Driving School's Open!

Sorry for the slacking on the entries but some poop (yes I talked about it again!) hit the fan, splattered everywhere and broke the fan yesterday and is still going on today, so I was stuck in meetings most of the day.  Well ... onward and upward, or was it ... to infinity and beyond!

I've never been to driving school and the way I learned how to drive was with my dad and Tito Ed from Cali.  One of my first experiences in driving was taking the car ... errr the Susuki Sidekick that Kuya Tony from Cali left here for me, and parking it back and forth for alternative side parking regulations.  It was this small little red jeep and it had no gas in it whatsoever!  It was running on fumes and I think it had been running on fumes for the past however many months that I used it as my parellel parking test prep.  There was even a time that we ventured out to Metro Mall with Ody as the driver!  

During the summer months, or when there was no school, I would eagerly take those keys and hop into the jeep.  I remember making excuses for having to go around the block to find parking or making the excuse that it's illegal to just go in reverse when you see a parking spot a few cars back, so I had to obey the law!  Well actually I was breaking it more than I was obeying since I didn't have a license, and I didn't have a permit.  So there I was driving the jeep around the block, sometimes two, and if I was feeling adventurous, three times - those moments when you see the cops (no matter where they are), are moments where you feel like the hair standing on the back of your neck and you have no idea what to do (similar to the stall door opening!).  There would be days ... alright who am I kidding, but this would be everyday and everytime I moved the jeep, no matter what the month was, I would sit in the drivers seat with the window down and engine off, but the radio would be blasting!  There I would be for a few minutes then eventually made my way inside.  Yeah, that's how I do, ya know!?  Pimpin' ain't easy, unless you're me!

So with this driving experience under my belt, my dad would hand over the car to me when we went to Delaware - sometimes against my mom's request.  I was driving down the NJ Turnpike at about 80-90 with no license, no permit and I wasn't on the insurance, dang was I just asking for trouble!  Luckily it never came and I got my driving experience in that way.

Tito Ed taught me some other things and did a refresher course right before I was going to get my license.  

See with me, it took a while for me to learn how to drive, I had to go through stages and different instructors.  But ... the kids now have someone who they can count on!  Someone who will be able to teach you the ins and outs of driving as no one could!  His first customer will tell you how good he is, Dudoy my nephew knows what's up.

My dad is set to open up his own driving school soon, I'm not sure what it's going to be called but I'm thinking it will be called Diego's Defensive Driving, or Double D Driving.  Come to think of it, I was his first customer and now Dudoy is his next one ... and it's better when you bring a friend!  Dudoy brought his friend Emil to the driving school too.  Everyone gets action in the Red Panther that I spoke about in an earlier entry.  There's a list of people who might be signing up too, Arvin might be next on the list so if you're interested, you better sign up fast!  There's going to be a waiting list soon.  

You just need to be able to take constructive criticizm and be able to take screaming and yelling.  Not out of fear but out of anger.  

Another thing you'll need to be able to handle is the fact that half the back windshield if being obstructed.  That's something you can't negotiate and have to really learn how to drive with.  We have all seen the signs on top of driving school cars saying what company they work for and some even have the stickers on the bumpers that say "Student Driver" but that's not the case with the Double D Driving.  Here you get a sign that's protected behind thick heated glass.  Guaranteed not to fade, peal or fall apart as long as you follow the directions.  

See I'm not sure if this is legal or not, but it's a good way to tell everyone to move to another lane and watch out for abrupt turns.  Also for the pedestrians, it's something they can see after they get up off the road and wipe the blood from ther head as the Red Panther continues onward.  

Now everyone in Queens knows that Dudoy is a student who is hard at work in trying to get his goal of getting that license.  

If you can't see it in that picture, this is a picture that I'm sure you'll be able to see clearly.  

 

My dad always finds and does creative things, but I think this one is one of the best things he's done ever!  Wanna sign up, just comment and we can schedule something and work things out, in the meantime, watch out for the "student" driver.

+ mon

The Return of the Red Panther

One of the reasons, well the main reason we went to Delaware this weekend was to pick up my dad's old car.  It's the 91 Camry that has been through a thing or two, at one point it was rockin' a three tone paint job!  Ahhh yes I said THREE.  Sure you've heard of the two tone paint job, but this one was the three tone, pimpin'.  The front drivers side fender was a dark blue, the passenger side door was gray and the rest of the body was maroon.

Now the way it got the multi colors is a whole different entry, but I'll give you a little tid bit.  The front fender, was caused by getting rammed twice by an SUV.  The passenger door was caused by a not so smart man who stepped on the gas when the light turned green, even though there was a car directly in front of him.

I remember when my dad had to get rid of his old car, the white Mitsubishi Galant.  It was the first car that he bought here in the US and he loved that car.  When the non profit org towed it away, he was really sad.  I think the same went when we drove this 91 Camry to Delaware to give it to my sister.

There is definitely sentimental value in it, him and my mom drove in that car a lot.  When we were about to take the car back home today, he was checking it out and opening the door.  I was a little bit aways but I told my sister that he was getting flashbacks, and old memories were coming back.  He then sat in the drivers seat and started the car.  A few minutes went by as he just sat there soaking it all in, it's just like how when we get a new car and we sit there once we had bought it or decided that we're buying it, and take a deep breath to get that "new car smell."  Well he was sitting in there and taking that deep breath to get that old car smell.  My brother in law was telling him to becareful with this and that on the car, and my dad simply replied ... "I know this car."

I told him to go ahead of me since I wasn't sure how fast he'd be driving it, and if it would even make it back to NY!  He went about 20-30 minutes ahead of me ... and I was going to catch up with him.  I was doing about 90-100 on the turnpike, really I was.  Trying to catch up with him as fast as I could just incase there was any problems.  About 45 minutes goes by and nothing!  I thought maybe I had missed him, or he went into the single rest area that I didn't check, I did stop by the other rest area to check if he was there, but to no avail.  I finally caught up to him on exit 8 and pull along side him to let him know that I was there.  He was in the slow lane going about 60-65.  So I pull up in front of him going the same speed, when we reached a rest area.  He followed me in and we parked next to each other, he got out of his car and stood there leaning on the car, sort of posing.  There was a huge smile on his face!  It was a kool-aid smiel for sure!  He didn't say anything and just smiled and I smiled back ... then he said he was hungry and went to get some food. 

My dad is very happy to have his car back, the kids had dubbed it the Red Panther.  So it's returned, and I also have memories with this car, a lot of them.  The youth also have a lot of memories with this car!  This is the car that I hit 117mph with, this is the car where I fit 9 people, this is the car where I got my first speeding ticket after cutting off an undercover cop, this is the car that you had to open the back passenger door just to open the passenger door, this is the car that we took all over the place even though people said it would never make it, this is the car that made my dad smile ear to ear. 

The Red Panther is back. 

+ mon