This Driving Thing is Not For Me

Nope, third time is definitely not the charm. Of course, it would have been, but my tester didn't ding me for every tiny little mistake. Like apparently not turning my wheels in the right direction when preparing to make a turn. I'm turning. Of course my wheels will be in the right direction when I make the turn!

So I'm annoyed. Very annoyed. Apparently I did great this time around. No dangerous incidences, no rule violations. Nothing that would actually fail me. Except the five times I didn't do a shoulder check over my right shoulder, and the two times I didn't do a 360. Oh, and not being perfectly spaced in my back up parking job. Even though it was a beautiful parking job.

At some point, you have to just blame the tester. The first two tests, my failure was definitely my fault. I know what I did wrong, and I agreed. I made efforts to correct thought failures, and I did them perfectly this time around. And still failed.

For perspective, I'm driving a standard, and it's pouring with rain for the first time in a few weeks. The roads are a little slippery, but not too bad. At one point, I was on a shallow hill (think a bully run on a ski slope), and because there was a car behind me, I put on a bit more gas than I usually would so that I would not hit the car. Unfortunately, because of the rain and the wet roads, I just burn out a bit. I got going, no skidding, no hazards, no hitting people. Everything was fine. No one was in danger, and no one should ever be in danger just because I burned out a bit. But of course, I get dinged. Because it's not perfect.

I would like to see every driver have to go in and take their full license road test again every ten years. That would definitely weed out the actually dangerous and stupid people. Not the poor souls who don't look over their shoulder a few times, and who burn out a couple times. Even as I was taking the test, there were two people who didn't use their signal. And not even for minor things. I was sitting at an intersection, waiting to turn left because there was a car sitting across from me. He had no signal on, so I assumed he was going straight. Nope. He turned left. And I wouldn't be surprised if I got dinged for waiting too long at the light.

And then at the end, when the tester was telling me what I did wrong, she actually said I was going too slow in a residential area. Okay, I understand, if the road is clear and there's not really a risk of kids running out, or hidden driveways, I can go a bit faster. But she actually said that I should go 40, and judge for myself when I can go faster or slower in a residential area. Bear in mind, the roads were slick, and the particular road I was on when she asked me the speed limit was small, with cars on both sides, on a hill with patchwork paving. It was not a safe road, and not one I would feel comfortable going 50kph on, even with perfect conditions.

During the test I did a decent parallel park. I had to restart and do it again when I couldn't the first time. I made sure to always check over my shoulder, and in all my mirrors before I pulled out or backed up.

When I did just the plain backing up part, I looked around, and carefully backed up. There was a car poking out of a driveway that was in my way, and even though she didn't tell me to stop, I did. I was aware that there was something there.

When she asked me to pull over and open my door, I shoulder checked, and looked in my mirror to make sure that no one was coming, then opened my door.

I used all my signals, though I may have forgotten to turn it back on when I had to correct my parallel parking job.

In other words, I did all the most important things near perfectly. But I guess they have to meet their 'fail' quota for the day, and I was just one of the unlucky ones this time.

At this point, I've stopped caring. I hate driving. I have since I first opened the book to study for my L test. I will never be the type of person that likes to drive. It will never relax me, and I will never willingly drive a long road trip unless the destination is worth it. If it wasn't expected of me, and if our transit system wasn't so bad, I would be more than happy to never get behind the wheel of a car again.

I'm not normally the person to just give up, and I'm not in this case either. I will very grudgingly continue to drive, just because I have to.

Third Time

I have my third N test tomorrow. I'm really hoping the saying 'third times the charge' will work out for me. I practiced my parallel parking yesterday, so hopefully that'll go better. I think I should be fine... Maybe. There'll always be things that can mess me up, I just have to hope that those things don't pop up tomorrow. What I'm most concerned about are playground zones. Now that school is out, I'm not completely sure what are playground zones, and what are just school zones. And now they've thrown summer school into the mix, but that might be over by now, but I'm not sure. There was summer school at the school near my house, but it seems to be over now, but I'm not sure if that's the case for all schools, or if they're scattering the days that there's summer school.

Okay, maybe I'm just a little nervous. I guess I just have to go, feel confident, and hope I get a nice tester.