Left Hand, Right Hand

We spent this weekend up at Tahoe. It's something we want to be doing more regularly, but we haven't quite got into a weekly/monthly routine yet (too much change and disruption on a week-by-week basis so far to be able to get into a routine). But at least we managed to get up there this weekend, and we had a really nice visit with Becky's immediate family. Becky's mom is being incredibly generous by letting us borrow her car during the winter months. It's a two-wheel drive car, and is consequently unsuitable for driving around Tahoe when it is freezing/snowing (you really need a genuine 4x4), so usually sits out the winter in the comfort of Becky's mom's garage. The snows could come any day now, so we came back in a mini-convoy of the Montero (built and bought to cope with a Tahoe winter) and Becky's mom's VW Beetle (built to be stylish - and successfully so). I was the happy driver who got to drive the Beetle back to the Bay Area - a 4 hour drive, which is a nice long time to get to know and love the car. On the trip, we made a stop at Davis where we saw a man being restrained by police from 4 separate patrol cars in the car park outside the Burger King where we stopped. According to a passer-by that Becky spoke to, he was a homeless man who was on drugs. It was sobering to see my burger-buying safety being ensured by this man's face coming into contact with the tarmac. So anyway... Driving a manual (stick shift) car after a couple of months with an automatic was a complete revelation. For the first time since we've been here, I actually felt like I was fully in control of the car. It was great. I'm convinced now that if we buy another car (when Spring comes and the snow melts, and the Beetle can once again grace the roads of South Lake Tahoe), it has to be manual. I know that this will make it more difficult to sell on, but it'll be worth it. The only problem, really, is that I was changing gear with the wrong hand. My left hand constantly wanted a piece of the gear-changing action. It's odd that it's so easy to drive on the opposite side of the road, but more difficult to be changing gear with my right hand. It'll learn, though... and it's a small price to pay.