Overheard at . . .  the DMV

“I got all the hardest ones.”

I suppose we probably all feel this way after cramming for half an hour and then taking the written part of the driver’s exam. But, in this case, when I heard some of the questions the young girl had faced I had to cringe. I know I couldn’t have answered them. For example she got what she called the horse question.

If you see someone riding a horse with their hand raised in the air what should you do?

I’m not sure what the multiple choice answers were- but I imagine they went something like:
a. Wave back
b. Signal your passing direction with your turn blinker
c. Stop and wait for them to pass
d. continue to drive slowly, the rider was just letting you know they saw you.

If you answered ‘c’ you would have been correct. If you shrugged and said  ‘who cares’, you should probably stay away from roads in Montana, Wyoming and most of the middle of the country.

So, since I had no idea on this one I decided to look up a few more and test my readers knowledge of such things. I also went out to look up some of the weirdest driving rules around the world. Let me know your score after you’ve finished taking…

DEANNE’S DRIVING TEST

1. In addition to cushions ahead, to the side, and behind, there are some drivers to whom you should give lots of room. These include? a. Drivers with their windows fogged up.
b. Near driveways
c. Anyone from Boston
d. All of the above.

2. You have a disabled parking permit but all of the spaces are occupied. Do you . . . a. Wait for the next available spot.
b. Park in the yellow striped area next to the disabled parking spaces.
c. Park in the open spot next to the disabled parking space.
d. Start yelling obscenities at the huge Cadillac SUV without a disabled parking permit showing who has taken up two of the spaces.

3. Brown road signs point to? a. A very muddy road.
b. Safety corridors
c. Historical, cultural or recreational areas
d. A horse crossing.

Answers: 1. = d 2. = Not sure, I made all of them up and 3. = c Sooooo, how did you do? Ready for part two?  Here are some interesting International rules of the road, courtesy of Smartertravel.com.

- As long as you don’t get drunk, you can sip a beer while you are driving in Costa Rica (wh-a-a-a-t?)
- On the other hand, eating or drinking anything, even water, while driving in Cyprus is a big no-no
- People in Crimea better watch out. You can be fined for driving a dirty car in Russia. (I hear they are looking for new sources of revenue, so expect a crack-down on this rule.) There're more… so check out the full article.

But of course the number one rule on Deanne’s Driving Test is
Stay safe and enjoy every Journey Inspired by Love. Cheers,
Deanne

p.s. Don't forget to check out my free story on Free Reads from the Genre-istas. (Link Here).
Part 1 of THE BIRTHDAY PROMISE is available now and Part 2 will be posted this Friday. Enjoy the Journey!

“Lips that touch liquor, will never touch mine.”

This last weekend my family and I participated in an historical reenactment of life in Willamette Oregon in the year 1913. Walking from scene to scene (each set inside or in front of a historical house) we led tour groups through different vignettes based on topics of importance at the time. One of these topics, temperance, turned out to feature and unexpectedly important role.

It is funny how life sometimes mimics theater. In this case a drunk driver bypassed the road blocks and was stopped by two local, off-duty, officers dressed in the official outfits of the time. Not believing that they had the authority to arrest him, he argued with them, leading them to call in on-duty reinforcement. To add to the confusion of the moment, a goat that was being walked around town as part of the tour got loose and was running around the area where the police were questioning the man.

Since Saturday there have been a few posts about this extra scene. (Link to Oregonian article). So, I won’t add to what has already been written. What I did realize, after seeing a picture of the scene, was that my daughter, who was playing one of the characters in one of the vignettes, was only one block away from where the man was stopped. At the time I thought the whole chaos was pretty funny. But after seeing that picture I now thank God that the man was stopped before he actually hurt anyone… especially my daughter and her young friend.

A battle that was waged 100 years ago still continues today. And while I am not advocating for prohibition, the word temperance actually derives from the Latin word temperantia which means moderation. Only later, when it was attached to prohibition, did it come to mean abstinence. Moderation in all things is good… but situations like the one above point to why moderation in alcohol drinking is essential.

We always assume that the bad thing won’t happen. But Saturday night is a poignant example of how close we are to being the one sitting at next to the hospital bed praying for our daughter’s life. As we approach the holidays we are guaranteed of many chances to drink and drive. But before you pull out those keys, please remember that there probably won’t be any 1913 cops to stop you from tragedy.

Know of any good ways to moderate over the holidays. Have any suggestions for ensuring that the drive home is safe? I love to hear comments from my readers. And to prove it I’m giving away a copy of my book BETTING JESSICA to one lucky commenter during the month of September.

