Tuesday with Vladimir

Wanting to expand my car buying realm o' possibilities, I ventured to San Mateo on Tuesday for a lesson in driving with a manual transmission. My teacher? Vladimir!

Vladimir is one of those people that, when you meet him, you think he'd make a great character in a book or a movie. He's an older fellow, somewhere in his 60s I would guess. Originally born in Russia, then moved to Uruguay when he was one and a half. So he learned Russian from his parents and Spanish from living in Uruguay. His parents worked with a lot of Ukrainians, so he learned Ukrainian. He also met a lot of folks from Brazil, so he learned Portuguese. He moved to the United States where he of course has learned English, and now just for kicks he's learning French. Amazing!

He used to be an airline mechanic, but now he runs a driving school.

And he's a good teacher, too. Plenty of patience. He definitely made me feel successful. After 90 minutes of driving time, I felt like a pro. Of course, I was driving an older, not too powerful 5-speed. Can I handle a 238 horsepower 6-speed RX-8?

I applied for a $30,000 loan from the local school employees credit union. The loan committee was going to meet today. I assume that, since I didn't hear anything to the contrary, my loan is a go. I've been given a 3.9% APR. Not bad, eh? Over 60 months, my payments would be about $522. I can afford that.... I think.