on my way down to visit the extended fam, i had quite the automotive crisis. made me think of
dug's car alarm mishap. although my story, not as comical. let me explain...
about 2 years ago, my car was broken into right in front of my house. i walked out on a nice spring saturday morning and noticed the back window was busted out. my house is located across the street from the college baseball field, i remember thinking, "damn those baseball players!" as i unlocked my door and got in, i realized that the whole dash had been raped! my stereo system was gone. glass was everywhere. my car had been violated-- right in front of my house!! needlesstosay, i was hopping mad.
all this thievery led me to install a security system in my car. (yea, i know, this really is not an adequate deterrent) while i despise the "beep, beep" sound associated with turning it on (in this little hippy town, people really look down on you when they hear that), it does have it's advantages. mostly, the ability to lock & unlock the car doors with the remote.
anyhow, my car alarm has several "features". first, it is the type that turns itself on automatically once the driver exits the car. (now this does not lock the doors, mind you) secondly, once the alarm is engaged (read: blaring), you can not start the car. this leads me to the incident....
i stopped along the drive to tennessee to get some lunch. after getting out of the car, my remote would not work to lock the doors and set the alarm, but the alarm set itself, so i didn't think much of it. food was consumed. i returned to my car. the remote still would not work, thus i was unable to turn the alarm off. knowing that once i opened the car doors, the alarm would begin blaring and not allow me to start my car, i began to panic. i called everyone i could think of for assistance. i even flagged down a couple of guys in a tricked-out honda civic in hopes that they knew something about cars. nothing. i cursed myself for not reading the security system's manual. i cursed myself for never putting said manual in my car to be accessed on such an occasion. i cursed myself for being a girl. miles away from my destination and miles away from home, standing in a parking lot, i was really freaked the fuck out!
after what seemed like hours-- probably only 15minutes-- my friend Terry saved my day via phone. luckily he was able to-- with alarm sounding-- talk me through the manual disengage process. i could then start my car. *pphheeeeww*..... and those honda civic boys, they had directed me towards a local stereo shop where i purchased a new battery remote. i continued on my journey unscathed (mostly).
