[Robo]

I don't understand how people can get a driver's license, and drive, and not have it become an automatic reflex, like putting on your seat belt (and yes I know there's people who don't do that either). I think it would actually take more mental effort for me not to do it. Like, if you told me "your turn signal is wired to a bomb and will explode if you use it!" I'd probably still accidentally use it at like the second corner. It would just be so weird to not use it!

Can I rant about my mom's driving for a second? OK.

RANT FOLLOWS. Toggle if you like reading about bad driving and financial incompetence.

I'm sure everybody thinks their mother is the worst driver ever, but my mom totally is. Like, she recently got a ticket for not wearing a seat belt, which is the stupidest thing you can ever get a ticket for, and then of course she became a total Libertarian about it, about how it was her god-given right to be stupid and how she wasn't hurting anybody but herself, which I guess is sort of true*, and if she wanted to die in a car wreck that was totally her business, rah rah rah, and then I'm like "so do you want to die in a car wreck?" and then she doesn't say anything, which is weird, and sort of awesome. Anyway, she wears her seatbelt now, so the police officer — infringing her right to be stupid or no — very possibly saved her life, but hating people who save her life is sort of a pattern with my mom (see: doctors!). Anyway, I know you'll all think I'm biased, but my mom freaks the fuck out re: motorcycles. Like, she can't drive behind them. She just can't. But she doesn't realize this, so she'll drive really close behind them, and then she'll get nervous and give them some more space, and then she'll get really close behind them again for some reason, and then she'll freak out and decide that she just can't handle it and veer into the next lane without signaling, or looking. Last time she very nearly smashed into a blue Honda Fit; if that was any of you I apologize. She's like this with homeless people, too. Oh, is that a guy with a sign on the corner? Suddenly veer into the next lane even though there's lots of cars there since we're approaching a stop light! Do not use turn signal, do not collect $200. Anyway, she has night blindness, and she always says that she's not going to drive at night in the rain, but then she does, even though she knows that she can't, you know, see. Last time she almost hit a guy crossing a parking lot, and she would have if I hadn't shouted "Mom!" I'm not entirely sure if this was due to her night blindness, though, because the other day she almost turned right into a pedestrian walking across the intersection and she would have hit her if I hadn't shouted "Mom!' It was a brilliantly clear afternoon, and the pedestrian was a very large woman wearing a bright pink shirt; I'm not sure how my mom didn't see her. Oh, and if we stop her from running over someone, she gets mad at us. Especially if my sister does it. And heaven help you if she's ever mad or having an argument while driving — she just totally loses control, even compared to everything I've already listed. She, uh, really shouldn't be driving! But I don't know what to do, other than always run her errands for her so that she drives as little as possible. Her car will probably break down again soon. I hope it does. Nested mini-rant about my mom and cars: My mom's car is twenty years old and has 300,000 miles, and with my mom's driving they haven't been "easy" miles. My mom is always either accelerating or breaking. Like, literally. She doesn't realize that the car will keep going without her foot on the accelerator. She accelerates toward red lights. Anyway, her car is thus not worth very much, and has lots of problems. But rather than saving for a different car, which would take planning and discipline, she constantly pours money into her worthless one. She's been continually in "car crisis" mode for the last two years. My brother correctly told her that rather than spend hundreds of dollars every few months on a car that will only break down again, she should save up and get a different car, but my mother told him, completely unironically, that she doesn't have the money for that. She has no plan whatsoever for what to do when her car eventually gives up the ghost; I've asked her about it over the years and her answer is always "it better not!" which is, of course, not really a plan at all. But she literally thinks that hoping that her car will last will make it so. The other day she said she was confident in her car, despite all evidence to the contrary, because it had 300,000 miles and was twenty years old and had lots of the original parts. I want to explain something, here. She wasn't being ironic. Rather than the age and mileage of her car meaning that it has 300,000 miles' and twenty years' worth of wear on twenty-year-old parts, she believes this means that it has proven itself to be a good car that will last the foreseeable future without issue. What's another 300,000 miles? Apparently, once a car reaches a certain mileage, it proves that it will last forever. Oh, and she doesn't know what an auto loan is. Again, I want to stress that I am not merely saying that she is unaware of the pros and cons of auto loans, or what a reasonable rate for someone in her shoes would be, or where the best place to get an auto loan is. I am saying that she had literally never heard of auto loans until I mentioned them the other day. She believes most people put a car on their credit card. She has done this before. *) Ignoring that anyone who she smacked into would have the right to sue her for damages, which they couldn't do if she was dead. Or anybody she hit if her body was ejected through the windshield!

Offtopic boxes always make rants look bigger.