Truck Driving

I've been driving the truck around the last two days. It's is quite a bit different than my van. The nice thing is that it's an option now. The other truck could only fit two of the boys not to mention was just awful to drive. No power steering, the window was....tricky, no A/C, radio etc. But our new 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 V-8 Lariat has a bench in back for the boys. They love it so when Jay needed to go to Seattle yesterday for his Written Boards (last written test! next step Orals in June) I told him to take the van to save on gas and to just be more comfortable.

I'm not used to driving such a large vehicle. Yesterday, we drove it to Sammy's preschool open house and I didn't attempt to park it with all of the other cars. There were some spaces to parallel park that were all empty so I just pulled into one of those. When it was time to leave, there was a group conversing outside and I felt very conspicuous loading the 3 boys into the truck. It's just so tall and...big. I felt like a cowgirl!

Today I drove it to Sammy's doctor appointment and didn't even attempt to drive it into the parking garage. Narrow spaces and low ceilings - no thank you. Sammy's appointment was quick -- he has developed a lazy eye over the last 2 weeks (so bizzare but what do you do?) and the pediatrician was like, "yup...he'll need to see an opthamologist. Here's a referal." Which is exactly what I knew he would say but with insurance you just have to go through these steps. Now I have to wait for another month to see that dr. In the meantime I've got this poor boy who has his left eye crossed every so often. I pray it's somewhat easily treatable. He'll probably have to wear a patch for some time.

After that I went grocery shopping. I really shouldn't have chosen to do this with the truck but I was out of baby food so did the whole grocery trip. The bagger loaded them into the back but by the time I got home, the groceries were all spilled out and just rolling around the back of the truck. Ugh.

I'm glad we have the truck. Really. It makes Jay feel all manly and I'm sure it'll be as handy as our last for hauling and moving stuff. More handy because it actually has 4WD and Jay won't be sliding all around like he did in the little pickup. But when I see people just driving them around (and there are a lot of people who drive trucks!) I have to wonder why. Vans are so much more practical. Thankfully, Jay comes home tonight and we can switch back. It will also be nice to have him home and not have him feel like he needs to be studying!