Tales from the Passenger Seat (and other vehicle related stories)
This week Jacob finished the classroom portion of driver's training (24(!) hours of classroom training). He's been driving ever since he received his driver's permit but now that the driving portion of driving training looms ahead of him, he's been wanting to drive with me more than ever. So, we did a lot of that this week. He's doing a great job driving for the most part. I've only had to use my, um, outside voice once or twice to get his attention when I saw my life flash before my eyes when he drove the car a little too close for comfort to an object that the car should not have been close to. One evening this week he drove not only in the dark but also in a light rain. We killed two birds with one stone (and I don't use the word "kill" lightly when referring to Jacob's driving :)). Jacob needs to be comfortable driving at night- if all goes according to plan, he'll be getting his drivers license at a time of year when it's dark out by 6:00 pm.
The evening that Jacob drove at night with me was possible because of our new SOCCER CARPOOL. Alyssa has been playing soccer for Cincinnati United since she was five years old. In all that time, we've driven her to every practice, every training session, every game except maybe one or two times when Donnie's dad or uncle took her. By and large, either Donnie or I (and Donnie mostly before this year) have taken her to training. Whoever takes her is gone for usually around three hours so it's a significant investment of time for whomever takes her. One of the families on her new team lives north of us (soccer is south of us) and the mom asked if we'd be interested in a carpool. Oh yes, we were interested! The carpool consists of us taking Spitty (the girl's nickname- not because she's prone to spitting, rather because of her name) one day a week to practice and Spitty's mom taking Alyssa another day of the week. We may alternate the remaining day or just help out as need be.
Our carpool family drove Alyssa to soccer for the first time this week. While it was odd seeing Alyssa's little form swallowed up in the large SUV when the family came to pick Alyssa for soccer, I appreciated not having to navigate Cincinnati rush hour traffic to get her to training. The evening this week that Alyssa rode with her teammate's family worked out really great because it was an evening where Donnie was out of town. I could have taken Alyssa to soccer and the teens could have stayed by themselves at home (neither of them had anywhere they needed to be) but it was nice to be at home with them. Jacob ended up driving with me two times that evening (to get dinner and to and from the gym) so I was especially grateful for the soccer carpool that allowed me to be at home.
Speaking of Donnie being out of town, he hardly ever goes out of town for work so I can't complain- and let's face it- I would complain if he went out of town often :)). He texted me on route to Myrtle Beach that the airline bumped him up to first class. When he arrived at the Marriott resort where the conference (speaking at a conference was the reason for which he was travelling) was being held, he called me and told me how nice the place was. He was able to relax a little bit by the ocean and the resort's pool area and nap. I'm glad he was able to get away for just a little while to a pretty/ different location. He was only scheduled to talk for an hour the following day (I can't fathom the expense/ bother with paying for a speaker for one hour but that's just me) and he wasn't worried about it so he was truly able to relax for a little bit.
I wish I had some good pictures to go along with this post but I don't. Jacob would not have appreciated my photo taking skills of him while he was driving, not to mention it would have been quite the distraction for him which he did not need!! It also would have been weird to take pictures of Alyssa getting into her teammate's SUV for the soccer carpool (I'm proud to say that the idea never occurred to me to take a picture of that :)). I was looking through my phone photos and did find a few to share:
I was at an auto repair place getting my car looked at this week. I brought my trusty Kindle with me. What I love the most about the Kindle is the dictionary feature. When I'm reading a text and I don't know what a word means, I just put the cursor in front of it and the word's meaning appears. While reading the introduction to Shirley by Charlotte Bronte at the repair shop, I came across several words whose meanings I didn't know but soon found thanks to my Kindle. Incidentally, the photo section of my phone contains many images like this. I like to take pictures of the words that I don't know and the definition so that I can look back on the words in hopes of committing the definitions to memory. I have probably 50 photos consisting of various words' definitions from my Kindle.
