Our driveway is the actual pits here.
You ease down a roughly 10% grade and just where the alley narrows significantly, you execute a 90 degree turn over an oddly placed hump and through a pair of narrow iron gates. One wheel literally lifts off the ground about four inches as you navigate the hump. It’s a joy.
It’s even more ridiculous if you attempt to execute this in reverse to exit. So instead, it’s easier to do a series of small 3-point turns in our small parking area to turn the car around before you leave. At least then you have a fighting chance.
When we first arrived, my husband, Bobby, insisted that we rent a car with a manual transmission. Apparently, this is what the real French do. I wasn’t convinced but agreed because it was cheaper and we hadn’t yet met the Driveway of Doom. That insane entry coupled with the manual transmission car nearly cost us one bumper, one marriage, and at least 3 or 4 years of my life.
So with righteous indignation, I forced my marital hand and demanded that Bobby return the car and get an automatic.
Happy days!
For about a week…
This week, I managed to back our new car into the rough stone retaining wall of the parking area while I tried to turn around. I wasn’t moving faster than about 1 mph, but it was enough to scrape the chrome paint and puncture the plastic bumper.
Why? Because I was late for a meeting. Because I had a car full of groceries that needed to be put away. Because I was simultaneously trying to avoid a large piece of Styrofoam that had blown out of our trash bin, and I didn’t want to take the time to simply get out and move it.
Voila! Apparently manual transmissions aren’t my only problem!
It dawned on me that all of my accidents have been while I am in reverse. I’m not saying that I wish for more traumatic accidents, but what are the odds?
The car I backed into with our pickup truck at the Christmas tree lot when I was 14. Aimee’s boyfriend’s corvette in the high school parking lot at 17. The little Kia I rear-ended at SoulCycle as we were both backing out of our spots. The two (count them, TWO!) stone pillars I’ve side-swiped in underground parking garages. Full disclosure, the last of these stone pillar incidents was a mere month ago!
And these days with all the backup cameras and warning sensors, these cars practically (and some literally!) park themselves. Yeesh…
Being able to know what’s going on in front of you as well as behind is the hallmark of any good driver. You must be fully present – not distracted by your kids, your phone, whatever dialogue you have going on in your head, or a combination of these! You have to anticipate problems before they materialize.
And isn’t that true in life as well?
When I am focused on what’s ahead of me – the next task on my to do list, the next thing needed for the kids, the next work project – then I miss out on the lessons I need to learn today.
And you want to know a fun fact about the universe? If you don’t learn the lesson today, guess what shows up tomorrow?
The same lesson.
I might think a hard situation (or a rock retaining wall) has passed but it is still there waiting for me to slow down and hear what it has to teach me.
So maybe it’s high-time that I stop and learn this one. Let’s see if being a little more present, a little less harried and distracted will help me…and perhaps save us the cost of another new bumper!
Bisous,
Hanna
40 Weeks in France 