Driving

April 6th, 2008 by Potato

I don’t really think a completely car-free life is for me, at least not any time in the near future. Wayfare, for her part, has done a remarkable job of going through so much of her life without ever having to drive herself, thanks to public transit, cabs, and most of all, the generous offers of high-class chauffeur services from people such as her parents and myself. Of course, she’s not entirely convinced that that will continue indefinitely, so she maintains a license and insurance even though she never drives. To try to keep her in practice, I offer to take her out driving occasionally. Today, for the first time since she had to renew her license, she agreed to go on a little spin with me — and boy, was it a little spin: we covered all of 8 blocks and two parking maneuvers. However, she is scared of driving, so I would like everyone out there to offer her mad snaps for having the courage to give it a try. Especially since she faced that nightmarish spectre that every driver is afraid they might one day have to face but hope that, for the love of sphagetti, that it is not this day. Yes, right there in front of her eyes:

A puppy.

It was being walked by a group of girls on the sidewalk, but there was no telling when it might decide to run off into the road in front of her! There’s no predicting what puppies might do, they have no respect for the rules of the road, no concept of right-of-way, and worst of all they’re combustable! Well, maybe the puppies aren’t, but if they cause an accident the car is and we could all die in a fiery fiery crash!

All kidding aside, Wayfare is a bit of a nervous driver, but I’m quite proud that she’s finally managed to overcome that and get behind the wheel when she didn’t absolutely, positively have to. She is a pretty good driver, and as silly as it can sometimes be, I suppose approaching the whole experience filled with terror is possibly better than coming at it all excited that you finally get to live out your video game speed freak fantasies.

As long as I’m on the topic of driving, does anyone know where I can rent a Prius in Toronto? There are a number of places that say they have them in their fleets, but none are actually available from any of their locations. Discount and Alamo list them specifically as part of their fleet in Canada, but none of their Toronto locations seem to have them (and I think, through trial-and-error, I’ve tried them all online). Thrifty doesn’t seem to advertise having any Priuses, but a poster on the redflagdeals forums suggests that the Holiday Inn/King location has at least one available (though again, not through their website).

2 Responses to “Driving”

  1. Netbug Says:

    A powder blue Prius?

  2. Potato Says:

    Well, I found out why the companies had listed the Prius in their fleets but I couldn’t find any in Toronto or in the maritimes: they only seem to be available at the BC locations! At least now I know that it wasn’t some “hidden option” that you had to call for or something.