Chuckle.

I thought everyone could enjoy a chuckle, so I present to you my Tuesday morning...which is completely un-horse related, other than the fact that it relates to my car, which everyone knows is the sole bane of my existence and thoroughly at fault for my lack of showing/training this summer...

The story starts early, early this morning, before the sun had risen from its bed on the eastern horizon...

I hauled myself out of bed, dragged myself downstairs to my parents car and drove the 1/2 hour to their home to pick up my Honda. I swap keys with my mom, climb into my car and head off down the road to take it to the dealer in the city who would assess it and let me know if Honda will cover any of the repair costs on the transmission. You'll recall about 3 weeks ago the reverse went and it simply sits there and grinds...

I head up the driveway as the sunrise illuminates the road behind me, and as I near the end of the street, a good 3/4 mile from my parents', I remember that I left the temporary registration in my parents car. I do NOT want to risk driving without registration and insurance, since my luck would be the thing would get run-over by a semi-truck and I'd really be hooped. More so anyway, than I already am.

So I do the normal thing one does, and pull into the next driveway to turn around...

...move my hand to put the car in reverse to back out of these folks driveway and...

*FACE PALM*

Yup, DUMB with many capital letters in that one.

I'm not really an "angry" person, so I figure I'll just ring my mom and get her to bring the other car 'round. Surely her and I can push this blue hunk of trash off this driveway and I can carry on to my appointment.

Ringing and ringing and ringing. Of course, my mom is out playing with the dog in the yard at 7:00 in the morning...

So I walk the 3/4 miles back, in the crisp cool morning, trying to call her over and over...

Find my mom, drive back to my car with my folk's car, and my mom and I try to push it back onto the road off the driveway. Uphill.

Which would have worked except there's new pavement and a 1" lip to get up. Not happening. I'm a waif of a thing on a good day ; )

However, luck has it that we're PROBABLY well enough back now that I could drive forward, we could roll it a couple feet on the side of the road, and I could pull ahead and out! Score.

So I grab the car keys and turn them in the ignition.

...wait...

...nothing.

Battery is dead. Why? Because I drove it all of 3/4 of a mile after it sat for a month. : )

Beat head on dashboard.

Hop back in my parents car, drive to their home, grab booster cables and a tow rope.

My mom says "Do you even know what  you're doing?"

Nope. Never towed a car myself, never boosted a car with cables before. But not going to tell my mom that!

Hook up the tow rope, throw the honda in neutral, drag it onto the road. Go to unhook the tow rope and...the school bus pulls up. Yup. You see, my car and my parents car are spread across the road : )

Thankfully, it's my childhood bus driver, still driving the same route 10 years later.

So they get to watch me unhook the one car, back out of the way, boost the second car (there were PINECONES on my engine!), and move it out of the way! Not embarrassing at all.

Finally the bus heads off and I am able to carry on my way with the Honda back into the city. ONLY going forward.

Oddly enough though, I'm only 20 minutes late... ; )

_____________

Final word on the story...

I'm waiting to hear back from Honda, as my car maintenance minder has never requested a transmission service, and there's a slim chance Honda will assist me to some extent with the repair costs. I'm not going to get out of this scott-free, but I might not end up as badly off as I could. Or maybe I will.

Fingers crossed. And hey, when life gives you lemonades, start drinking. ; )