A right of passing.... sort off

Marcus passed his road test this morning. He is now an officially licensed driver in New York State, but he was told what the state giveth the state and DAD can take away!!

beat

Beat,
I hope you earn enough to cover the car insurance.


AK

One small step for Marcus, one giant leap forward towards empty nesting.

Enjoy your freedom, or at least start getting used to it. The last eagle is flapping his wings and preparing to leave the aerie.

bob

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sinus007 wrote:Beat,
I hope you earn enough to cover the car insurance.


AK

Male 17........... OH yeah we know it will go in only ONE direction UP

beat

Beat - now the real fun begins!

gyso wrote:beat,

Congrats, I think. When I had two young drivers on my insurance, it made me think long and hard at the fact that I had total coverage on all my vehicles.

The end result was that I took total coverage off two of my vehicles and went with the minimum the state required.

gyso

"his car" or the old 2004 alero with 138,000 miles on it will only have the minimum required.

but it will still be $$$$$$$$ cha ching! Liberty Mutual has been good to us though!

beat

Beat I hope you buy less cars for yours than I did mine. He is on his 5th or 6th. And Last.

Beat,

Congratulations to Marcus. I'm sure he'll be a good driver.

My first post-graduate job was at Liberty Mutual headquarters. I couldn't find a job in research, and they told me they might be able to move me over there if I first became an underwriter trainee. There were about a dozen of us all in the same boat; and, during our 35-minute lunch that was ended by one of the interminable bells, we'd share stories about how we hated the job. We all had Masters Degrees and thought we deserved much better.

We all sat in a huge room with something like 60 desks. At the back end of the room, an old biddy sat and watched us like a school monitor. She also kept track of attendance and tardiness as we straggled in each day. The elevator door was out of her view, but we in the front desks could see it. Whenever one of our buddies came in late, one of us would go back and engage the old biddy by asking some question. (Lord knows we weren't hurting for questions.) While we distracted her, the latecomer (usually completely hung over) would crawl from the elevator to his desk.

Our job was to rate the insurability of corporate fleets of vehicles. The process was extremely complex, and there were books listing exceptions and other books listing exceptions to the exceptions. We all stank at it. But the worst part was that, every afternoon about 2:30, a bunch of high school girls came in and corrected our work. I remember one particularly tiny one teeny bopper who came up to me one afternoon and said, "Sam, your work is not going well." Like I didn't already know that.

After three months, there was an employee evaluation and a decision as to whether we'd be accepted long-term. I was looking forward to it because I planned to vent about the crummy job and just walk out the door.

But damned if they didn't offer me a permanent job. I said, "But I'm lousy at it. Why would you remotely consider retaining me?" They replied, "We're convinced you'll get it if you just spend some more time learning from the high school girls." At least I mustered some politeness in refusing their offer.

My friend, Ted Richards (a really funny man) took another tack. When they offered him a job, he looked at the employment form he'd have to fill out and said, "I'm having a little problem with this first word—nammee." So they kicked him out.

Most of us rejects convened in the cafeteria one last time and spent several hours eating, playing bridge, and ignoring all the bells. What a great feeling. It was the old biddy who discovered us and called security to get us out of there.

So I learned a lot from Liberty Mutual—mostly that, if you laugh your way through almost anything, you can survive.

Sam

By the way, I think the proper way of saying it is "a rite of passage".

A "rite of passing" is something else, like an Irish Wake.

:-)

bob

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Unless one is talking about gas.

Sam

sam wrote:Unless one is talking about gas.

Sam

sam,

Touche. This was, after all, a thread about driving.

Lesson #1, beat, is to inform Marcus that if he borrows the car he must return it with the fuel gauge no lower than when he took it.

bob

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I thought "right of passing," as Beat used it in this case in reference to driving, was quite clever. But I'm easily entertained.

Outside wrote:I thought "right of passing," as Beat used it in this case in reference to driving, was quite clever. But I'm easily entertained.

outside,

"right of passing" makes sense in England, Jamaica and other former British colonies.

bob

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bobheckler wrote:

sam wrote:Unless one is talking about gas.

Sam

sam,

Touche. This was, after all, a thread about driving.

Lesson #1, beat, is to inform Marcus that if he borrows the car he must return it with the fuel gauge no lower than when he took it.

bob

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Thing is if there is more gas in it than when he left......... i'll need to check my wallet!

Outside wrote:I thought "right of passing," as Beat used it in this case in reference to driving, was quite clever. But I'm easily entertained.

now you mention it....

beat

Actually, I was referring to a different type of gas. But it works either way.

Sam

It's an odd feeling, reading this and thinking to myself, "aww shux I remember when Marcus,,,, " and then realizing this is someone I've never even met!

Matty, I don't believe it would matter if you'd met Marcus previously. I've met him several times, and even his recent photos depict an entirely different individual than I recall—not just bigger but much more mature and outgoing. I've always felt he and his sister, Sarah, have been extremely well raised.

Sam