Do you even clutch, man?

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Let’s do some positive stuff today. I’m tired of the #FixFMCSA battle, I think we can lay it down for the next couple weeks — nobody’s going to be around Washington to hear us yelling at them, so let’s have some fun.

First off, Nathan is home and doing great. Huge warm fuzzies, right there. The kid not only went home a week after brain surgery, he’s once again being exemplary with his wishes for his family to “go get ice cream all over their faces and talk to each other” at his favorite ice cream spot for Christmas.

You heard that right – he doesn’t want an Iphone or Fall Out 4 for Christmas – he wants his family to go get ice cream and have fun together. I seriously love this kid, and want him to know how much of an example he sets for me. Best Christmas present ever is knowing he’s healing and happy.

crazy-ice-cream-dessertOnward, to the part where I admit to another stupid thing I believed about driving a big truck, because I’m not opposed to admitting I’m human, and I can be led to believe things by someone I’ve shared a bed and home with for 20 years. Harumph.

George has always driven a manual transmission truck. Well, he has as long as I’ve ridden with him; I think he had an automatic Volvo for a short stint when he was a company guy, a long time ago. Anyway, he prefers a manual transmission, and as far as I can tell, has mastered the “floating” thing to a fairly high level. He rarely clutches, and when I asked him if that was OK, he said, “I haven’t found a reason not to do it yet.”

We were having one of the many talks we’ve had about me getting my CDL – this is an ongoing conversation that I have the same answer to every time and it’s NO, but he was trying to sell me on how easy it would be for me to drive.

“Look, if I get the RPMs up high enough, I can even float it into reverse.”

“What? Wow…it doesn’t mess it up to go from forward motion to reverse like that?”

“Nah, you just have to have a really big parking lot, so you can get going fast enough.”

“Really? Because I know it would mess a car up to just go from forward motion to reverse, without braking, even if you used the clutch.”

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“This is a truck, baby. It’s different.”

I sensed b.s., but I didn’t have personal experience to challenge with, so I left it. Of course it turned out to be bullshit, Mr. Parker was having some fun at my expense. He believes because I admitted once to thinking hot air balloons had fans to propel them in the direction they wished to go, he can trick me into believing pretty much anything about a subject I have no personal experience with.

You know what I say to that?

Ice cream.

Because sometimes nothing matters but getting ice cream on your face and laughing with the people you love.