Baby You Can Drive My Car

This morning I woke up with the plan to take my car to the Firestone by my house to get an oil change and to replace my broken break light. So I drove up there. They tell me it will be 1 1/2 hours at least. "That's fine," I say, "I will go to Kroger. "Then as I start to walk across the parking lot I realize that I only need 4 items and therefore will have a hard time filling my time at Kroger. Hmm, perhaps I shall walk home. It's only about 20 minutes in walking time. I start walking. I decided to call the husband and ask him to come pick me up. He agrees. I continue walking towards home to save him time before he has to leave for work. He drives by the street I am now walking on and I leap in the car as it is still slightly in motion. We return home. The husband goes to work and all is well.

Around the time my car will be ready I start preparing for my short hike. The good thing about Denton is that you actually can walk many places, though it isn't really normal to do so. Suddenly I realize that I gave the Firestone man my whole key chain, which means I have no house key! What should I do? I really want to get my car before tonight (when Ryan gets home). But I don't want my house to get robbed!

I start to think. Has my house been robbed before? No. Could it still happen in the brief time I'm gone? Possibly. Has anyone mysterious ever come to my door during the 2 years we've been here? No. Is this a safe area of town? I think so. So I decided to take a chance.

However, I'm not dumb. I know that robbers are tricky people so I decide to make it look like someone is home and to pretend to lock my door. I turned on the downstairs TV. I put it on some sports channel to make it seem more likely that a man is home. I leave lights on downstairs. As I walk out the door I shout, "Bye honey! " so that if someone was watching they would think someone was home. I used the pool key I keep on another chain to pretend to lock up. Hahaha, I think, I am so clever!

I walk briskly to Firestone. The faster I walk, the less time someone would have to break in. I probably look like one of those crazy old lady power walkers at the mall. I arrive at Firestone. As I'm about to pay I realize the amount seems a bit low. "Did you check the break light?" I ask. " I think so..... umm.... let me ask the guy," says Firestone man. Turns out they didn't. What? "Well, please hurry, my house is unlocked and I don't want bad guys getting in!" I politely reply with a smile on my face. Just be patient, I tell myself, they didn't do this on purpose. Finally everything is good to go. I pay again. And the Firestone man decides to give me the break light for free! So, patience paid off. Niceness goes a long way. I race to get home in my car. No burglars. No bad guys. All is well again. Next time I will only give Firestone my car key. And I hope my safety loving grandmother never reads this.