Where in the World Isn't Bob Saget?

[Goofyernmost]

I'm not sure how different they are, but driving here certainly makes me nervous. I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but I know you have talked about defensive driving, basically assuming everyone else on the road is an idiot and trying to make sure you can prevent an accident by adjusting your own driving to what others are doing. Well, one day in my driving lesson, my teacher was on me about going too slowly around this big curve in the road, etc. And I think I slowed down because the road was narrow and there was another car and I wanted to make sure we didn't hit? I don't remember exactly what happened, but he literally said to me "What you're doing is driving defensively, and you are not supposed to do that." I always saw defensive driving as a GOOD thing. Here, they don't want you to do that.

I guess you have to adapt the mindset that you may have to be a little more aggressive for the test. Then promptly go back to defensive driving after you get it. I can remember adapting my driving for the area I was driving in. In Saigon it was a free for all. No one stopped for anything including accidents. Montreal was a lot easier to drive in when I started to drive the way they do and Boston (at least previous to and during the big dig) if you wanted to get anywhere you had to not take no for an answer. I'm sure that I have adapted in many other places. Perhaps five or six times on my trips down to WDW. A lot of variety of driver types in that 1500 miles. You have every reason to be nervous, but being nervous will be a bigger problem then just relaxing and going with the flow. Do what others expect you to do and you will probably be OK.

It doesn't always take a lot to not pass a drivers test. I took the test to get my Commercial Drivers Licence at age 51. I had 100's of thousands of miles under my belt. A lot with large vehicles. I had to take my test on a bus. I drove on a street that didn't have a speed limit sign that I saw anywhere. As we were going along I noticed that I was doing 40 and figured that just in case I had better slow down to 35. Guess what, the man that was testing noticed that I let up on the accelerator to slow down and wrote in that I was "speeding". I failed. The funny thing was when I went back to retake the test, a week later, I never went over 30 mph. When we got back he complained that I was going to slow. I asked if that was against the law, he said no, so I said so I passed right? I had. I'm not saying to try that where you are, but my point was it is easy to fail one or more times before you get the hang of it and know what they are looking for.

 

[MinnieM123]

I guess you have to adapt the mindset that you may have to be a little more aggressive for the test. Then promptly go back to defensive driving after you get it. I can remember adapting my driving for the area I was driving in. In Saigon it was a free for all. No one stopped for anything including accidents. Montreal was a lot easier to drive in when I started to drive the way they do and Boston (at least previous to and during the big dig) if you wanted to get anywhere you had to not take no for an answer. I'm sure that I have adapted in many other places. Perhaps five or six times on my trips down to WDW. A lot of variety of driver types in that 1500 miles. You have every reason to be nervous, but being nervous will be a bigger problem then just relaxing and going with the flow. Do what others expect you to do and you will probably be OK.

It doesn't always take a lot to not pass a drivers test. I took the test to get my Commercial Drivers Licence at age 51. I had 100's of thousands of miles under my belt. A lot with large vehicles. I had to take my test on a bus. I drove on a street that didn't have a speed limit sign that I saw anywhere. As we were going along I noticed that I was doing 40 and figured that just in case I had better slow down to 35. Guess what, the man that was testing noticed that I let up on the accelerator to slow down and wrote in that I was "speeding". I failed. The funny thing was when I went back to retake the test, a week later, I never went over 30 mph. When we got back he complained that I was going to slow. I asked if that was against the law, he said no, so I said so I passed right? I had. I'm not saying to try that where you are, but my point was it is easy to fail one or more times before you get the hang of it and know what they are looking for.

THIS. @Songbird76 , his comments spell it all out. Essentially, just do whatever the "test" expects you to do, and once you get your license, then drive like the sane person, that you really are.

Best of luck to you, and I'm sure you'll pass a future test.

