I got into the wrong car today

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

There was an incident on our Nextdoor app, that wretched hive of scum and villainy. Someone had purchased a case of wine, wheeled it out to their car, and when they returned to the car after stowing the buggy the wine was gone.

It’s the kind of crime Nextdoor thrives on, a daring daylight caper in a crowded parking lot. It went on for over 60 comments before someone replied, “Hey, when I got back from shopping someone had put a case of wine in my back seat.”

There was a lot of laughter about that. I did notice that a lot of the people who blamed politicians for the breakdown of law and order that allowed this to happen didn’t bother to issue a retraction.

42

Was there a pink one, a green one, a blue one, and a yellow one?

The first year we lived in this house, which is one of several identical semidetatched homes on this street, my family came to visit. My sister brought her dog, and my father and her took him for a walk around the block. As they returned, the dog confidently went up the walkway and they opened the door and went into a house one building over.

They figured it out immediately as the decor is very different, and, well, there were strangers inside. Everyone at the other home wanted to pet the dog though, and convincing him to go back outside in the snow was actually difficult (stubborn golden retriever!).

That dog still randomly turns up that walkway when they visit.

43

My wife got part way into the front passenger seat of the wrong car - with the driver still in it! It was the middle of the day, sun shining brightly. I let her out at a bank ATM and a sorta similar car was parked a few spots away. That driver had let her boyfriend out to go to the ATM, as well. I watched wifey come out and go to the wrong car before I could get my window down. No harm and a good laugh was had by all.

44

No, :wink: they were all beige and they really did all look just the same.

45

On my first trip to the US, a taxi had been booked to meet me at the airport (courtesy of the FBI, but that’s another story). The driver promptly picked up my luggage to stow away in the car, but wasn’t so cheerful when I opened the door to sit in his seat.

46

It happened today. I’m driving a loaner car, okay, a white one. A white car the right general shape was just sitting in the parking structure about where I had parked. The loaner has a proximity fob, but the door didn’t open. So I started pushing buttons on the fob. Nothing.

Eventually, I started looking around. Nothing. I started thinking about exactly where I had parked. I walked downslope a bit. My loaner was about four spaces away, on the other side of a HUGE truck. Nobody around, so no explanations needed.

The real loaner unlocked when I walked up to it. I sat down in it. All of the windows were down about 4 inches. Must have been caused by a fob button. The parking structure is dim and the buttons are hard to interpret.

I exit the structure, drive down the road, and the sun is in my eyes. Pull down the front shade. Sun is still in my eyes.

There’s a window in the roof. It, and its shade, was open about four inches. Damn. I didn’t know that was even there.

I enter a Starbucks drive-thru. Try to find a way to close the thing. Short line, so it’s still open when I get my hot chocolate. The barista asks how my day is going.

I tell him about trying to shut the loaner’s roof window, just as a ha-ha this is how my day is going comment. He points me to buttons just above the rear-view mirror.

I got it closed, but as the front of the window closed, the rear of the window raised, like a vent. I tried it twice, but there was someone behind me and I didn’t want to hold them up with further fiddling. With the front closed, I could close the shade and get the sun out of my eyes. Bless you Mr. Barista.

After work, I need to figure out how to fully close that thing. There may be googling.

47

I once got into the wrong world, or so I thought. I visited a mall in El Paso. I parked and walked in through a Dillard’s store. When I got ready to leave, I found the Dillard’s and walked out into a vastly different landscape than when I parked. Where there were mountains, now it was flat. Of course my first thought was that I walked through a time warp and the mountains has eroded away. Then I remembered I entered Dillard’s through their tv department and was informed that they were remodaling and there were temporarily two stores, and the one with the tvs was at the opposite end of the mall.

48

My mother called me from a local mall many years ago. She said the key to her car wasn’t working. I grabbed a spare set and headed to the mall. As I drove down an aisle, I saw her car. I stopped and checked the key I had and the door opened. I looked around and saw my mother 2 aisles over standing next to a car just like hers. I called her over and she was embarrassed. As I left I drove by the other car, it was the same Ford Fairmont station wagon, green with fake wood grain stuff on the sides. The interior of this car was dark brown, my mother’s car had a tan interior. When I asked her about that, she said she never looked in the other car.

49

Googling was not needed. My son figured it out. The button that I had been pressing also slides up and down. Newfangled trifunctional button (grumble).

He also sat down and, when the users manual didn’t have a table of contents that was helpful, read the manual page by page until he found how to roll down all the windows with the fob. Standing outside the car, with the car locked, tap the unlock button then hold the unlock button down. Apparently, I only held the unlock button down long enough to open them all four inches.

In case anyone was curious.

50

Years ago, I went out to lunch with my coworkers. Upon leaving the restaurant, we all walked up to the first brown Honda CRV we saw, and since it was unlocked we all piled in. I was sitting in the back seat and didn’t notice anything amiss, but my coworker riding shotgun found some books sitting on the passenger’s seat and was like “Um, I don’t think this is the right car”. Just then, an old lady came out of the store and said “What are you doing in my car?”. It was at that moment we all noticed my coworker’s brown Honda CRV parked two spaces away. The lady who owned the doppelganger car was understanding when she realized the mix up.

51

This reminds me of an Eric Ambler mystery in which the central character applies for a job with an English arms manufacturer which requires fluency in Italian, necessary since the job is based in Italy. One of the unsuccessful applicants scoffs at the requirement to speak Italian, claiming that anyone would understand him if he spoke English to them loudly enough.

52

I love that in my car on a hot summer day; it’s amazing how much of the hot air escapes between when I get in range to lower the windows & open the sunroof & when I actually open the door.

You’re supposed to take it out of the box before driving it.

53

I have to admit that the four inches thing was bugging me more than the rolled down windows thing.

Although fobbing the windows down makes sense for venting heat, before I figured it out, I was thinking of it as a mystery button for venting farts. Sadly, if you’re in the car, you can’t trigger that function.