A Driving Adventure

A couple of days ago I managed to pull together enough money to release my car from being held hostage at my mechanic's.

Ruby (that's my car) had to have her struts replaced...and now she's strutin' around town just fine. Well...except for the door problem.

Whenever it gets a bit too cold (say below zero) the driver's door mechanism doesn't work properly. Yeah, I know all I need is WD-40 ... but I didn't have any, and with my door stuck open it was kind of hard to scoot over to Canadian Tire to pick-up some.

Plus the tire on the passenger side has a slow leak...so that makes everything interesting. Like when I left work the other day...about 8pm...it was freezing outside, -22 Celsius with the wind-chill factor. Ruby starts up fine but the door won't close and the tire is almost flat.

Normally the door will cooperate once the car gets warm, but not this day. No, this day the door would not close. So I head out to the gas station while steering with my right hand and holding the door closed with my left. Now, I'm strictly a hands at 10 & 2 kind of driver so this was quite the adventure for me.

Did you know when you make a left turn while driving with your right hand it's really hard to make the car move in a smooth motion? So there's this automatic response to put your left hand up on the wheel to even things out. Which in my case meant the door went careening open...in the middle of the intersection. This unforeseen event made me then frantically thrust my left hand toward the door handle in the hopes of pulling it shut...all while trying to stay put in my seat.

Did you know that when a car is in that kind of motion the door is really heavy? Must be wind factors or gravity or something...I'm really not very scientific but it layman's terms ... it was $ucking scary.

Finally...I managed to get to the gas station without injuring myself or anyone else. I fill the tire with air. The door still won't close. I don't have a penny in my purse no debit or credit cards in there either. So while silently counting the number of left turns there would be on my way home...I head out.

It wasn't too bad...I became pretty good at it actually. I pull into my parking lot (which was another left turn...4 in all to get me home) and there's a car in my spot. I HATE that! I get unreasonably pissed, actually. Luckily there was a visitors spot open so I parked there...the door still won't close.

I keep a pen & pad of paper in my car for times like these. Oh yes...for these situations I'm prepared. I don't have WD-40 or spare windshield washer fluid...but paper for nasty notes...that I have.

I always leave the same note: "Thank you for parking in my paid parking space." Then I snap it under the wiper blade and storm off as if I've just done the best thing ever in my life. That's right...I just left a note. A nasty note. Look at me...I'm bad.

Of course then I had to sit for about another 10 minutes waiting for the door mechanism to thaw. Kind of took the umph out of my swagger.