DRIVING ME TO DISTRACTION

Terrible photos... but we're talking about driving lessons and lessons in general to day. Squeaky is continuing to drive with more confidence daily. Yesterday all I had to do was be present in the car. He managed to everything else perfectly. The fun thing about Squeaky is that once he knows the rules, and he wants to follow them, he will correct himself. I do not have to tell him if he forgot to use his blinker... he catches it, balls himself out and fixes the issue. At one point yesterday after doing exactly that... he turned to me and said "I guess I'm really teaching myself how to drive." Yep. I'm just there for the funny ride.


Because he can tend to be highly excitible, I do set him up a lot. By that I mean that I give him advanced warning on things. The day before I mentioned that the next time he would drive on the real street on the way home. This is about a quarter of a mile away... but it does have a wonderful "S" curve. He was as concerned about doing that as I expected. But when it was time to have it happen, since he had the time to prepare himself mentally, he was ready. Naturally he did fine.


Most of the lesson involved him driving very well while telling me stories. Can you imagine... a child of mine telling stories? Hahaha We do love our memories and stories at my house in a box. They were all about his favorite teacher "Dot". We lost Dot in the cuts. He was really something. I liked him because he reminded me of my favorite heroin addict... yes, I do too get to have a favorite one of those... named Bob. (I will tell you about Bob maybe in this Friday Fables.)


Dot was an unusual man. He did funny things. His wife sewed in pockets that were very long... so he could put a meter stick down in his pocket to pull out. Why one would think of doing such a thing I do not know. But he captured the attention of the kids.


One time Squeaky answered something right... and asked Dot what he got as a reward. Dot fished around in his deep pockets and produced a cookie with a big bite out of it! Another time, he got a package of gold fish crackers. Dot had a motto about work hard and you get a reward. Think of his pockets as junk drawers... that was the type of reward that he would pass out. A pencil sharpener shaped like a nose... two sticks of Big Red gum left in an abused looking pack. Dot was different.


He had a lot of whimsy in his attitude. One day Squeaky raised his hand. When Dot called on him Squeaky said "Dot, we can't do any work today... Ricky is suffering from date rape syndrome and we have to help him through it." (Yes, it's a quote from South Park) Dot laughed and gave them a free day. Another time he told the kids that he wanted to see some "hard work" on their assignment. So Squeaky carefully spent the period writing the words "hard work" all over his paper. For his audacity Dot gave him an "A".



But Dot was not always the fun or easy guy. Squeaky took it too far one day and Dot told him to get busy or he'd make him run laps. Squeaky says "I'd like to see you try." He was running in the pouring rain for an hour. After that another student, Steve could raise his hand and say... "Dot... Squeaky did blah blah blah... make him run a lap." and Dot would.


We all miss Dot. He was different to say the least. From the robot wars and tin can boat races to his Bozo award for the most obnoxious in the class... yes, Squeaky won that and his name is written on the Bozo to this day... it resides in my yard. It being the Bozo... made of a child's coat tree with a big Bozo the clown head on top and the signatures of all the school Bozos on the post. I need to bring it in for the winter.


We hear that Dot is doing well as a teacher in an alternative school. I am sure that his creativity will do wonders there. The kids stole his cell phone and got his number... so they occasionally call to harass him. He is happy to hear from them. A couple of the kids went to Idaho and under an underpass they saw the words.... "Legalize it. --Dot '89"
Naturally they had to raz him about that... he said it was not his inscription, but they don't believe him. Which ever, it makes me laugh.



I get half of a day off for teacher inservice. Yay! So I'll be working on my house... gotta have it perfect for meeting the deer hunter. Now D wants to come the day after Thanksgiving to visit.
I keep telling myself I need to wait until after the weekend to make any choices and more options keep coming up. The frogs are a hopp'n in the bog.


Have a great day this Wednesday... as the deerhunter pointed out... it's hump day and we're almost to the weekend... are you nervous yet?