The weather this week was HOT! Like high 80's, high humidity hot. One of the evenings, Thursday I believe it was, storm clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped, and rain came pouring down. I didn't mind that one bit but I did wish I had taken my bike into the garage before the rain started :).
At last weekend's soccer tournament, Donnie bought Alyssa three new soccer "kits" (replica uniforms of famous players). Alyssa wore one to school one day this week while Donnie was out of town so I took this picture and sent it to him.
The evening that Jacob drove at night with me was possible because of our new SOCCER CARPOOL. Alyssa has been playing soccer for Cincinnati United since she was five years old. In all that time, we've driven her to every practice, every training session, every game except maybe one or two times when Donnie's dad or uncle took her. By and large, either Donnie or I (and Donnie mostly before this year) have taken her to training. Whoever takes her is gone for usually around three hours so it's a significant investment of time for whomever takes her. One of the families on her new team lives north of us (soccer is south of us) and the mom asked if we'd be interested in a carpool. Oh yes, we were interested! The carpool consists of us taking Spitty (the girl's nickname- not because she's prone to spitting, rather because of her name) one day a week to practice and Spitty's mom taking Alyssa another day of the week. We may alternate the remaining day or just help out as need be.
Our carpool family drove Alyssa to soccer for the first time this week. While it was odd seeing Alyssa's little form swallowed up in the large SUV when the family came to pick Alyssa for soccer, I appreciated not having to navigate Cincinnati rush hour traffic to get her to training. The evening this week that Alyssa rode with her teammate's family worked out really great because it was an evening where Donnie was out of town. I could have taken Alyssa to soccer and the teens could have stayed by themselves at home (neither of them had anywhere they needed to be) but it was nice to be at home with them. Jacob ended up driving with me two times that evening (to get dinner and to and from the gym) so I was especially grateful for the soccer carpool that allowed me to be at home.
Speaking of Donnie being out of town, he hardly ever goes out of town for work so I can't complain- and let's face it- I would complain if he went out of town often :)). He texted me on route to Myrtle Beach that the airline bumped him up to first class. When he arrived at the Marriott resort where the conference (speaking at a conference was the reason for which he was travelling) was being held, he called me and told me how nice the place was. He was able to relax a little bit by the ocean and the resort's pool area and nap. I'm glad he was able to get away for just a little while to a pretty/ different location. He was only scheduled to talk for an hour the following day (I can't fathom the expense/ bother with paying for a speaker for one hour but that's just me) and he wasn't worried about it so he was truly able to relax for a little bit.
I wish I had some good pictures to go along with this post but I don't. Jacob would not have appreciated my photo taking skills of him while he was driving, not to mention it would have been quite the distraction for him which he did not need!! It also would have been weird to take pictures of Alyssa getting into her teammate's SUV for the soccer carpool (I'm proud to say that the idea never occurred to me to take a picture of that :)). I was looking through my phone photos and did find a few to share:
I was at an auto repair place getting my car looked at this week. I brought my trusty Kindle with me. What I love the most about the Kindle is the dictionary feature. When I'm reading a text and I don't know what a word means, I just put the cursor in front of it and the word's meaning appears. While reading the introduction to Shirley by Charlotte Bronte at the repair shop, I came across several words whose meanings I didn't know but soon found thanks to my Kindle. Incidentally, the photo section of my phone contains many images like this. I like to take pictures of the words that I don't know and the definition so that I can look back on the words in hopes of committing the definitions to memory. I have probably 50 photos consisting of various words' definitions from my Kindle.
The weather this week was HOT! Like high 80's, high humidity hot. One of the evenings, Thursday I believe it was, storm clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped, and rain came pouring down. I didn't mind that one bit but I did wish I had taken my bike into the garage before the rain started :).
At last weekend's soccer tournament, Donnie bought Alyssa three new soccer "kits" (replica uniforms of famous players). Alyssa wore one to school one day this week while Donnie was out of town so I took this picture and sent it to him.
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