MUSHY'S MOOCHINGS: MY SATURDAY DATE

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

MY SATURDAY DATE


Katie Bug drove me to Wild Wings Saturday for a little birthday celebration for the old man!

I have to admit, I was a little nervous as I got into her Granny’s car with her at the wheel, but by the time we hit Hwy. 61 and headed northeast toward Knoxville, I was already at ease.

Katie is an “excellent driver, definitely an excellent driver”, to quote the Rainman!

I noticed, however, that she was breaking and slowing down too much when coming to curves. In East Tennessee, you have to learn to drive curvy roads or spend too much time going anywhere. I decided to hold my lesson for the return trip.

At Wild Wings we ordered a luscious 25-piece platter, with 5 varieties, and chowed down. She loves her wings and ate until she was about to pop. She even kept her cellphone off!

The evening before Katie had given me a great lesson on texting with my new cellphone. If you remember, my old one was ruined by falling into the creek!

I have watched her stand around flying through the keys and could not understand how anyone could type words that fast on a tiny little keypad. I did not know you could set you phone to word recognition and it practically knows what you are typing before you complete a full word.

Look at her standing there, all pretty and everything, kind’a like me, programming my phone while sending a text message to some “horny” little boy on hers! I don’t worry about all those boys that text her…she’s a “player” and has them all eating out of her hand, and choosing not to settle for a single steady! She likes them all, but luckily she gets so tired and bored of them quickly and moves on. If you ask her what happened to one of them she answers, “He got on my nerves!”

Anyway, back to the driving and wing story!

We talked a lot about boys, life, and other things on her mind, and then left.

I had two Yuengling drafts and it was good to have her as my DD!

On the way back home we took Hwy. 95 to Hwy. 327 and on to Hwy. 61. The first two are very curvy state roads that have always been a favorite drive of mine. Back when I had my Mustangs I drove these roads never touching my breaks, using the four of five speed transmissions to gear down going into the curves, and then accelerating down the straights. So much fun, especially when I could feel a slight drift in the rear and then the torque straightening it out and pushing me on down the road!

Left the throttle right here, let it roll into the curve low and slow, now ‘gap it’ (a term we used in the ‘60s when engine timing depended on a point gap) here and come out of the curve fast and high!

After two curves she got the essence of what I was trying to explain and from then on she was actually having fun and looking forward to the next curve. With a little practice, she will be as good as the ol’ man!

It made me miss not having a straight shift. I would still love to go through the gears on some back road, and feel the power under me! Ah, those were the days!

Thanks Katie Bug for the “most excellent” birthday!

15 comments:

MYM said...

Dude! Totally excellent! LOL Happy Birthday!!! :)

FHB said...

Cool! Sounds like she's a chip off the old block, fer sure. I love to see you hand down the skills that your daddy taught you. You need to give me a lesson there one day. And my phone has that feature too, but I still don't text much. Gotta be a kid I think, to want to do that much.

Right Truth said...

Sounds like a great relationship you have there. It's more valuable than gold.

Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth

Suldog said...

I remember my Dad teaching me how to accelerate into the curves. Very valuable lesson, and I still think about him almost every time I do.

Suldog said...

Sorry. Meant "out of the curves", of course.

Olga, the Traveling Bra said...

I raise my cups & toast - the HAPPIEST of birthdays to YOU dear Mushy!!!!

PRH said...

Thanks for the upbeat post Mushy...all of us, including me, post the bitching and complaining way too mcuh....thanks for one about the "youngins"

Jennifer S said...

Oh, man, you just achieved super cool status in my book! That's how I love to drive, and I also miss my stick shift. Your daughter is lucky to have someone to teach her those maneuvers, and how to really drive.

Happy Birthday, and congratulations on Post of the Day!

Michele said...

Think your bionic shoulders could handle a stick shift anymore?? I don't think mine could for very long! Loved driving the 'back roads in the hills' whenever we went to WV. Hubby turned the car over to me on the way to/from Cade's Cove last month; even the little ones in the back seat kept their mouth shut for once, even if I only had a auto transmission, could still downshift once in a while! *L*

Anonymous said...

That's awesome! And she kept her phone off? Dang. I can't have a 2 minute conversation with my child before hers rings or a txt comes in.

Happy Belated B-day!!!

David Sullivan said...

Lucky you, a DD, wings and being seen with such a cute girl!

Happy Birthday!

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

Jennifer/Michele - Thanks and yes, I could still run through them for a couple of hours anyway. I sure wouldn't want to go on a long trip that way, something under 75 miles.

I even like driving my wife's Altima with the auto trans and auto-downshift feature...almost the same with no foot action!

Lin said...

Way ta go, Grandpappy! You know she's showing off her new curve skills to her friends and bragging on guy who showed her how to do it right!

BRUNO said...

Now---let's turn her loose on an eight-speed "splitter" gearbox, with about 10 tons of fresh-loaded soybeans rollin' around behind her! Kinda like a load of yellow Jello! That'll keep 'er busy! Ain't no time for text-messages there, with both hands AND feet busy. Makes you look like an ape scratchin' fleas, you're so busy grabbin' knobs and pedals...!

Unknown said...

Ack! I've been so bad with blogging lately that I missed your birthday! I hope you had a great one:)