Cars

"Let's waste time chasing cars..."

Chasing cars ~ Snow Patrol

So I was going to write a scathing blog about the lack of respect for the first amendment in second hand bookstores in rural Georgia. However, a late night visit from some neighbors last night changed all that. Don't worry, my rant will be posted soon.

Anyway, as you all know I am the proud owner of a cute little Honda ("everyone knows somebody who loves a Honda" - it's true!). It has an NL sticker on the rear window, a "swim bike run" magnet on the back, a ridiculously large parking decal on its windshield, a pink John Deere tag, and enough bugs on the hood to keep a vegan alive for months. Wait. Do they eat meat that died a semi-natural death? Anyway, it's almost three years old, has over a 100 000 miles on the odometer, and more showtune CDs in its glove compartment than a student lounge reserved for musical theater majors. But it's the zippiest car on the interstate, and can pretty much outrace anyone at a stoplight.

So, yes, I love my car. And yesterday, we almost lost her.

First, one of us (I am fairly confident it was husband-dear, but for the sake of marital bliss, I will keep this under wraps), parked the car out on the driveway on Tuesday and then not only left it unlocked, but one of the back doors slightly ajar as well. And here is the really amazing thing; I didn't find out until yesterday morning. Which obviously meant that almost 48 hours later, my car was still in the driveway. And not only that, but we went out Tuesday night, we left the house several times on Wednesday, and I'm pretty sure it turned dark both nights my car was left unlocked. I don't think this could have happened any of the other places I have lived. So there's a point for rural Georgia.

And then secondly, late last night, my car had another "moment". Because we're still painting furniture, I had parked the car outside on our driveway again, this time making sure it was locked. Now you should know that our driveway is very slanted, and so all cars have to put on the emergency brake when parked. Which I did.
Yet at 10:30 last night, while husband-dear and I were enjoying sleeps fit for kings, Ozzie (the oldest) came into our room; "Dude, like there's someone ringing the doorbell."
Husband-dear, myself, and the dogs bolted out of bed, convinced something was on fire, or someone had died, or some sort of natural catastrophe was about to hit our subdivision.
But when we opened the door, we immediately saw what had our neighbors on our front porch so late; my car had rolled down the driveway, and was now sitting, innocently, right smack in the middle of the street. Apparently, one of our neighbor had tried to leave for his night shift, when he had found my pretty much blocking off our entire cul-de-sac. So we, once again, went out and saved our car from the big, bad world out there.

So that's two almost-the-end experiences for my little Honda. I wonder if it's trying to tell me something...