Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Rest of the Story

I never finished telling what happened after I locked my keys in my car last weekend.

I discovered the error of my ways at 4:00 PM on Saturday. My first choice was to dial 911. That's when I learned the cops wouldn't come unless there was a baby inside or the engine was running.

Insead I asked the cops not to tow me. Ever helpful, they put me in touch with the locksmith who couldn't come until Monday.

The next morning I returned with a hammer to break one of the windows.  I have twelve windows to choose from on my Jeep. I figured I needed my windshield. And there were heat sensors in the back window that had to cost a lot of money. Trying to be logical, I whittled my choices down to the four smallest windows.

In the end I chose the very smallest window to break because I could reach into the car and get to my keys the easiest that way.  Without having cold air or street debris flying in my face while I drove to get it fixed.

All this decision making took a nanosecond or two, which was longer than it took to break in. I put a piece of plastic over the window and hit it at about half speed. All I succeeded in doing was making a lot of noise. The second hit got the full force of whatever's left of my softball arm and suddenly I had hundreds of tiny glass particles all over the front seat, floor, console, and it turns out, my butt, since I sat in some.

Big mistake. I picked THE MOST EXPENSIVE window of the whole bunch to break. But that's how my decision making tends to go. Usually if I've made a decision that turns out to be a mistake I can just make another decision to undo it.  Not this time.

Turns out I should have had the car towed to my mechanic who could then use a funny sounding balloon like instrument to open the door for me. But I didn't know this until I brought it in, plus I couldn't even call him to ask for advice because he closes at 1:00 PM on Saturdays. Did I mention the window I broke is more expensive to fix than being towed?

There must be an addendum to Murphy's Law which says that not only will all things go wrong that can possibly go wrong, but this will always occur on Saturday afternoons after closing time.

Meanwhile, what a nice new window I'm gonna have.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

that sucks major lemons!

Anonymous said...

You're such a dork. Next time, cover the window with duct tape, then smack it. The broken glass will remain adhered to the tape and you can handle it in one piece.

Amateurs...

Anonymous said...

Chris is a locksmith, and he's on call once a month, meaning, in Dallas, if you call the locksmith company he works for, even if it's 3:00 AM on a weekend, someone shows up and lets you into your car, for about $70 (most of which goes to the owner of the business)...

J

Anonymous said...

If only I lived in Dallas.  Rats.

Mrs. L

Anonymous said...

my step-father is a locksmith
he took it up as a hobby, I guess...
comes in handy, though
another thing that sucks
when it happens after 4pm on a Saturday
is getting sick
the doctor's office is closed
the clinics are closed
you can't wait until Monday
and have to go to the emergency room :(

Anonymous said...

That softball arm sounds like a killer...
Anna

Anonymous said...

Somedays it just suck to be us lol lol
Donna In tEXAS