The last 3 days I’ve been attending a science academy for professional development. It was fantastic. I learned so much.
What?….Can’t you sense the enthusasium in my voice?…Oh you can’t?…Hum…
Well, it’s marked off of the summer checklist at least. And I got to eat 3 yummy lunches (plus 1 yummy mid-afternoon snack). And do a little shopping (did you know that Arlington has a new Sam Moon? What what!). And I did seriously learn a few new things, so that’s always helpful.
Oh, and did I mention that I convinced one of my besties to go with me? That always makes for a good time. 🙂
On day 2 of our little science adventure we ran into a little car problem. But before I get to that, we’ve got to go back to the beginning of the month, where my bad car “carma” began. (Yes, I know that’s not how you spell karma. It’s a play on words. CARma. Get it?)
CARma Event #1 – The Great Trunk Escape
Long story short is this…a basket got caught on that little emergency latch in the trunk, engaged it, and then got yanked on a couple of times. (I can’t imagine how that would have happened…) As a result, the trunk wouldn’t shut.
And as a result of that, I had to pay $120 to fix the trunk. Which would be the “escape” part of the “Great Trunk Escape.”
(It would have been a way cooler story if there had been an actual human escape from the trunk, right? Bummer…)
CARma Event #2 – The Battery is Where?!
While driving home from our Schlitterbahn vacation, my brother’s girlfriend J and I stopped at a conventient store for a quick break.
Four and a half hours later we were finally able to get back on the road.
Bluh.
There ended up being a variety of problems…car wouldn’t start, had trouble jumping off, wouldn’t drive over 20 miles per hour after we did get it started, it was a Sunday, we were alone, etc.
JÂ & IÂ went all girl power and set to solving the problem, and I gotta say, she was a champ. We found us a country gentleman to jump the battery (if you are reading this, thanks Randy!), made about a bazillion calls to family & friends & tow companies, sweated it out in the summer sun, chilled on the Coca-Cola display with the conventiant store clerk we named Becky (not sure if that’s even your name, but if you are reading this…thanks again Becky!) and eventually helped push the car onto a trailer.
No cryin’ for these girls…we’re grown-*!@ women! Bahaha…does it ruin the effect if I admit that we giggled every time we said that to one another? 😉
Our family also came to our rescue…they were a bit behind us and were able to make a detour so they could wait with us / take us home afterwards. It made for a long day, but I was glad they were there!
But most of all, I’ve got to give glory to my good God. He took care of us around every turn…in ways we never expected. After waiting a couple of hours for the tow truck to show up, then finding out that it was going to be really hard to get my car that wouldn’t start onto the trailer they had to tow it with, we looked up to see a couple of families from our hometown pull up to get gas. They came over to check on us and were able to help us push the car onto the trailer and tie everything down…they seriously could not have come at a more perfect time. That, my friends, is God at work. I love it!
The rest of the story consists of waiting, a frustrated husband, one crying episode outside of a Taco Casa (yep, that one was all me), $340, and a 5 hour round trip drive to get the car 3 days later.
Oh yes, and a new battery. Turns out that’s all it was.
Also turns out that my battery is in the trunk…which explains quite a bit about how hard it was to jump it off from under the hood. 😛
CARma Event #3 – Duct Tape to the Rescue
And now to the story from Science Academy. Turns out my bad CARma carried over to my friend…as we attempted to leave yesterday her front bumper decided to try and separate from the rest of her car. The curb played a role in that as well.
After getting the bumper off the curb and semi-successfully popping it back on, we laughed to keep from crying and drove to Academy in search of duct tape. She opted for the purple, even though I was pushing pretty hard for the bacon design. Guess the stress was still too fresh for jokes. 😛 Putting the duct tape actually on the car posed a bit of a problem, as we were A) to weak to rip the tape off, and B) being “encouraged” by a very NOT-helpful guy to stick it on tight. We are also pretty sure that instead of helping us, he was taking pictures of us and Facebooking us. (So if you are reading this, not-helpful-cat-call guy, then we do NOT thank you.)
But whatever. She found a Swiss Army knife in her car to help us rip the tape, we plastered the bumper with strips to help it stay on, then we drove until we found a Sonic and treated ourselves to ice cream.
I’d say that was well deserved.
******************************************************************************
And as if all that weren’t enough evidence of bad CARma….
*my brother’s battery went out in his truck
*his girlfriend J had a flat tire AND her air conditioner went out
*my Dad had a bird build a nest in the cab of his truck
Oh yes. You read that correctly.
A nest. In his truck.
I think we can leave today’s post at that. Crazy!!
KEEP CALM & SEND GOOD CARMA MY WAY!
keepcalmandloveon.wordpress.com 