adventures in travel
Half-past midnight, only a little behind schedule, I pull the red hatchback rental car into my parents’ front yard, cut the motor, and pull the door handle to get out…but the door is locked and won’t open. I can’t find a door lock button in the dark, but there’s the remote buttons on the key, so I push the ‘lock’ button, hear the mechanism click and try again — it’s still locked; click it a few more times with no joy. What the heck…I lean over and try the passenger door, of course it’s locked too, what was I thinking? I hit the button again and the horn starts honking and the lights start flashing — I set off the car alarm. Hastily I crank the engine hoping that will stop the alarm but no. Now that I’ve woken up the entire neighborhood and the darn alarm is still blasting, I put it in reverse and figure I’ll drive away so as to be less of a nuisance but after moving a few feet the alarm stops, thankfully. What to do next? Held prisoner in my own vehicle, a techie bedeviled by technology.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
That’s hilarious, Frank!
January 9th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Hm, how about rolling down the window, unlocking the door from the outside and opening it from the outside? This is almost as funny as your manhole story.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Jah, easy for you to say. Speaking of windows my clarity of thought went out the window as soon as the alarm went off. Good idea though, if the door was still locked from the outside I could have dived out the window and made a run for it.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
…, if the door were still locked from the outside, that’s when you would unlock it from the outside (by carefully inserting the key with your hand outside while you’re sitting inside). You only need to dive out after you accidently drop the keys on the ground while still inside.
BTW why were you in the front yard? That must have made it look even more bizzare. (Okay, step out of the car and show me your license and registration).
January 10th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Didn’t want to block the driveway…my strange attempt at courtesy. Who knew this would be the blig entry with the most replies?