit cars parked on the side of the road.  I also ran no red lights and proceeded on green.  I even remembered to brake slowly and learned how to use my turning signals attached to the drivers wheel on the left side.  Wow....I was having an out of body experience almost.  I couldn't grasp what was going on.  She helped me turn the wheel a few times to ensure I did it far and fast enough.  I also managed to stop the correct distance from traffic in front of me.  Well before I knew it we had ran into some construction.  We had to go an alternate route and around all these 18 wheelers parked horizontally in the road.  WHEW  Now this was getting nuts.  I managed to navigate through that with Jennifer's help.  My next challenge was realizing I needed to yield to traffic when making certain turns.  I don't grasp it all because so many lanes were involved, but will study that more.  OK...now for the part I couldn't wait to tell you.


I got on the next road and notice I'm getting closer to work.  There is red lights about every block I'm driving, but today more were green.  Well, I see a car brake in front of me and notice the light had just turned green. I start slowly rolling forward and suddenly this insanely lucky pedestrian J-walks in front of me and my green light.  He went 3 steps in the road.  I slowed to a stop but he then realized his error and stepped back to the curb.  Oh my gosh yaw, if he only KNEW who was behind that wheel! lol  Maybe my filters got the message across and alerted him to how unfortunate crossing in front of a bioptic user could turn out.  Well today he was lucky and Jennifer was pretty happy I think that I saw it all happen and responded accordingly.  We drove a few more blocks, turned a curb, and I saw my workplace.  Wow, was this for real?  I drove into my workplace parking lot to drop MYSELF off?  I was in shock I guess.  I put the car in park.  Jennifer gave me my bag I stored my bioptics in and said she couldn't believe I was not more excited.  I told her I was just scared.  A scared me is a quiet me.  She was very encouraging about todays testing.  We said goodbye and the workplace security asked where I had been.  I said, you wouldn't believe it, but I drove here!  He laughed and said nope, he didn't believe it.  But he knows I'm using bioptics and helps me watch for the bus each and every day, so he was just teasing.  


I walked back into work with it being the most further thing from my mind.  That's kinda bad since this is a new job.  But who can blame me?  I've waited all my life for this day.   I really had fun learning to drive today despite being a little scared.  Being scared will get you no where.  It's healthy to have some fear, but not to the point it prevents you from accomplishing your goals.  Today fear was put aside with sheer reserved shock and joy.  Every time I drive things should get a little easier.  I can't wait to try it again in a few weeks.