On the edge of seventeen

If you're looking for adventure, thrills, and a surplus of adrenaline, and you can't get to your local rollercoaster, you get your fix by a very simple method.

Teach a teenager to drive.

Last night I took my stepson out driving for a short while along some backroads. He's still not quite used to my car (a Saturn wagon) and seems to overestimate the width, but he actually does okay. One of the roads we were on has large drainage ditches along the sides (as do many roads here, actually) and I was mildly worried about ending up in one of them. But to his credit he did very well, and was very cautious. He actually handles curves fairly well, which was a pleasant surprise.

The first time he was behind the wheel of my car was in my company parking lot. Now that caused me a few grey hairs. At one point, he was trying to park and bumped up against a concrete wheel barrier. DD, who was in the back seat, reached up and grabbed the OS handle and held on. Talk about a vote of no-confidence! Still, one has to learn to drive somehow. Where I live, the DMV requires that teen drivers have had 50 hours behind the wheel (10 at night) before they'll upgrade a learners to a provisional license. I think that's a smart thing, personally. I just had to take a short driving test to get my license where I grew up.

I did much of teaching my stepdaughter to drive as well, and while doing so I realized that, like life, there is a point when you need to learn to trust them more and not hold on so tightly. For DsD's driving, that moment came when I was letting her drive home from a store and it started pouring rain. Now, I personally dislike driving through torrential rains - it terrifies me - but she remained very calm and drove very well through it. I was very impressed. And I let her drive more on main roads after that. But I still got a few grey hairs from the experience.

Speaking of DsD, she'll be 17 this weekend. Hard to believe...in some ways it seems like only yesterday she was my DD's age, and now she's actually a (mostly) responsible young adult.
(And I know she reads my blog sometimes, so happy birthday to her! )

I did get a chance to stitch for an hour last night. While watching hockey, of course! I didn't watch all of the Sharks-Avs game (I do need to sleep, after all), but what I saw was good. So much for the sweep, though - Avalanche won in OT. But the Leafs won their game, so that's some progress toward a game 7!

I also got some very good work-related news today, so I've been in a great mood all day . I'm also planning on going to my favorite Irish pub to celebrate with the family for dinner tonight. Gonna get myself some good food, and a hard cider or two.

Sláinte!