Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Pop the Hood

I have much to do and little time...

However, I have a stupid Andi story that simply cannot wait, or I will forget and the story will be lost in the ether!

I left work Monday night about 6:30pm.  I was hungry.  I was tired and I was stressed.  AND my head felt as if it was on the verge of exploding.  I have been having sinus headaches complete with bulging eardrums, and I don't know if it's the drainage (that I don't think is draining) or my sinus medicine, but nothing has been tasting good and my stomach hurts when I try to eat.  I COULD take a Zantac or a Pepcid...OR I could just let this cook and see if I drop that last five pounds that I've talked about losing since I was 18 years old.

Anyhoo.  I left work.  It was dark.  It was raining.  I HATE driving in the dark. 

Add rain?

Fuggettaboutit....I find it nearly impossible to distinguish where the lanes are with the overwhelming reflection of other cars lights...Ugh.  My shoulders are knotting just thinking about it.

I was white knuckle driving and my heart did a happy dance when I pulled on to my south bound road where all I had to do was get over to the left lane and stay there...

And alarms started going off in my car.

STABILITRACK SYSTEM FAILURE!!!


SERVICE BRAKES SOON!!!


DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!

One of the lights on my dash was my emergency brake light.  I decided to try and pop the brake. 

Because maybe somehow by some weird supernatural force of the universe it had become partially engaged as I was driving...

So I reached down with my left hand, never DARING to take my eyes off of the rain slick roads and popped the brake.

AAAANNNNND another light started blinking:

HOOD OPEN!

I had popped the stupid hood!!  Thank goodness for the lever that has to manually released or my darn hood would have been flying up as I was driving!

So, I pulled off the interstate in the hood and pulled into the projects (literally) got out, dashed to the front of my car and slammed the hood back open...I figured that as cold as it was and with the rain pouring down, no gang fights would be going down as I pulled over.  And I doubted any mass murderers would be sitting in wait for a stupid chick who doesn't know how to operate her car's emergency break to pull over.

And guess what?  My emergency brake in this new fangled vehicle is NOT released by a lever under the dash!  No sirree bob!  It is released by pressing in on the brake again!

Oh... and just so ya know:  The brake lights went off after I pulled over, but my stabilitrack system stayed lit until I got to Braum's where I ran in to grab milk, eggs, and butter.  When I went back to start my car, all lights were off and no alarm bells were ringing!

All that drama.

For nothin'!

Okay.  I'm off to officially do the gargantuan list of tasks I've given myself to accomplish by 2pm.  Have a blessed Thanksgiving and I pray that you take time out of your hustle and bustle of preparing to be with friends and family to thank God for all He's given you this year!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

3 comments:

Paula said...

EGADS! You are lucky your hood didn't fly up. Can't wait to see ya.

KiteFlyer said...

Glad you're ok. You might want to check your brake fluid (or, have your husband do it). My car's Traction Control would light up and also said my brakes needed replacing when I braked while turning corners. It reset itself each time the car was shut off, so I figured it couldn't be too serious. The brake fluid was a tad low, but when I topped it off, it stopped. Why couldn't the warning have been "Low Brake Fluid" instead?

Marilyn said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you to. See you tonight.