 

[Songbird76]

I guess you have to adapt the mindset that you may have to be a little more aggressive for the test. Then promptly go back to defensive driving after you get it. I can remember adapting my driving for the area I was driving in. In Saigon it was a free for all. No one stopped for anything including accidents. Montreal was a lot easier to drive in when I started to drive the way they do and Boston (at least previous to and during the big dig) if you wanted to get anywhere you had to not take no for an answer. I'm sure that I have adapted in many other places. Perhaps five or six times on my trips down to WDW. A lot of variety of driver types in that 1500 miles. You have every reason to be nervous, but being nervous will be a bigger problem then just relaxing and going with the flow. Do what others expect you to do and you will probably be OK.

It doesn't always take a lot to not pass a drivers test. I took the test to get my Commercial Drivers Licence at age 51. I had 100's of thousands of miles under my belt. A lot with large vehicles. I had to take my test on a bus. I drove on a street that didn't have a speed limit sign that I saw anywhere. As we were going along I noticed that I was doing 40 and figured that just in case I had better slow down to 35. Guess what, the man that was testing noticed that I let up on the accelerator to slow down and wrote in that I was "speeding". I failed. The funny thing was when I went back to retake the test, a week later, I never went over 30 mph. When we got back he complained that I was going to slow. I asked if that was against the law, he said no, so I said so I passed right? I had. I'm not saying to try that where you are, but my point was it is easy to fail one or more times before you get the hang of it and know what they are looking for.

Yeah, and I think they are pretty strict here anyway. I at least got through my navigation part, which I was nervous about, and I did well backing into the parking spot, which I was also nervous about. All in all, I'm pretty happy with most of what I did. It's just really hard for me to change habits from 10 years of driving. Especially when my teacher makes me feel horrible about myself. I need someone who is encouraging and then I think I'll be fine. When someone can help me learn what they want and actually give me tips how to do that.

 

[trr1]

NATIONAL DAYS IN MARCH​

March 12

• National Working Moms Day *
• National Baked Scallops Day
• National Girl Scout Day
• National Plant a Flower Day

March 13

• National Good Samaritan Day
• National Coconut Torte Day
• National Earmuff Day
• National Jewel Day
• National K9 Veterans Day
• National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day

March 14

• National Children’s Craft Day
• National Learn About Butterflies Day
• National Pi Day
• National Potato Chip Day
• National Write Down Your Story Day
• Daylight Saving Time – Second Sunday in March

March 15

• National Everything You Think is Wrong Day
• National Kansas Day
• National Pears Helene Day
• National Shoe the World Day
• National Napping Day – Day after Return of Daylight Savings Day

March 16

• National Artichoke Hearts Day
• Everything You Do Is Right Day
• National Freedom of Information Day
• National Panda Day
• World Social Work Day – Third Tuesday in March

March 17

• National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day
• St. Patrick’s Day
• National SBDC Day – Third Wednesday in March

March 18

• National Awkward Moments Day
• National Biodiesel Day
• National Lacy Oatmeal Cookie Day
• National Sloppy Joe Day
• National Supreme Sacrifice Day
• National Farm Rescuer Day – Third Thursday in March

INTERNATIONAL DAYS IN MARCH​

March 12

• World Day Against Cyber Censorship

March 14

• International Day of Mathematics

March 15

• World Consumer Rights Day
• World Contact Day

March 18

• World Sleep Day – Friday Before Vernal Spring Equinox

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

Today, March 13th is the one year anniversary of my last day of In Person / In Building teaching from last school year. Although this September we went back into the school buildings ( Mon. - Thurs.) @Songbird76 it just hit me tonight as I was eating dinner that it has been a full year since I CONDUCTED. I was listening to music tonight and I found myself using one hand to gently conduct along....and huh! 365 days without any band to conduct! Since I graduated college I've never gone that long without conducting. Just feels weird

 

[PUSH]

Today, March 13th is the one year anniversary of my last day of In Person / In Building teaching from last school year. Although this September we went back into the school buildings ( Mon. - Thurs.) @Songbird76 it just hit me tonight as I was eating dinner that it has been a full year since I CONDUCTED. I was listening to music tonight and I found myself using one hand to gently conduct along....and huh! 365 days without any band to conduct! Since I graduated college I've never gone that long without conducting. Just feels weird

Yep, one year ago today we had our last day of in person schooling for the 2018-20 school year. We had our 1st grade music program. It's crazy to think that we had such a large gathering just 365 days ago. We thought we'd be off through spring break, then back to school. Obviously, we were wrong. There was so much unknown, and it was a super weird feeling around the building that day. Ultimately, we didn't hear until that night that our school would be closing after the following Wednesday. Then later that weekend, they changed it and said it was closed effective immediately. Staff reported the following Monday to get things prepared. After that I can count on one hand how many times I was in the building again that year.

