Thundering Dilemma

Now that I'm done being dismal for the day, I can relate a tale that should make you laugh. Today my mother needed to go out of town (no, that isn't much of a beginning, but it is a necessary basis for the story). Hence, directly following the girls' water polo game we had to evacuate the premises immediately [water polo commentary: ridiculously easy again. The pool was sickeningly warm. As in, it really made me sick to swim in it]. However, we did not do it quickly enough for my mother to get everyone with us home and to get me to my car, which had been left at the school for reasons I will not elaborate on. So, to remedy this problem, she decided to have me drop her off at home so she could pack and get going. Then, in theory, I would proceed to the school, drop off the ones I refer to as the greyhound and the fox, and have the greyhound drive my car to drop off the fox, then meet me back at my house. While she was doing that I was to pick up my younger brothers at their baseball practice. I dropped them off at the school no problem, and knowing that the car (called Blue Thunder, after muffler malfunctions) had just gotten out of the shop so it could not die, I left. I picked up my brothers without any trouble and returned home. Because I knew the greyhound's route would take longer than my own, I settled down to wait just inside my garage. And promptly lost track of time.

Finally, I looked up at a clock. An hour and a half had passed since I had dropped off the greyhound and the fox. Knowing that they could not have taken that long, I began to ponder the possibilities. The most likely, in my mind, was that the greyhound had put the car in park while it was still running. I never do this because I know that about 40% of the time, this will result in the car being stuck in park. I realized then that I hadn't told the greyhound what to do should this occur. Really all you have to do is take the secondary key (which I had given to her) and use it to bypass the broken safety feature. Quite simple, when you know what to do. This seemed like the most probable issue.

However, because I didn't quite know where to start in looking for them, and because I thought they would have called by now if they were stuck, I called my mother to gain wisdom and direction. She pointed out my folly at having left before I saw the car start, but knowing that all problems had recently been fixed I dismissed the possibility that they hadn't even made it out of the parking lot. Anyway, mi madre decided to call the greyhound's father and have him hunt for the vehicle. Trudging into my house feeling rather dismayed, I heard the phone ring.

It was, of course, the greyhound. She hadn't been able to leave the parking lot after all (bet you didn't see that one comin'). She had also lost track of time (there's some major group spaciness going on, can't you tell?). She had thought that I, after discovering her gone for so long, would come to the parking lot looking for her. Now that's just expecting too much of an unobservant person like me. Anyway, she said that there seemed to be no power in the entire car. Worried, I told her that she'd better call her dad and tell him where she was and that I'd be there shortly. I did arrive swiftly, and discovered Blue Thunder to be dead.

Now, I must admit, the car being dead was my fault too. I had been waiting for someone and my car was hot and humid (hot because of sun, humid because wet swimming suits and a towel had been drying in it all day). To relieve this, I turned on the car (though I didn't start it) so I could roll down a window. I did so, but did not remain in my car long. So I rolled the window back up and left. But I forgot to turn the key back into the off position. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Why didn't you just take the key out?" right? Well, the ignition key often gets stuck, and it did today, so I was using the secondary key to lock it up and such. So leaving the key in the car was not weird for me.

So, to sum up the end of the story, the greyhound's father came and showed us how to use jumper cables and Blue Thunder was revived. We carried out the rest of our plan now that we had the other car running and I dropped off the greyhound at her house. Then, on my way home, I heard a cell phone ring, but it wasn't mine.

It was the greyhound's parents'! So once again I had to find them and return the phone. It was quite an eventful time. Yuck.