My Driving Tales...

Sai had his septoplasty surgery today...
This morning, I was anxious and excited about two things...
2. Surgery's outcome,
1. "I will need to drive him home safely"

The Surgeon is a domain expert, and, Sai, as I've known in the last X years is pretty cool at handling these scenarios (ask me what kind of things he is not 'so pretty cool with'..we can have a discussion later ;) ) So, I was practically cool about (2)

I was more worried about (1) - my driving; the last things I wanted to do was to have him sit inside the car, drowsy, while a cop hands me out a ticket; No, not on the day of his surgery...

I had never driven on my own in the freeway earlier (Shh!!! Shh!!! Was this not supposed to be a secret???) I always had Sai sitting in the passenger seat whenever I did this (which was rather infrequent, since, I ve 'adopted' Sai as my unofficial driver while I am in the Bay Area, or whenever we are together); and, I do not have my car yet...

My driving records - Going back in timeline -

I have always been driving on my own in the local roads...
Sai was my passenger when I drive on freeways...
My last client in Newport Beach was merely a walk from the OC - SNA Airport; there was no reason why I had to rent a car in the last 7 months... and the hotel would provide me with a limo shuttle everywhere for free ( was that not a good excuse?)
I always carpooled in San Diego in Dec 2005 - Jan 2006 (ofcourse, to save expenses for my project ;) BTW, dos that deserve a raise?)
I drove in CA-237 on my own, for a week in August 2005 (I will not even consider this a freeway experience, because I hardly did 8 miles one way)

A day before that, there was an incident in August 2005...Sai was leaving to Washington D.C. that afternoon, and I was to take the car to my office after dropping him in his; I did drop him, I did take the freeway, I did exit correctly, I did reach my office; was that not perfect? Not Yet!!! There was 'Parking' to complete this picture. I was too proud to park in any of the completely vacant parking lots; I drove straight in between a Toyota Corolla and a BMW Z3; and I parked at an angle; now I had to take the car out and correct it, which I did...I tried a few vague attempts, but to no avail... in one of the final attempts, the car would not reverse out. Something was stuck up somewhere...I did not have a clue (nor did I think I needed to check it out); and, there I reversed, pressed the gas... to get out of that obstruction!!!!
Lo and Behold!!!! the car would not move any further...
I slided the window open!!! I do not want to describe this... the hood of my car was stuck between the rear rim and the tyre of the Toyota :-( Thanks to my parking skills...
Oops!!! How was I going to take it out???
I tried calling up Manish who was at the office...he would not pick up the phone...KJ came in as an angel and rescued the car, and parked it straight... the headlights on the left could no longer be called so...it was nothing but a picture of a crocodile with its jaws wide open...
and, for all this, there was no scratch on the Toyota :-/ (yet, I left my card inside, just in case)
For Sai, it was no fun to be called during a meeting, not when he had just 3 hours before the flight...

My hotel was a block away from my office in Winston-Salem, June-July 2005...

I got my driving licence in May 2005;
Earlier - Local Transport took me to all the places...
That is it for the history...

Well!!!
As it turns out, I have improved my parking 'skills' since then, and I need to admit (am I not humble ) that I am a pretty careful driver...and today, drove with absolute confidence while returning home with the still-under-sedatives Sai. And, I can drive anywhere else on my own, hereon...

Albert, beware!!! I am going to start renting cars from my next project... :>
Sai, I may need a new car!!!