Fast forward to present day, and I am grateful that I will be fully vaccinated as of April 20th. That will be two weeks from my second dose. A little over a month to go!

 

[PUSH]

Sounds like anywhere from 2-5 inches of snow tomorrow. It's supposed to start around 7am, which is an odd timing for schools. So I'm hoping for a snow day, otherwise snow is not worth it at this point.

 

[JenniferS]

Sounds like anywhere from 2-5 inches of snow tomorrow. It's supposed to start around 7am, which is an odd timing for schools. So I'm hoping for a snow day, otherwise snow is not worth it at this point.

You get a snow day for 2-5”?!?

 

[PUSH]

You get a snow day for 2-5”?!?

Two inches, no. 5 inches, maybe. It's not going to start falling until about the time school starts/buses are out. So it's going to be hard for districts to know exactly how much we'll get by the time they have to make the calls. It's also hovering around freezing, and it's supposed to be a wet, sloppy snow. So there's freezing rain possible. The morning commute won't be the issues, it'll be the afternoon commute.

 

[PUSH]

Also for context, we are a rural community. Many roads families and buses travel on do not get plowed until the snow has completely finished. And even then it's hit or miss as to when they'll be plowed.

 

[MinnieM123]

Also for context, we are a rural community. Many roads families and buses travel on do not get plowed until the snow has completely finished. And even then it's hit or miss as to when they'll be plowed.

Wow. Where I live (not rural, though), the plows and salters are out pre-treating the roads hours ahead of time, and then they start plowing usually within the first 2 hours, depending upon how fast the snow is falling.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Wow. Where I live (not rural, though), the plows and salters are out pre-treating the roads hours ahead of time, and then they start plowing usually within the first 2 hours, depending upon how fast the snow is falling.

North Carolina is a wait till it's done state. That is why everything closes at the first sighting of a snowflake. And stays shut down for a while because it takes that much longer to get the more rural areas cleaned up.

If we don't get anything else this year it will make the second year in a row with only one dusting and zero freezing rain in the Raleigh area. We did have about 6 days of freezing temperatures and quite a few middle of the night below freezing temps. Pretty mild winter, but a lot of rain. I'm talking Ark building quantities of rain. Way more flood warnings then usual.

 

[MinnieM123]

North Carolina is a wait till it's done state. That is why everything closes at the first sighting of a snowflake. And stays shut down for a while because it takes that much longer to get the more rural areas cleaned up.

Come to think of it, my bro mentioned something to that effect as well. He lives on a residential side street, at the bottom of a small hill. He "might" see a plow about 1-2 days after a storm, so when there's a snowstorm, he just assumes he won't be taking out his car for a day or two.

 

[Songbird76]

Today, March 13th is the one year anniversary of my last day of In Person / In Building teaching from last school year. Although this September we went back into the school buildings ( Mon. - Thurs.) @Songbird76 it just hit me tonight as I was eating dinner that it has been a full year since I CONDUCTED. I was listening to music tonight and I found myself using one hand to gently conduct along....and huh! 365 days without any band to conduct! Since I graduated college I've never gone that long without conducting. Just feels weird

Do you miss it? I was never really one for conducting. I had 2 conducting professors. Since music was a k-12 certification, we had to do both instrumental vocal. So we had one prof for Vocal and one for Instrumental, and they were never there on the same day, which was a real problem. The instrumental guy was short and bald and had some issues because of it and he tended to be a real jerk. But since I was a voice emphasis major, the vocal prof was the one who actually gave me my grade, but the two had VERY different styles. So on instrumental days, I would get BLASTED because of the clothes that I wore (he insisted that a tshirt with writing, or a design, was distracting and told me never to wear such a thing to his class again, which was most of my wardrobe) and he wanted me to direct with my arms out as far as I could get them. He was very intense.

