Locking Myself Out of the Car & How I Learned to Never Eat at Denny's Again
Long subject line, but I've been busy.
The 2 main things yesterday were the following:
1) I drove Mason to his guitar lesson on 45. The parking lot of the music place is under horrible construction. So I drop off Mason and he takes the amp out of the back of the Sidekick and goes. I pull out onto 45, then turn onto Center, and hear a strange rattling noise. Thinking it's either a seatbelt flapping against the outside of the car, or the back door isn't closed all the way, I pulled over fairly well-past the intersection. I put on the hazard lights and waited for the stream of traffic to stop, then got out and checked the door behind me for seatbelts (Mason sat there). There wasn't one hanging out. So then I close that door and open the back door. Nothing hanging out there, so I close the door hard, so it fully closes. See, old cars have little secrets and nuisances like that. And, another one of the Sidekick's is that sometimes, when you go grocery shopping, unlocking the back door unlocks them all. Or doesn't. And sometimes when you close the back door to put the cart back, it unlocks them all. Or LOCKS them all.
Knowing this, it may be predictable as to what happened when I closed the damned back door. Yup. LOCK. No, wait, it was more like this: LOCK! The click of doom. I didn't acknowledge it, of couse, and tried to open the two doors on the passenger side. They were locked, and since I locked the doors when I took Mason, I didn't think anything of it. Until I walked back around and tried the driver's door. NOOOOO!
I left the keys IN THE CAR. And the CAR WAS RUNNING! So I go to my coat pocket, feeling like a schmuck, and go get to my cell phone, which has been in my little purse thing, in my coat pocket all day, and, the best part... I LEFT MY CELL PHONE AND WALLET IN THE CAR! WITH THE CAR RUNNING!
Sorry for the yelling, but that's how I felt when I realized what happened. ARGH! I hit the car a few times, and when that didn't change the fact that I was locked out, I walked all the way back to the Mobil station and used the pay phone. There were two. The first had no dial tone. The second didn't take my quarters, so I called collect. Mom said she'd come and pick me up at the Mobil station, so I stayed in view of the blinking lights of the far-off car and waited.
Suddenly, I didn't see them anymore. Then I saw red blinking lights. 'Hmm, I thought. 'I wonder who that is. Mom said she'd meet me here. Did another motorist stop?' (I actually did think the word "motorist.") So I crossed 45 again (another 5 mins) and hiked back to the car, where our van was just turning around to go to Mobil. So the van turned around again and picked me up. It was Dad. He had gotten home just as Mom was leaving. So he thought he'd turn off the car, and when he turned around, the van got stuck in the mud, halfway on the road and halfway off. He was briefly blocking traffic. It was bad.
So I got in, drove home, and Dad drove waaay behind me. Then I realized I had been spraying little rocks (picked up from the construction at Mason's guitar lesson) and mud at him. So it was little rocks all along. It stiopped making noise before I got home.
Yeah. So... that was that.
2) Blue Bay closes at midnight now? What is that about? It ruined our night, it did. And I don't really feel like telling the whole Denny's-tastrophe story again, so we'll leave it at I'm not going there again, ever again, at nighttime. Never.
The 2 main things yesterday were the following:
1) I drove Mason to his guitar lesson on 45. The parking lot of the music place is under horrible construction. So I drop off Mason and he takes the amp out of the back of the Sidekick and goes. I pull out onto 45, then turn onto Center, and hear a strange rattling noise. Thinking it's either a seatbelt flapping against the outside of the car, or the back door isn't closed all the way, I pulled over fairly well-past the intersection. I put on the hazard lights and waited for the stream of traffic to stop, then got out and checked the door behind me for seatbelts (Mason sat there). There wasn't one hanging out. So then I close that door and open the back door. Nothing hanging out there, so I close the door hard, so it fully closes. See, old cars have little secrets and nuisances like that. And, another one of the Sidekick's is that sometimes, when you go grocery shopping, unlocking the back door unlocks them all. Or doesn't. And sometimes when you close the back door to put the cart back, it unlocks them all. Or LOCKS them all.
Knowing this, it may be predictable as to what happened when I closed the damned back door. Yup. LOCK. No, wait, it was more like this: LOCK! The click of doom. I didn't acknowledge it, of couse, and tried to open the two doors on the passenger side. They were locked, and since I locked the doors when I took Mason, I didn't think anything of it. Until I walked back around and tried the driver's door. NOOOOO!
I left the keys IN THE CAR. And the CAR WAS RUNNING! So I go to my coat pocket, feeling like a schmuck, and go get to my cell phone, which has been in my little purse thing, in my coat pocket all day, and, the best part... I LEFT MY CELL PHONE AND WALLET IN THE CAR! WITH THE CAR RUNNING!
Sorry for the yelling, but that's how I felt when I realized what happened. ARGH! I hit the car a few times, and when that didn't change the fact that I was locked out, I walked all the way back to the Mobil station and used the pay phone. There were two. The first had no dial tone. The second didn't take my quarters, so I called collect. Mom said she'd come and pick me up at the Mobil station, so I stayed in view of the blinking lights of the far-off car and waited.
Suddenly, I didn't see them anymore. Then I saw red blinking lights. 'Hmm, I thought. 'I wonder who that is. Mom said she'd meet me here. Did another motorist stop?' (I actually did think the word "motorist.") So I crossed 45 again (another 5 mins) and hiked back to the car, where our van was just turning around to go to Mobil. So the van turned around again and picked me up. It was Dad. He had gotten home just as Mom was leaving. So he thought he'd turn off the car, and when he turned around, the van got stuck in the mud, halfway on the road and halfway off. He was briefly blocking traffic. It was bad.
So I got in, drove home, and Dad drove waaay behind me. Then I realized I had been spraying little rocks (picked up from the construction at Mason's guitar lesson) and mud at him. So it was little rocks all along. It stiopped making noise before I got home.
Yeah. So... that was that.
2) Blue Bay closes at midnight now? What is that about? It ruined our night, it did. And I don't really feel like telling the whole Denny's-tastrophe story again, so we'll leave it at I'm not going there again, ever again, at nighttime. Never.