Macha confession

Confession: last week’s hit-and-run by a motorcycle wasn’t my only mishap with a vehicle recently.  I’m wondering if our auto insurance rates are going to go up as a result of my two misfortunes.  A friend has suggested I should get rid of my Honda CR-V because it’s must be jinxed.  Hmmm.

A nearby hardware/tractor/snow machine dealer has an annual auction every May; they get rid of excess stock and last year's models, as well as stuff received for trade-in deals or repairs not picked up.  Hubby goes every year; he frequently buys lawn mowers, tractors, etc. at this auction for our use or for other friends or family members.  This year we needed a newer mower to replace our POS Lawnboy that died last fall. 

(Ugh, I hated that damned ugly green thing; I did not mourn its miserable passing.  The thing was a nuisance to start, smoked and belched, and used fuel-oil mix instead of straight fuel like our cute little Bolens.  Die, POS Lawnboy, die!!!)

Hubby calls me at home an hour into the auction, says bring my "truck" or his tool box because he’s bought another Lawnboy (joy, yet another POS) because he can't get the Lawnboy into the trunk of his German-American sedan without removing the handle.  He says I can find him towards the back of the "lot" by a large yellow outbuilding; I’m instructed pull into the first drive and not the store parking lot because there's a lot of cars parked all over.

I leave the kids with the sitter, telling her I'll be back in 20 minutes.  Seeing a sea of cars as I approach the hardware store, I turn right into the first driveway after a 7-11 store on the corner.  There's an open grassy area between the drive and the outbuilding, ringed by many, many parked vehicles.  What a nuisance; I don’t feel like threading my way through all these haphazardly parked cars and trucks.  I decide to cut across the grass diagonally to get to the outbuilding.  Two-thirds of the way across, I feel my car sink, then stop in the grass; although it just looks grassy, the entire area is mucky from water draining from the entire 10 acre around it.  I've just found the lowest spot. 

Now I’m in for a bit of a wait for a tow after calling the sitter to explain my predicament.  The sitter's husband came to help try and push it out (hubby’s bright idea, must have been the testosterone rush from getting a new machine) -- no luck.  In the 20 minutes while I'm waiting for the sitter's husband, the "trenches" that my tires dug have actually filled with 6 inches of water.  Pure soup.  We give it the old college try anyhow, only to be rewarded with mud spatters and ruined shoes.  (I think I could have worn something that day besides a white T-shirt, damn it.)  So we continue to wait about an hour for the tow truck.  The guy cut me a deal, didn't charge me above my insurer’s reimbursement rate.  Great, thanks, means no cash out of pocket; he said he could see where if he were a "macho chick with four-wheel drive" he would have done the same thing.  Hmmm.

Some guy with a full-sized four-wheel drive truck did the same thing right behind my vehicle, buried his truck in the grassy field.  I'm not certain how he missed that I was stuck in front of him, given the ruts I'd dug and the odd angle at which I was parked.  He had the advantage of height, too, both from in the truck and the elevation at which he ended up stuck (higher ground than I was at).  Whatever -- hubby thought I should have known better.  I told him,  Bite me, next time bring your own damned tool box.

Yeah.  I don't think it's the CR-V's fault.  Although if I had a job I'd consider trading it in for a Honda Pilot; something a little bigger, with a V-6 and four-wheel drive.

8:26:03 AM    comment []