I wanted to write a “Sunday with the Senators” post, or at least about the upcoming Town Halls this week. But alas, I was consumed with an EIGHT HOUR course on driver safety. My insurance company will give me a discount if I pass the course since I’m over 55. The age varies based on insurance company and state, I’m told. But hey, I’m into saving money and at the outset it didn’t seem that bad.  So here is what I “learned” from the course.

First off, in addition to everything they “taught” there were intermittent pop-ups where you would choose your state, and find out the state-specific requirements. You could click on as many states as you liked, and I learned that NY does NOT have a law preventing you from tailgating police, fire, or ambulance, with sirens, which I had observed many times on the FDR Drive. (I’d always wondered….you can’t do it in other states.)

The thing that was overwhelming about the course was that they repeated everything multiple times. And then they repeated them again. They told you. They put it on a slide that you read as they read it aloud to you. Then they showed you a video about it. Then they repeated it again. As you get older, you have some physical limitations. That makes sense. Whether or not these limitations impact your driving is dependent on individual circumstances. It’s a good idea to check with your doctor is you don’t know about how medications will affect you. Had they said that, they could have saved 2 hours of my life I’m never getting back. NO NO NO — they didn’t do that. They went through each and every limitation and explained it, and then said “check with your doctor.” Yes kids, things like cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy can affect your vision, they don’t need a separate slide for each. Continue Reading...