I enjoy driving my car. It is a pleasure for me, relaxing and fun. After my knee surgery, I was a little worried if my feelings would change about driving as it was my right knee that was replaced. After all, the right knee has the responsibility of applying pressure to the gas pedal. But happily, when the time came for me to attempt my first drive, around the block so to speak, I was confident that my knee was working well.
Since joining the family here in Michigan I have been chauffeured around and taken care of nicely. It was time to begin the adventure on my own. But, where is North, South, East, and West? When and where to take a left or right turn. Learning the flow of the traffic, the entrance, and exits, lane changes, learning street names – all so important to get comfortable with now.
Each time I would leave the house, I’d make a new goal for myself to discover something in the area important to me. Starbucks anyone? Cash machine and favorite drug store became several more destinations important to me. Soon I found the local library, a great find as it is a warm place to go and user friendly.
With the cold winters here, it did not take me long to appreciate a gift from a family of an automatic car starter. I can press a button, unlock, start, and warm up the car without having to leave the house. Great! A dear friend gave me a windshield snow scraper that worked like a dream. Actually, I have to be honest, if there looks to be too much snow on the street, I remain home.
The streets here are laid out on a grid, and if looking down from a bird’s eye point of view, they are somewhat like the appearance of the game of “Tic, Tac, Toe” however, they stretch at an angle off from the Detroit river miles away from where I live. Unless you are in downtown Detroit, there are not many tall buildings. The land is pretty flat here for miles around so you can go a very long way on any given street.
It became a matter of memorizing names of streets and learning the directions to and from related to the house I now live in. I could get pretty switched around but because the streets are laid out in a grid and for such a distance it was easy to get back on track. Figuring out true North, South, East, and West took awhile. Finally, I am comfortable going out and about.
