WiLd GoOsE ChAsE

Today I didn't have to go to work because we had a snow day. I called my friend Steven to see what he was up to, and he was so happy to hear from me because his car had just broken down. He said, "Oh thank god you called me! My car just ran outta gas on West End! I'm standin' in front of SunTan City wearin' a bathrobe, and Stella's in the back seat!" (Stella is the overly-affectionate, half American Bulldog, half pitbull that belongs to his roommate. Very rambunctious dog--shouldn't be left alone, much less in a car, for lengthy periods).

I agreed to go pick him up, so I finally got there during the lunch rush hour, scooped him up, and after he revealed to me that he had left his wallet at home, I drove to the gas station, got him a gas can, filled it up with gas, and took it back to his car. He filled it up, and still it didn't start. Because of the awkward street parking spot he had, it wasn't an option to find someone with jumper cables, so I agreed to call AAA for him.

After waiting on AAA for two hours and crossing the street to eat at Qdoba while we waited, AAA finally arrived, checked the car, and said there was no problem with the battery. But still, the car wouldn't start, even after he did the fiddly tests with the battery machine.

Finally, he took a screwdriver and dinged around under the hood for awhile--literally banging on random parts of the engine and whatnot, until he told Steven to turn the ignition again, and magically the car started.

"Whatever you do, DO NOT TURN THE CAR OFF," the AAA man said to Steven. He had a messed up starter or something, the man suspected, and Steven should get it replaced immediately.

At that point, it was time to take Stella back home because she'd been in the car for 3 hours and Steven had taken my leftover nachos from me and fed them to her in the backseat, so he suspected she was going to vomit soon.

I thanked the man, bid Steven adieu, and made my way to my car. Approximately 2 minutes later, I received a phone call from Steven, who was giggling and said, "I've got somethin' to tell yew. It's so bad I almost don't wanna say it. You're just gonna die...."

I'm thinking, "Oh great. He turned the car off and now I'm gonna have to call AAA again to run back and fix it."

Nope.

Apparently, Steven just didn't have the car in park when he tried to start it the first time, which caused the initial problem. It wasn't until the AAA man told him the second time to start the car that Steven realized what had happened, but rather than cause himself any embarrassment, or let me/the AAA man know we'd wasted 3 hours for nothing, he just played along... until 3 pm...when he realized what he'd done...

That was a fun thing to do on my snow day...