Friday, May 04, 2007

Clearance

I was sitting at my desk at work on Thursday when my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Lauren calling. I thought that it was strange that she would be calling me at 10:15 AM when I knew she should be at a doctor’s appointment. I answered the phone.

“Bill, I need you to come down here right away.” She said, her voice slightly panicked.

My heart started racing. What was wrong? Did she already see the doctor and did she get bad news? She was talking pretty fast and I had a hard time hearing her. The signal on her cell phone was fading in and out.

“I don’t know what to do. I need your help.” She said.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“The doctor’s office moved to a new location, and when I pulled around the building I didn’t realize I had to park in a parking garage.”

“And?”

“We never took the Turtle Top off the van.”

What we call the “Turtle Top”, is the big plastic Cargo Carrier we attached to the roof rack when we drove up from Florida 3 weeks ago. I was going to take it off and store it in my parent’s shed, but last week I demolished the shed ,so I left the cargo carrier on the van.

Lauren continued, “I had no problem pulling into the garage but as I keep driving, the Turtle Top keeps hitting the roof of the garage. It is so loud. People keep looking at me. I don’t think I will be able to get out of here. I am afraid that I may get stuck, or I may end up tearing the roof off the van. Every time it hits a beam it is so loud.”

I started laughing. I was relieved that she was okay. Lauren started laughing.

“Okay.” I said. “Where are you? I will come and take it off.”

She told me where I should go. “I just found a parking space, which I think it will be okay. It is between beams. I would take the thing off myself but I don’t know how.”

“Okay. Just go to the doctor and I will check with work to see if I can take an early lunch come down and take it off.”

I found the garage and her car and I made quick work of removing the cargo carrier and I placed it in the back of the van.

An hour later Lauren called to thank me. “You are my hero.” She said. “I was so afraid I was not going to get out of the garage. You should have seen the looks I was getting from everyone in the garage when I pulled in. It was so loud. I was embarrassed. Is every one at your office laughing us now?”

“Not everyone. Just the people I told. But you do realize I am going to blog about this, right?”

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

See, you are a whore for the blog stories. LOL

Patience said...

It's nice to be a hero sometimes!

We have a big mega hi-top van that we take on trips, but it can be inconvenient in that it never ever fits in parking garages!

Anonymous said...

Those turtle tops always remind me of family vacations. Good times.

This is hilarious! And totally sounds like something I would do.

Susie said...

Thank God for crises that can be handled on a lunch break :)
I don't know why I start to get all worried about you guys when you start out a post like this, because it always turns out OK in the end. I didn't need to take that Ativan at paragraph 3 after all ;)

RosieBoo said...

What a great story! Yep, it sure is nice having a Hero Husband. Where do I get one of those? ;)

Anonymous said...

Oh poor Lauren!

Anonymous said...

Poor Lauren! I would have been HORRIFIED had it been me. But it's actually funny to read about it happening to someone else ;-)

Anonymous said...

Clarence

Slinger said...

These stories are what make up blogs!

Stepping Over the Junk said...

I have a friend who yanked his Thule cargo thing off the top of his SUV TWICE going into a parking garage. They can never take that particular car to the airport because of it. You are great to rescue her!

(and then, as a sidenote, my exhusband once went through some short toll booth thing with his bike on top of the car and it got broken off)

Nature Girl said...

roflmao! I'm just relieved that Lauren didn't get bad news at the Dr.s office..it puts things like that in perspective and makes them extra funny!
Stacie

Kate Giovinco Photography said...

I would have done the same thing!

Sukie Bitchmont said...

Oh, my! That's one of those things that should only happen in comedy sitcoms. Great blog material, though.

Effie said...

hi Bill!

Unknown said...

Husbands are definitely handy to have around, especially in a "crisis". Lauren is a lucky woman to have her own personal hero!

On another note, you have been tagged for a silly Internet Blog game. Play if you like. Details are in my latest posting.

kimmyk said...

Nothing is worse than having to call your husband and ask for help regarding the car. You handled yourself very nicely I must say. Had I called Honey...well...I don't even wanna think about it.

Abby said...

Oh I love this entry! This is soo something I would do and yes I would be calling Graham and freaking out the same way -- but I would be laughing so hard he wouldn't be able to understand what I needed. LOLOL

Just Jan said...

I can't beleive she kept driving through the parking deck with it hitting the beams...I would have freaked and just sat there probably blocking everything and everyone....she handled it like a good trooper!! I would have loved to see the look on her face when you told her you were blogging about it though....hehehe.

Dollymama said...

Now, see, that's the sort of thing that would happen to me when my husband is out of town, and I would be stuck trying to figure out who to call or how to get the darn thing off the roof on my own......probably with at least one crying child or vomiting child in tow.....

Glad you could rescue your damsel in distress!

Abby said...

lol - why yes he does know it is a date it was his idea.

Jay said...

What a hero!

I thought maybe you would just let a little bit of air out of all of the tires so the car ran a little lower. That would have worked, too.

Carrie said...

LOL! That's far better than when DH loaded up our brand new mountain bikes onto the roof rack, then proceeded into the parking garage of the bank to hit the ATM... and pulled the bikes and roof rack off the truck, with witnesses who came over to tell us "Your bikes fell off!". Thank you, Captain Obvious!

Anonymous said...

Classic. I once saw that happen to a police car. They were chasing a guy that took them into an undergrouond parking structure. Yep, ripped the lights completely off the roof of the car.