Standard!!

I CAN DRIVE STANDARD!!

Yesterday Dale took me to an old parking lot for another session with
his Acura RSX, which I'd been dreading because I'd stalled the car so
many times last year despite the successes. I was doing horribly at
first (my interpretation) but Dale and my subconscious simply wouldn't
let me quit again. So, after several more stalls, Dale said, "You're
popping the clutch!" I was like, "Eh?" and he said, "I saw it that
time. That's why the car jerks forward like that." He didn't
immediately offer me a solid way to avoid that, but it hit home and I
figured it out myself: I was so worried about my heavy right foot
that I hardly paid attention to my left other than to get it hovering
near the letout point. Then when I thought I started to feel it roll,
I'd pop the clutch, realize I'd given it too much gas, the car would
lurch, I'd pull off the gas in a panic, and before my left foot would
push the clutch back in, the poor thing would go, "WTF are you
DOING?!?" and stall on me.

So the next 10 times or whatever it was, I focused primarily on my
left foot. EASY, I told it, as the car began rolling, and I ignored
my right foot completely, letting it do its own thing. Suddenly it
all made complete sense to me. Dale told me the worst that would
happen is I'd peel out and THAT IS OKAY, but believe it or not, I did
not peel out. It's like my right foot knew how to compensate all
along, and I never gave it a chance to prove itself.

Now that I've experienced the feeling and can duplicate it over and
over and over, I fully understand what Dale kept drilling into me
about conditions affecting how you start. The process isn't something
that can be boxed and wrapped into a tidy little package. It's a
mechanical balance and unless you can sense that balance in your body,
you ain't going nowhere. It's one of those things like blowing a gum
bubble. Until you get it yourself, it just seems like some elusive
irregular pattern.

Not to say I'm a perfect standard driver now, but I can get into first
gear sooooooooooo much easier now that I've got that intuitive
understanding. I'm now sure that if there was an emergency, I could
drive that little bugger. Might be scary due to inexperience, but I
can do it. And early on I understood shifting and how to stop, so
other than practicing more and learning how to go in reverse, I think
I'm all good. My aim now is to do more of this so I'm comfortable
with it and can drive in traffic without fear. In other words, I want
experience like I eventually had with my truck, and to occasionally
drive it around to maintain that comfort level and subject myself to
new experiences. OMG, let me tell you, that little car handles so
well. As I was excitedly telling Dale (as if he doesn't already know
his own car) - it's so... NIMBLE!!! I quickly found myself turning
around without going all around the lot, because that thing has such
an awesomely smaller turning radius than Dante does. There are things
I'd never try with Dante that, for Dale's car, is the norm. Soooooo
different.

Anywho, I'm excited. :)

~nv