licensed to spill
Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 11:47PM After another stressful day at biker school, I somehow managed to pass the test, even with a near-paralyzing case of test stress piled on to the previous day's nerves.
Afterwards, the instructor didn't go around telling us who passed and who didn't - everyone did - but he managed to puzzle everyone by saying "everyone who passed can help me pick up the cones".
All five of us stood there and stared at him. Of course he then laughed and said "Relax. You all passed."
While we all were picking up the little orange cones - they were used to symbolize everything from parked cars to sidwalks - he came up and asked how I was doing.
He said, "You look surprised that you passed."
I snapped, "If I were you, I wouldn't have passed me."
He then assured me that I had proven that I could do the basics, and the test only signified that I could do enough to continue practicing on my own before taking to the open road.
By the time I left clutching my certificate, I had put the top down on the car and was feeling pretty cheerful. But I'm in no hurry to imitate Steve McQueen in The Great Escape just yet.
Reader Comments (1)
Congratulations on passing!
I failed my motorcycle test the first time I took it -- back in '84. The part I remember goofing up was not shifting up -- so I lost points. Since I didn't shift up, I couldn't shift down... I lost those points as well. I must have missed something else too as I think I lost 5 points for each goof and anything over 10 was failing.
(Don't forget to wear your leathers and a helmet.)