Nearly Perfect

1991 and 2010

Tonight’s entry comes to you from a flash I had in the car on my commute driving to work. It made me grin from ear to ear so I figured it would be what I shared tonight. As a younger lad I was late to get my driver’s license. Most people get their permits when they are sixteen in the fine state of Colorado, but my parents had a rule that we had to be carrying a “B” average to get ours.  The Denver metro area has a decent public transportation system, combined with the fact that I had friends who were older than me that drove, I really didn’t require to have a driver’s license. To admit more of the truth of the matter back then this poet was already embattled with his addiction to alcohol, and it kept me out of trouble not having a license as well.

                Eventually I won a radio contest which gave me a proper down payment, which is a whole different entry for this book as well. I purchased a nineteen seventy six Mustang Two Ghia, it was cherry indeed! Powder blue with a white half cloth top, a Boss Three Oh Two Motor with a four barrel carburetor, light with a good suspension, there wasn’t anything this beast couldn’t pass except for a gas station. I actually eventually found two cars that blew my doors off, but again I digress that the tale about those would be better served in a different entry.

                My father bless his soul took time out of his life to teach me how to drive. He is a Marine and an engineer which those in combination would indicate a perfectionist, and if you asked him he would readily admit it. We would fill the car up and drive all over Colorado giving me valuable experience behind the wheel under different driving conditions. One day we would do mountain driving, the next we would do freeway driving then dirt roads and in all kinds of weather too as you could imagine in Colorado. It really made me a great driver and I was very confident of my skills when the time arrived for me to take my licensing test.

                The day arrived and my mother made this an event as well, making breakfast for us before we ventured to the licensing bureau, we then double checked to make sure all of the indicator lights worked on my Mustang. We had all the documents in order and off we went to the driver’s license office. I strode into the office and pulled my number and waited anxiously for my turn. It finally arrived and I was given a hardened veteran of the road tests and she was not one to joke with, I know because I tested the waters with humor to which I was met with a stern glance. She did the vehicle check, and we were off on the test. I did everything on the road test text book perfect and we pulled in and she handed me my score card to go get the license and it was marked with a score of ninety four percent. This caused my brain to short circuit I quizzed the test proctor what I had done wrong, and she indicated that I did yield right of way to a pair of pedestrians, they waved me on, and I proceeded to go, when the correct action was to wait for the foot traffic. I still got my license but not with a perfect score.

                The fact that I had gotten so close to having a perfect score on my driving test stayed with me and haunted me like a phantom. Every time the discussion was of driving tests the fact would burn in the back of my mind. This happened a bunch, as I have a ton of nieces and nephews on my wife’s side of the family. Eventually my younger brother and sister both tested and neither got as close as I did to having a perfect score.

                Fast forward now nineteen years. I had been in an accident in Denver and forgot to pay the fines, actually admitting the truth about myself I tried to pay the fines, and was short by three dollars, and they would not take my payment so in protest I refused to go back and make a second attempt to pay it. Well in the fine state of Colorado they tend to frown on not getting payment for their tickets. They also have the power to suspend your license if you do not pay them. If you let it remains suspended for one year you get the joy of retaking all of your licensing tests. I am stubborn and I found this all out the hard way. Eventually in April of Two Thousand Ten I found out I needed to reinstate my license. I grinned because I actually welcomed the fact to right the wrong that was done to me nineteen years earlier.

                The state had change their policy and you had to take a private test with the results faxed to them before you license can be put back in good standing. Well I found one locally that would give me the test that very day, and I borrowed my Mother’s car to take the test with as it would have been illegal for me to drive my own car at that point. My father went with me, and we found the place straight away. That is a gift all of us in my family have, we can find where we are going with ease. I checked in for the test, and this time I got a nice lady to help me with the test proctoring. I drove the course without incident. I made it back to their parking lot and there was a guy waiting for a family member to load into his vehicle. He rolled down his window and waved me on, and I parked the car. I got my score card and low and behold ninety four percent once more. I asked the proctor where I got marked down, and she told me the appropriate thing would have been to wait until the vehicle quit loading. I was furious with myself. I had a chance to right the wrong done to me nineteen years ago and I made it all the way through the test and I blew it in the last moments!

                What brought this to mind this evening was as I was driving my way to work I found my hands at exactly ten and two on the steering wheel, which is what they teach here in Colorado. As the memory went through my mind I thought “Nearly Perfect!”

Author's Note

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