Aug 8

Aug 8 LACK OF FOCUS

Day five of our driving lessons. A new course. A new highway. And driving on a very narrow street before merging onto the MoPac Expressway, also known as Loop 1.

I started the drive this morning onto MoPac, on our way to Central Market, as I was afraid the winding road on FM 2222 and merging onto a major highway would be issues.

His attention was off. Even after we returned home, when making our cappuccinos. Sage placed his coffee cup underneath the pour spout, without even having ground the coffee first. Then he forgot to put the dosing funnel onto the portafilter when grinding the beans.

Once we left Central Market, I let my son take the driver’s seat.

‘Focus’, I kept instructing him throughout our driving lesson today.

His lack of focus caused several mistakes today. Including having a driver, speeding through the parking lot, almost slam into the driver’s side. ‘Left, right, and left again’, I instructed him to look multiple times. Though that driver really should not have been speeding.

We continued on the narrow street, onto Loop 1, and directly exited onto FM 2222. Then I had him turn left onto Northland Drive and continue down the steep and winding road, staying in the righthand lane.

‘Slow’, I kept saying. ‘Drive even slower’, I reiterated several times. This caused a large white truck to almost sideswipe us as he passed to our left and immediately moved back into our lane. My son stayed calm. I was not.

Our next stop was Trader Joe’s, which meant another merging onto Highway 360. The road was fairly empty as he merged, but more cars appeared ahead of us. This was a lesson in keeping your distance.

The bank across the street was our next stop before the next case of trepidation at the stoplight.

‘Don’t hesitate’, I instructed as the light was about to turn yellow by Trader Joe’s. He hesitated. ‘Go! Go! Go!’, I yelled. ‘Never, ever hesitate!’, I continued.

He admitted he was distracted. For whatever reason. He was tired, which led to his lack of attention. We were also talking, which I decided was not a good idea at this time.

Next were two more merging pains. The same ones as yesterday. A long queue of cars led to my son’s inability to see clearly behind him as he tried to merge onto FM 2222. They were blocking his line of sight. He kept inching forward. Instead of waving on my son, the cars directly behind him passed us by. This caused further delays and more frustration.

We continued up the steep hill and made it to HEB. As we left the parking lot, my son took a wrong turn and ended up back onto a busy road. Onto FM 620. There were construction signs letting us know there was no right turn allowed.

‘Turn!’, I shouted as we approached the driveway after the closed road. My patience was gone. We stopped at a driveway exit, as another sign told us we could not turn left. Another large white truck was waiting behind us, but I got out and we switched seats. Today’s lesson was over.