Leave a comment for any of my blog posts and at the end of each month I will randomly select one visitor/commenter to receive a free download of my book. (Note: winner will be notified by a reply linked to their
original comment…. Check back at the end of the month for directions on how to claim your prize!)

“Um, Mommy… I just spilt my juice all over Daddy’s computer.”

Of course she was joking. That’s what we thought anyway. But no- there was the laptop, open for watching a movie, with red smoothie juice spread all over it. You could literally see the sticky fluid seeping into the keyboard, the disk drive hole, the on/off button.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Safety be damned! I yanked off my seatbelt and crawled into the back seat, desperately trying to stop as much of the damage as I could while my husband pulled the car over to the side of the road and proceeded to almost have a heart attack.

It was an ironic moment actually, since just last week I posted a blog about how technology fails us. We have become reliant (overly so) on screen time to make the 10 hour drive go by more quickly for our daughter (and thus for us.) We force her off of it every now and then for at least an hour. “Look at that beautiful mountain,” we say. But she barely looks up from her screen (laptop or iPod) and we are left to enjoy the vistas on our own.

No on this trip, however. This juice spill happened 3 hours into our journey; which left about 8 to fill computerless. Granted the first two were spent in tears, apologies, and questions about whether daddy would ever forgive her. But after the tension in the car finally mellowed, we were left with wonderful stop-over in Crater Lake, some fun car games, some nice discussions, and a little bit of iPod time.

Strangely, it was one of our nicer car trips. The fact of the matter is that technology is not really to blame for over reliance; sometimes we let ourselves down with low expectations. Next time, whether we have a computer available or not there will be new rules for the amount of time she spends staring at a screen.

“You are brainwashed into thinking whatever the government tells you is legitimate.”

I grew up in a house that believed in many conspiracy theories. The JFK assassination, the first walk on the moon, the Pearl Harbor bombing; these things came along with the idea that somehow the government had created or facilitated each incident in order to progress their own agenda.

It is easy to fall into this pattern of thought. After all, our government doesn’t seem to inspire much confidence. Rather than prioritize what is best for the citizens, politicians make getting re-elected their top goal. After the disheartening gun control vote in the senate, it is easy to reach the conclusion that the citizen’s views don’t
matter.

“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”This quote by 19th century historian, Lord Maxim, is well known; certainly, I grew up reciting it. But more recent research has shown that there is a connection between someone’s moral identity (how strongly they feel it is for them to be fair, generous, caring, etc.) and how they use
power (more in this article at Smithsonian.com)

And I would take this full circle. My hypothesis is that the lower a person’s moral identity, the more likely they are to believe in conspiracy theories under the assumption that if they were to gain power that is how they would act.

As a parent this begs the question of how to build strong moral identity in our kids. But as a citizen it makes me wonder whether there could be an objective test we could give to politicians before we elect them. It could become part of their running platform; Nominee xyz scored a 99% on the moral identity scale: Paid for by friend of xyz. But
would there be a conspiracy to fix the results so the ‘right’candidate would be elected?

Phew! To be honest, I’m not sure what my moral identity score would be, but I know my laziness score is high... and conspiracy theories are simply too much work for me.

“Could you watch my stuff for me?”

Uh… No!

Let me be clear. It’s not that I think you are a bad person or that you have an evil intent. But I believe if we all followed the rules we would be able to help avert disasters such as on Monday.  

We all know the rules, right? Don’t leave your bag unintended. Don’t ask others to watch your bag, or accept items in your bag from strangers. Don’t carry prohibited items through security. Over time, though, we have become lax about living with these regulations. We think it can’t happen again… until it does.

But I have noticed there is another reason why people dismiss rules. Some people seem to feel above them. This happens at our school all the time. There is a strict visitor badge rule… even if you are just dropping something off to the classroom. Everyone must check in and get a badge. And yet frequently I see the secretaries chasing people down the hall and insisting. Come on; they have enough to do without having to monitor parents.  

Are these the same people that park their old SUVs in the energy efficient vehicle only spots? Just saying… And don’t even get me started on rules around pick up and drop off. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times the Principle sends out reminders about this process, many people just do it the way they want to do it.

In order to live in a civil (and safe) society we give up certain rights: such as jaywalking, or cutting in line, or running red lights. We agree to follow the rules, because if we didn’t, if everyone thought they were above the rules, society would fall apart.

  So don’t ask me to do any of these things. And, don’t expect me to stay silent if I see a bag without an obvious owner, or an unusual package just lying around. Whether at the airport or at Starbucks I go by the rules.