Our First "Adventure" of the New Year....

It all started last night. Shannon was heading out to pick up her friends and go out to dinner. She was gone about two minutes when my phone rang. It was Shannon calling from her car....parked right out front. "Mom, can you come out? My door won't shut."

I threw on my boots and went out to take a look. I opened and closed the door several times. Yep...she was right...it wouldn't shut. Being very mechanically inclined (NOT), I went back in and grabbed my coat (did I mention it was about 8 degrees?), a flashlight and a screwdriver. I really had no idea what I was going to do with it but it seemed important to have it.

I looked at the "latch thingy" on the door....played with it with the screwdriver for a few minutes and then shut the door. It opened. I closed it. It opened. I played with the "latch thingy" and my screwdriver again. Close..open...close...open. At this point, Shannon is texting her friends to tell them she will be late and is looking a bit panicked. I told her to take my car and I would "work" on hers...."mom of the year" award is sure to be mine! She was gone!

After she left, I decided I should tie the door shut. Great plan! I found some rope and headed to the car just knowing the problem would be temporarily solved and I could wait until daylight to come up with a better plan.

So, I got in the car, pulled the door shut and realize her car has one of those handles that doesn't have a hole on the other side. Hmmm....electric windows...no window handle to tie it to. Dang! Aha...the door lock (you know, that teeny tiny little black thing)...might as well give it a try. I tied one end of the rope to that lock and the other end to the steering wheel. Sure wish I knew my knots better. After fiddling around tieing different knots and pulling the rope as tight as I could, the dome light went off. Success! I climbed out the other side of the car and watched. No dome light. Whew!

I went inside, made a nice cup of hot tea, put my jammies on and settled into my book. At about 9:30 pm, I looked outside and couldn't believe what I was seeing. The dome light! It seemed to be laughing at me. Deep breath, boots on, coat on....go out, push the door closed, it opens, close it again, it opens....??? And then an idea! The door was "falling" open. I turned the car around and parked the driver side up on a snow bank (guess this stuff came in handy after all). The door fell SHUT! It didn't latch but at least the dome light was off and the battery was safe. Success...again!

After getting up several times during the night to check on th car and make sure the dome light stayed off, morning finally came. I talked to my dad (this is nothing new in a time of crisis for me...thank goodness for Dads!) He said to bring the car out to his place and we could put it in the garage over night. It may just need to warm up and he would put a heater on the inside, too. With all this moisture (five and a half feet of moisture) we've had, maybe the mechanism was frozen. He also suggested rolling the windows down a little and tie the door shut that way. Brilliant!! So, that's what we did. Tied the door shut and Shannon pulled on the rope all the way out to Dad's. We never did get the door closed tight enough so the warning lights and dome light would turn off, but we made it and no one fell out of the car.

Dad opened the garage, we drove in, untied the door and got out. Dad got his screwdriver (that made me feel good) and fiddled with the door "latch thingy" and said,

"Cheryl, that's closed...seems to be working."

What?? I watched as he closed the door and it didn't fall open! It stayed shut. Shannon and I looked at each other and all we could do was laugh.

Seems as though, things had been frozen and with all of the action that morning, they had thawed out. Hmmph! Well, at least the lock is working and the car is getting all nice and toasty and is spending a night out of the weather. We will get it back tomorrow and hopefully, we won't need our rope or screwdriver!