I do my own stunts.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a new car. Not a brand new car, but a new-to-me car. The image at the right is the same year make and model, the color is hard to see, but it is sea-foam green. I call it the Booger-mobile.

I didn't pay a lot for it, but it runs well and looks nice. Considering what I paid for it, I expected that there are a to be a few issues: One, the windshield fluid doesn't come out. Yes it's full. Talk about annoying. Two, the blinkers work on an infrequent basis. My car likes to PMS. Three, there is a connectivity issue with the battery at times. Four, the gears don't line up to what is matched. For example, to put the car in neutral, I have to line it up with the R. So obviously there are a few things wrong with the car, but considering I was driving a car that I thought would literally fall apart at the slightest bump... I'm ahead of the game.

Yesterday was the first test to see how it would handle on ice. Schools were closed yesterday as well. When that happens, my son goes to my Aunt's house for the day.

The roads home weren't as bad as I thought. Save for the ass-wipe who thought the safest way to drive was right on my tail with their brights pointed directly in my rearview mirror. It only took me about 15 minutes longer than normal to get home. (I'll go off on a tangent another day about how CT plows it's roads...)

Instead of going directly home, I went to my Aunt's to pick up my son. We stayed for about an hour chatting and what-not. I had my aunt look at my head where I slammed it against the staircase on Sunday night. She said she felt the bump, but didn't see any discoloration. Before I heard one more "I'm bored" sigh from my son, I decided it was time for us to leave.

The drive a few blocks to my place wasn't that bad, but I realized that I had forgotten something at my aunts house. I sent my son inside, had him lock the doors and told him I'd be home in about 10 minutes.

Upon reaching my aunts house, her driveway was not shoveled or plowed and decided that parking on the FLAT street would be a better option. I put my car in park and waited inside the car for a half a minute to make sure that it wasn't going to go anywhere. I saw what I had dropped on the driveway. I got out of my car, closed the door, walked three feet, picked up what I forgot and turned around to go back to my car.

Instead of being able to walk back to my car to get in, I saw it slowly rolling backwards on the street. I did the only logical thing, I yelled, "Hey wait!" It didn't take me long to realize that it wasn't going to stop. I quickly thought what my options were: let it roll away and potentially cause an accident or to chase after it.

Before the thought even finished I started to chase after my run-away car as it was going backwords, on a flat surface, on sheer ice... I had no other options.

I started to carefully chase after it as fast as I could trying to both save the car and save myself from falling. About the time the car got to the neighbors drive way, I had tried, unsuccessfully, to open the passenger door 3 times. On the 4th try, it opened and stayed opened!

Now the trick was at it's most dangerous. I had to enter a car, while it's rolling backwords, on top of sheet ice WHILE finding the path of least resistance to get the car to stop in the fastest way possible...

I swung the door open, jumped in and reached out with my left hand and slammed the parking break as hard as I could. I couldn't tell if the car was still moving or not. I could tell it had slowed down, but just when I thought it stopped, I felt it start to roll back again slightly. I pushed the parking break harder and the car came to a final rest.

I needed a minute to comprehend what had just happened. The interior light of my car was on, and I lay face down on front seat, my feet still sticking out the open passenger door. I slowly lifted my head and saw I was parked in front of a drive way. The only drive that happened to have a person in it, shoveling.

Embarassed, I sat up, slammed the passenger door, hopped into the drivers seat. The guy shoveling the snow just stared at me. I took the parking break off and peeled out of there as safely as possible. I could only imagine him running inside to tell his family about the crazy blue haired girl he saw running down the icy roads chasing after her car that backed away from her as if she was a repelling magnet.

On the drive home, I couldn't help but giggle. No one or nothing was hurt or damaged. As I told the story to my son, he literally broke down laughing and decided to call everyone he could think of. The story was almost more funny when he told it, "But then *laugh* she turned around and *laugh laugh laugh* her car was rolling away with out her! *laughing so hard he almost can't breathe* And the guy *laugh* was looking at her *laugh laugh* like, what are you doing lady? *laugh*"

Next time, I'll add a banana peel to the perils that I have to face while chasing my car. I think my good friend Colleen is right: I do live in my own little sitcom.

-MetalRose