The Road to Recovery: Don't Stop in the Middle of It

I attended the first Physical Therapy session of my life today and it was very productive-- once I completed, by hand, that damned paperwork that I've filled out a thousand times before . . . isn't the fact that I'm allergic to penicillin in some database-- and if the Russians know this, am I in danger?-- anyway, once I got done scribbling, I learned some stretches and some strengthening exercises, had some heat applied to my calf, and a nice lady massaged the muscle until it loosened up a bit (while we chatted about East Brunswick schools-- she lives where I teach) but I do have some advice for the woman driving the Honda in the parking lot-- and this advice applies to many more drivers than this particular woman: if you need to do something in your car that requires you to stop driving-- find some paperwork; text your daughter; count the change in your ashtray-- please, please pull over to the side of the road or into a parking spot, don't just stop in the middle of the road until someone beeps at you . . . is this a new thing or have people always done this?

8 comments:

  1. i don't feel like i've ever noticed this phenomenon as much as i do now. it's a thing.

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  2. Please keep this in mind during every physical therapy appointment hereafter: Dave Flynn was a degreed, licensed physical therapist. That should set your brain reeling.

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  3. It isn't a new thing, the new thing is that SUVs are too big, so much so that many people can't drive them capably, so they think they've pulled out of the way but they haven't because they have no idea where their landyacht is in relation to the curb. If the Honda at issue in this sentence was a Civic then that's just old fashioned idiocy.

    My driving grievance relates to turning--no one can get their cars around a corner anymore. When you're sitting 6 feet off the ground driving a 25 foot long SUV, you're too scared to even make a right turn on green because you can't tell if there is a pedestrian in front of you and the car feels like it's going to tip over because it's too tall.

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  4. i have a school-related grievance. at the high school where i coach, there's only only one vehicular entry/exit. at dismissal time, parents line up single file to wait to pick up their kids, which backs the (nearly 1/4 mile long) driveway up every day. i have to get to to the field for soccer practice before dismissal so i can set up before the kids get there (and lots of other people need to get to the school, including upperclassmen who are returning to campus for sports after having early dismissal). i, and these others, have no option but to travel in the oncoming lane for hundreds of yards and hope no car is coming the opposite direction. it's a recipe for shitshowery.

    dave, please send a sternly worded note to my local authorities. thank you for what you do.

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  5. i should note that there's a separate entry/exit for buses, but we're not allowed to use it. so in an emergency, i suppose there would be two ways to get off campus in a car.

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  6. also, i think this might be as much a grievance about helicopter parents who insist on picking their kids up from school instead of making them ride the bus like proper americans once did.

    dave, really, get on this.

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  7. Just drive over the curb, onto the field. zkids take buses to school because we have a similar drop-off/pick-up situation and I refuse to wait in that line.

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  8. since COVID we have loads and loads of parents that come to pick up their kids and they arrive an hour early and just idle in a long line in front of the school.

    it's an enviromental/traffic disaster.

    i need to move to europe

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