reaction time
My dearone (L.) has a spiff signature on her email right now, ""What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens."--apparently one Thaddeus Golas pronounced this. I agree with him. For example this morning I had several options.
1. cry
2. stomp my little feet
3. call a tow truck and pay for a jump
4. ask sleepy father in law for a jump (ewwww scratch that image out of your brain)
5. push bug out of garage and explain to children that we were gonna pop the clutch
OPTION 5 (40 year old + 12 year old + 9 year old) X sloping drive=SUCCESS
Got Z to school, got to Isabel's school where we have anywhere from 15-25 minutes till her bell rings. We usually do an "I SPY" page or three from her library book. I, in an effort to reduce emissions shut the car off. It is still warmer than the playground which is the fair weather choice for killing time. (see crochet dishrags of earlier blog) Either way upon arrival at Estabrook I always cut the engine.
NOOOOOOOOO!
Of course in the less than four mile journey--the battery had insufficient time to charge, immediately realizing my mistake I tried the key again. failure
Repeat the listed options above,however please subtract sturdy 12 year old & sloping path. But do add to the list--6. call DH and whimper. Note this was achieved AFTER arrival at EMU because the prospective addition of #7 seemed fruitful, ask little chubby man with big key ring if he has jumper cables in his truck.
"No." he replies,"...but HE (pointing behind me to HS parkinglot) does." I glanced behind me and saw to my glee, TWO MORE chubby guys with big key rings and they were fixing a broken bus. I played the stupid chick card and got a jump from the maintenance guys.
Isabel went in to school and I drove to work--where I sat... with the engine running for 45 minutes. Thankfully me and my Odwalla bar, to go mug (Thank you Trex) full of java (thanks to DH) just calmly listened to NPR's Morning Edition.
Everybody cross your fingers that the bug starts when I leave campus eh?
Guess who is getting a new battery for Thanksgiving!! ME!!! yay!!
2 comments:
Hah! I would have voted for popping the clutch as well -- kids need to know how to do these things. Think of it as a teachable moment.
I had a similar experience with my car/battery recently -- and when I was just on the edge of being late for leaving for a doctor's appointment in Brighton. After a jump from the neighbor failed, I did the frantic phone call to.... should I tell? then everybody will be calling him when they have car trouble... then maybe he won't be available for my emergencies... hmmm... Let's just say, "a good friend helped me out" and I too got a new battery that another good friend installed for me. :)
Happy Thanksgiving, Daye!
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