My vocal prof was very relaxed, a kindly older man with white hair....he could lose his temper in choir rehearsals, but in conducting class he was very gentle and he'd just say "Oh, you don't need to have your arms so far from your body, dear. Just hold them here, nice and comfortable." But since they were never there at the same time, he never heard the other guy yelling "How many times do I have to tell you, Osborn!? Get those arms out here! Nobody can see them if you don't have them away from your body!" and the Instrumental guy never heard the Vocal guy telling me to pull my arms in. I was in tears before our final. It was a concert and we had to conduct one piece of our choice with all the other conducting students and some volunteers as our ensemble. During the dress rehearsal, our vocal prof wasn't there, and the Instrumental guy really berated me in front of everyone...all the other students and the volunteers, so basically, my peers. He really nailed me, and he didn't yell at anyone else like that, and he would never let me explain that Carlyle had told me to do it a different way. If I started to say something, he'd just yell at me that HE was the professional and he was teaching me, etc. It was awful.

Amusing Anecdote: My boyfriend at the time was also a music major, but an instrumentalist. He had that professor for Orchestra as well as conducting. One time, there was a guest conductor for a concert and the orchestra was playing one of this guest conductor's compositions. The regular conductor of course had to conduct in the rehearsals because the guest conductor wasn't there yet. So he's giving them notes about how to do things and why....dynamics, etc. So then the guest conductor is there and is telling the orchestra how he wants this section played and what he was trying to portrait in that piece and the regular conductor actually tried to tell him he was wrong, and what the piece was really trying to convey....He was actually telling the composer what he had meant when composing the piece. He was one of those men who gets power trippy and yells about stupid things to prove he's the one in control. My boyfriend said it was very awkward and kind of embarrassing to witness. Like, he felt kind of bad for the guest conductor being told he was wrong about his own work, and embarrassed to be in the orchestra with such an arrogant jerk as the conductor and the way he treated the guest.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

Do you miss it? I was never really one for conducting. I had 2 conducting professors. Since music was a k-12 certification, we had to do both instrumental vocal. So we had one prof for Vocal and one for Instrumental, and they were never there on the same day, which was a real problem. The instrumental guy was short and bald and had some issues because of it and he tended to be a real jerk. But since I was a voice emphasis major, the vocal prof was the one who actually gave me my grade, but the two had VERY different styles. So on instrumental days, I would get BLASTED because of the clothes that I wore (he insisted that a tshirt with writing, or a design, was distracting and told me never to wear such a thing to his class again, which was most of my wardrobe) and he wanted me to direct with my arms out as far as I could get them. He was very intense.

My vocal prof was very relaxed, a kindly older man with white hair....he could lose his temper in choir rehearsals, but in conducting class he was very gentle and he'd just say "Oh, you don't need to have your arms so far from your body, dear. Just hold them here, nice and comfortable." But since they were never there at the same time, he never heard the other guy yelling "How many times do I have to tell you, Osborn!? Get those arms out here! Nobody can see them if you don't have them away from your body!" and the Instrumental guy never heard the Vocal guy telling me to pull my arms in. I was in tears before our final. It was a concert and we had to conduct one piece of our choice with all the other conducting students and some volunteers as our ensemble. During the dress rehearsal, our vocal prof wasn't there, and the Instrumental guy really berated me in front of everyone...all the other students and the volunteers, so basically, my peers. He really nailed me, and he didn't yell at anyone else like that, and he would never let me explain that Carlyle had told me to do it a different way. If I started to say something, he'd just yell at me that HE was the professional and he was teaching me, etc. It was awful.

