Monday, February 19, 2007

Random Statistics

A while back my good friend Brendan Yoder (who, if you haven't noticed I love to tease in these blogs) wrote a blog of his own containing some statistics. Some stats I'm sure were legit, but others were more fictional than fact.

If you're curious to read for yourself what he wrote then check out this entry.

The stat I'm taking up for debate today is:
- 99.9% of fatal car accidents happen outside of your garage! Staying in the garage is the safest place to be.

HA! I laugh in the face of your stat Brendan. All I have to say is, if you're stat is probable then I'm the special 0.01%.

That's right, and there's a story to back up my claim. When my Dad first thought he would teach me how to drive (and I was young at the time - but then again I was a farm girl and use to handling things that moved mechanically) he got me behind the wheel of the pickup truck and stood watching on the sidelines. He didn't seem to feel it was necessary for him to be present inside the cab of the truck. He had told me what to do with this manual vehicle, and that was to put it in reverse and slowly back out of the garage.

So, I moved the gear shift over to the right and down and did next what my Dad had explained that was was to lift my foot off the clutch as I came down on the gas. My Dad hadn't explained that it was supposed to be more of an easing motion, you ease your foot off the clutch as you ease your other foot onto the gas pedal. I managed to pull off more of a rapid and sudden motion. The vehicle jerked alive and sent me forward.

WHAT?? I thought I had moved the gear shift to the reverse position. Why am I going forward? Where's the brake? Why is half the hood of the truck stuck into our garage wall? And here's a rhetorical question that doesn't need answering, why is my Dad's face a sudden shade of red?

Somehow, in a manner that I'm sure even mechanics can't explain, I managed to start a manual vehicle in 4th gear. Yep, that's the gear position I had truck in when I gave it the gas.

Let's just say, after my Dad repaired our garage wall, he made sure he was always present inside the vehicle when he was teaching me to drive. Lesson learned, right Dad?

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