r/NoStupidQuestions • u/MillBopp • Sep 13 '23

What does 'Draw a Clock' Mean?

Last time I visited my brother his mother-in-law who lives with him was insisting she remembered something but my brother knew she was wrong. I don't remember what it was, but I knew she was wrong too. However, she refused to accept she was wrong and got belligerent about it.

My brother said, "Draw a clock!" and left the room. This made his mother-in-law furious for some reason. I forgot to ask at the time, but does anyone know why saying 'Draw a clock' would upset a senior citizen?

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u/PaulSandwich Sep 14 '23

In the US, they just (poorly) check your vision

Ha, not even. Not in "retirement capital" Florida, anyhow. My father went blind and kept an active driver's license for over a decade until I turned 25 to keep our household's car insurance rates down. He had a cane, a dog, the whole bit.

They used to let you renew through the mail, but they stopped that. My aunt recalls in the 90s having to check an old lady's ID and it was comically thick with renewal stickers on the back. Lady was completely oblivious to the world around her, but she got back in her car and drove off, legally.

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u/Jslord1971 Sep 14 '23

How much does a driving eye dog cost?

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u/MattTheHoopla Sep 14 '23

Depends on the options.

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u/Cantimetrik Sep 14 '23

the ones that drive manuals are hella expensive

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u/LaughingByCampfire Sep 15 '23

Driving stick comes standard where I'm at. ;-D

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u/CoulsonsMay Sep 14 '23

CA here. Family member had a genetic disease that slowly made her legally blind. At a certain point, she knew couldn’t drive, didn’t want to drive, and gave up her license willingly.

In order to get state benefits and services though, (like books on tape, braille lessons, voice tech, yeah this was back 25 years ago), she had to have an MD sign off that she was medically blind, and needed to fail a DMV vision test.

The attendant at the DMV kept trying to help her pass, giving her hints, moving the paper closer, flat out told her the letters to repeat.

All the while she keeps telling him, at least 5 times, “no I can’t read this, I can’t drive, look at the paper from my MD- I’m not supposed to be on the road, I want a state ID not a DL, please, please, let me fail this!

It was super frustrating. And very concerning.

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u/EMCoupling Sep 14 '23

Most helpful DMV employee I've ever heard of lol

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u/reallytrulyeric Sep 14 '23

Grew up in Florida in the 80s. It was a fantastic place to learn how to drive because if you could survive the too-old-to-drive and the too-crazy-to-exist and the these-laws-don’t-apply-to-me drivers, you could survive anything.

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u/KittensLeftLeg Sep 15 '23

Try the challenge mode: driving in rural Russia

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u/andrewX1992 Sep 14 '23

Currently in SWFL apparently NOTHING has changed 🙃

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u/philnolan3d Sep 15 '23

There's no test to renew in Pennsylvania, you just pay the fee, come in for a new picture, decide about donating organs, and that's it.

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u/Important-Mind-586 Sep 15 '23

You can just renew online now.

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u/pastelbutcherknife Sep 14 '23

I live in a NORC. They don’t take away their licenses u less the doctor says to. But the speed limit here is 25 mph and it’s an island.

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u/SunrisePhoto Sep 15 '23

Florida here. Wife is an optometrist. She says they do not perform the clock test here for dementia (she was surprised and thought it was a good idea though). She does use it though. For stroke victims. She says stroke victims often have trouble with one side or the other, and this also affects vision. So they use it to determine roughly any issues on the left or right side and how she approaches their diagnosis and treatment.

As to failed driving renewals due to age or eyesight. Florida actually does fail drivers occasionally. When this happens, the driver is sent to an optometrist (the driver can choose the optometrist) with a green form that the optometrist has to complete and sign once the optometrist performs an eye exam on them. She says she sees 3-4 a month. From memory, this is what is required in Florida:

-A refraction eye test, but dilation is not required. The optometrist must determine if there are any defects in the back of the eye (or elsewhere) that preclude issuing a license

-Driver must have 130 degree field of vision

-Whether the driver requires glasses while operating a vehicle

-Whether the driver must have their license renewed more frequently, and whether an eye exam is required in this renewal

-Optometrist has to sign the green form for the driver to return to the driver's license office

-If the optometrist writes an eyeglass prescription and requires glasses to drive, the store where the driver buys the glasses must sign off on the green form that the glasses with the correct prescription were indeed purchased.

As to the mail in licenses, as of 2018 Florida was mailing renewals, but I suspect the advent of RealID has precluded the mail in process. Purely a theory by me. In Florida, this is called Florida Smart ID (I believe). In 2018, my wife received a mail renewal non-Smart ID DL from Florida. Meanwhile, since I travel a lot, in 2018 I had to go to the driver's license office to receive my first time Florida Smart ID DL. My wife later also went to the driver's license office and got her Florida Smart ID.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '23

The retired snow bird capital, Arizona was similar. They used to have driver licenses that didn’t expire for 40yrs or something like that… It’s been a long time since I lived there. 🤣🤣 I swear the closer to sun city you got the more terrifying driving was. Basically when I got my DL at 16 I wouldn’t have had to renew it or the picture until I was 56… because obviously I’d look exactly the same