Teenage Drivers

Witness the perils of letting teenagers drive.

 

I asked Olaf's step dad to look at it. Nothing's damaged except my paint job. Oh, and Middle Child's pride. Olaf's SD said not to bother fixing it until there's a few more dings and scratches. Augh! Don't say that! I guess it's only payback. My parents are probably rubbing their hands in glee and evilly laughing. Mwahahahah! I can hear it all the way from Vegas.

What Everyone Else Didn't Learn in Kindergarten

There has been major construction on the local Highway here. It's barely half over. And it's a major inconvenience because to go anywhere out of town (which is most of the time) I have to get on the Highway. And people have forgotten how to be civil, or they never learned how. Here's the list of things the people I share the road with every day didn't learn in Kindergarten, or maybe they missed Driver's Ed.

• Share
• Wait in line with everyone else
• Play fair
• Don't cut people off so you can get ahead of everyone else
• Wave Thank You when someone lets you in when you felt the need to race up to the front of the line in front of everyone else
• Don't text on your damn cell phone
• Pay attention
• The Fast Lane is the Fast Lane, don't sit in it driving the speed limit

Someone help me cuz we've got almost a year and a half of this construction left and driving in it is driving me crazy!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Car Show

Last weekend we decided to go to the Car Show down in Sunny, Warm Moab. The weather delivered beautifully. The boys played with Tank on a new contraption, a trampoline. He wasn't so sure about the bounciness but didn't hate it.

Then we headed to the car show. There were so many beautiful old cars. I'm sure plenty of them cost more than my house. Betty Boop was here to welcome all.

Then I found this Aston Martin. Beautiful. And for Sale! For only $15,500.00 That's a deal. I did ask how much it would cost to upkeep. Then Olaf noticed that it was a replica. It sure looked old. And pretty. I know James Bond had an Aston Martin or two, but I don't know if he had one that looked like this or not. But it would have been pretty cool to get one.

Olaf ran across some '58 Corvettes. They are cool. And shiny. And expensive. Too expensive to drool on, so be careful where you drool.

Here's Olaf showing the kids the details of the beautiful corvette.

This truck I found interesting. It was sitting on the ground. Must have some sort of hydraulics. But it was fun to look at.

Here's Sister-in-Law Fashionista with her favorite car. It was sparkly. It's pretty dang cool.

Couldn't help but snap a picture of this shiny chrome car. If you looked too long it could make you go blind.

Loved this old red jalopy on our way out.

And the cream on the pie was I got to sit in this cool car. The old guy who owned this car said I could take it for a spin, the keys were in it. I didn't take him up on the offer, but I did sit in the car and enjoy it for a few minutes.

At night the cars go cruising down Main Street. We sat on the road for a couple hours watching them drive by. It was pretty fun.

We had a grassy knoll behind us. All the kids played. They made new friends.

They roughhoused. The got battle wounds. They laughed.

And Olaf rode along with his Brother Copper. First they responded to a truck that drove into the Texaco. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

The driver moved the wall in about four or five feet.

Someone was out having a smoke break on this bench. Thank goodness he wasn't hurt, but his bench went through the window and into the store.

There 's gonna be a lot of clean up for this store. At least the weather's nice right now since it'll be an open air gas station for a few days.

Soon after this event Olaf and Uncle Copper filled the red dodge charger with gas. Thank goodness because minutes later they responded to a call of some motorcyclists who were driving recklessly. So they took chase. They followed them for 100 miles, into Colorado. I got a text after the chase was done.

"Arrested a guy 8 miles into Colorado. Got up to 148 mph."

I asked Sister in Law Fashionista if they could arrest someone in another state. She said if the chase originated in Utah then they could. I didn't believe Olaf at first but he sure had the ride of his life that night. I asked what caused the motorcyclist to pull over. He ran out of gas. But as Uncle Copper and Olaf pulled up behind him their own gas light came on. If they hadn't just filled up they would have ran out of gas first!

The next day on our way home Olaf didn't attempt any police driving. He said he'd had enough the night before and would be happy to never go that fast again.

Seatbelts On, Cell Phones Off

It has been an emotionally exhausting week and a half for me. Last week I had written a bunch of stories about Calvin so everyone could witness some more of his fun-filled antics. As many of you know October 15 was the one-year mark from our accident and Calvin's passing. We celebrated his life by planting a tree at the cemetery between his and Olaf's dad's spots. Olaf went and talked to the sexton and he said we could plant a tree as long as it wouldn't grow over six feet tall. That's a hard requirement! We searched several nurseries before we finally settled on a Korean Lilac Tree. While it will grow up to 10 feet, it's a slow-growing tree that won't be huge.

Getting ready to break ground

All the wonderful mementos family and friends left

Family and Friends digging a hole

Baby making sure it is the right size

Olaf putting in the tree

Baby putting in some dirt

The other boys helping as much as possible

Some of our family that came and helped

More family coming to lend support

Finished!

Tuesday of last week we met with a group that was formed several years ago in an effort to prevent teenage deaths on the roads. Last year they put out a book with the stories of these teenagers in an effort to make a difference. The thought process is statistics are boring, real stories make it personal and make more of an impression.

Yesterday we were lucky enough to attend a High School assembly promoting safe driving for the school Calvin would have attended and Olaf did attend. The kids around us were acting just like a real assembly, chattering and goofing off until one of the presenters announced that two mothers of deceased teenagers were in the audience. It became quiet. Slowly the noise level crept up until Calvin's and another boy's pictures from the book were put on the wall. It became quiet and the kids really started listening. I heard a few whispers around us "I know him" or "My little brother was friends with him."

Today all our hard work culminated in a news conference to announce the book for 2008. We just want kids to drive safer and wear their seat belts. We talked to a few reporters and hope the message to wear your seat belts and don't drive distracted will reach more kids.

Here is the news story on the 5 o'clock news:

Families hope their tragic stories will save teenagers' lives

And here is a story from the local newspaper:

Parents hope their losses will save others

And finally, here is the book we all worked so hard to put together. It's the book at the top of the page titled "13 Stories We'd Rather Not Tell." It's hard to read. When they sent me last year's book I almost threw it away because it was so hard to read those stories of other families. But my sisters helped me see the good this can do and hopefully it will help others.

Next week, I promise, I will quit talking about Calvin. We've got a family wedding and I'm sure something funny will happen there that will lift everyone's spirits. It's hard for something funny to not happen when seven siblings and their families get together.