WHEN SHOULD YOU STOP DRIVING?

 

1. When other cars are often honking at you.

 

2. When  you can't hold a conversation with a passenger  and drive at the same time.

 

3. When you can't listen to  music while  you drive, but talk radio  is okay.

 

4. When you can only listen to repeated spoken radio, like the news..

 

5. When you limit your driving to a small area or radius around where you live or park the car.

 

6. When you have to be able to make a round trip inside of your 'on' time, which varies quite a bit.

 

7.  When  you  have panic attacks, anywhere, especially hen there is a police car behind you.

 

8.. When a road closure or detour derails your sense of  direction and you keep going in circles, arising the ire of the cop at the detour after driving  past them 6 times 

In the interest of not reediting this thing, I'm gonna jump back to number five. When you're limiting your driving to a small radius. That seems simple enough.

 

 But consider this. Even if you drive in a tiny 1 mile radius of your house, can you handle something going wrong? A flat tire. An accident? Something that delays you from getting back home and taking your medicine?

 

I had two such experiences. I could walk to my daughter’s house, a half a mile away, with my Rollator. The street I walked along, had sidewalks most of the way. It was a cut-through street, but it was only a 15 mile an hour road.

 

What could possibly go wrong on the 15 mile an hour road that's a total of a half a mile door-to-door.? Especially when I'm not driving!

 

I was walking back, within my time zone of “on” times, when an animal was hit by a car. I witnessed this. The driver was freaking out. There  was no one else around.

 

I had to help out, so I downed a couple of extra pills and called the police. I worried so much about shaking, appearing very Parkinson's-ish, and having to explain myself. I realized if I can't handle something like this, I should not be driving,

I'm not reliable enough to be called upon in an emergency. 

 

The second thing that happened was on that same 15 mph road .

 I was driving. The road was under repair and the manhole covers were sticking up about 4 inches above the blacktop.  

 

I considered driving over them, but thought it would be really bumpy for my car.  I felt like such a bad driver, going around these bumps at 2 mph. I feel like an old lady driver. There was a couple walking along the street.  I was embarrassed that they would think I was really a bad driver. Nonetheless, I wasn't about to take a chance by zooming over those bumps.

 

When I got home, my daughter called me, worried asking if I was all right. Apparently just after I had walked past this couple, the truck, following me, decided not to cover around the bumps and ended up driving into this couple. Quite awful. I didn't see it. But I missed it by 30 seconds. Again, it made me realize that I may be able to drive a route, but I can't handle anything happening that will delay me or make me have to function when I'm off. Something to consider when you're thinking about your capability of driving. Are you capable of hanging in there when you can't drive? Can you handle having a flat tire? A fender bender? Witnessing another accident? That's all part of driving