Amusing Anecdote: My boyfriend at the time was also a music major, but an instrumentalist. He had that professor for Orchestra as well as conducting. One time, there was a guest conductor for a concert and the orchestra was playing one of this guest conductor's compositions. The regular conductor of course had to conduct in the rehearsals because the guest conductor wasn't there yet. So he's giving them notes about how to do things and why....dynamics, etc. So then the guest conductor is there and is telling the orchestra how he wants this section played and what he was trying to portrait in that piece and the regular conductor actually tried to tell him he was wrong, and what the piece was really trying to convey....He was actually telling the composer what he had meant when composing the piece. He was one of those men who gets power trippy and yells about stupid things to prove he's the one in control. My boyfriend said it was very awkward and kind of embarrassing to witness. Like, he felt kind of bad for the guest conductor being told he was wrong about his own work, and embarrassed to be in the orchestra with such an arrogant jerk as the conductor and the way he treated the guest.

Thanks @Songbird76 for your post.
Actually I didn't miss it until the one year anniversary of not conducting....only then did I miss it.
Thanks for sharing the Amusing Anecdote. I enjoyed reading that.

 

[Songbird76]

Yep, one year ago today we had our last day of in person schooling for the 2018-20 school year. We had our 1st grade music program. It's crazy to think that we had such a large gathering just 365 days ago. We thought we'd be off through spring break, then back to school. Obviously, we were wrong. There was so much unknown, and it was a super weird feeling around the building that day. Ultimately, we didn't hear until that night that our school would be closing after the following Wednesday. Then later that weekend, they changed it and said it was closed effective immediately. Staff reported the following Monday to get things prepared. After that I can count on one hand how many times I was in the building again that year.

Fast forward to present day, and I am grateful that I will be fully vaccinated as of April 20th. That will be two weeks from my second dose. A little over a month to go!

Yeah, I don't remember the exact date, but I think a year ago tomorrow, my daughter was supposed to go on a school trip to London and Oxford. The 2nd year dual immersion kids go every year. They were all really looking forward to it...for some, that trip is a large part of the reason they chose the dual immersion program. The week before, the school was asking for copies of their passports, medical releases, sending home packing lists and homework assignments that needed to be done on the trip, like interviews with their host families, etc, and reminders to bring some sort of gift for their hosts as a thank you, etc. They told the kids that as long as there was no "negative travel advisory" for the UK, they would go, because if there was no negative travel advisory, their insurance didn't cover the cancelation. They were supposed to leave on the Monday, and then suddenly on Friday, they canceled the trip, even though there was no negative advisory....that came Saturday, AFTER they had already canceled everything. So we had already paid for everything and they couldn't reimburse us because it had been a school decision, not the government imposing a travel ban. So they went from leaving on the Monday for the UK to "remote learning" over the weekend. E was literally in her English class on Friday writing questions for the host family interview when they came and told them the trip was cancelled and instead they needed to prepare for online school from home.

 

[Songbird76]

Also for context, we are a rural community. Many roads families and buses travel on do not get plowed until the snow has completely finished. And even then it's hit or miss as to when they'll be plowed.

Do they have emergency contacts in the town limits for bus kids in case they can't run buses to take them home?

 

[Songbird76]

Thanks @Songbird76 for your post.
Actually I didn't miss it until the one year anniversary of not conducting....only then did I miss it.
Thanks for sharing the Amusing Anecdote. I enjoyed reading that.

I can imagine if it's something you're used to and that you enjoy, it would be hard to not get to do it. Conducting was never my thing....I preferred Elementary General music, where I was teaching them the names of the notes, terms, and about composers, but not actually conducting music where I have to give different cues, etc.

Yeah, I look back and just kind of shake my head....that professor was just really arrogant. I wonder if he even realized how he came across. Apparently the guest director handled himself really well in the situation and the orchestra just kind of sat there awkwardly and then did what the Guest conductor wanted. But there were a lot of those moments with that particular professor. You can imagine the jokes at his expense...he didn't inspire much loyalty.

 

[PUSH]

Do they have emergency contacts in the town limits for bus kids in case they can't run buses to take them home?

I've never had it where buses can't run. If that's a possibility, we wouldn't have school. But families here fill out info on emergency dismissal plans when they register.

 

[PUSH]

We got let out early at 1:30 today. It may have been the worst weather I've driven in. There were points when I was going 25 mph on the highway. It took me an hour to get home when it usually takes me about 30 minutes.