Milestone

The boy, Cole, is going out for golf.

He has practice right after school out at the country club.

It was time for him to start driving himself to school.

I had taken him to the court house a week or so ago to get his driving test so he could get his school permit and he passed so he was finally legal.

Monday morning this week was the maiden voyage. John was feeling pretty free that morning and almost left at 7 to start his happy day but said he felt a little sad that Cole didn't need him to take him to school and ended up hanging around the house until it was time to send him off....alone....in the car.

Good thing he did because the car was deader than a doornail. They had to jump it. Cole got to school just fine and parked in the spot he had scouted out. It is strategically away from the normal gathering spots of any peers because he gets nervous when he has an audience and ends up "killing it". Manual transmissions are humbling at times.

After school he made a beeline for the car so he could get out to the country club for his first day of golf and yep.....you guessed it.....deader than a doornail again. So poor Cole had a challenging first day. John came to the rescue again and got him to the golf course and we got the car to the shop....it needed an alternator. So hopefully things will go smoother from here on out.

It is sure strange to send your kid off by himself in a car. When he was doing all his learners permit driving we would make him shut off the radio at times because his driving skill would go down at the same rate that the radio volume went up. As an incentive to practice concentrated driving, John took the fuse for the radio out of the car. The deal is that if Cole gets through the rest of the school year without having a fender bender.....the fuse will go back in. :) Good move I think.