It’s 6.50 am and cold. I get
in the car, switch on the engine and start adjusting my seat and mirrors. I’m
due at my daughter’s to pick up the kids and dog at 7, but it only takes 5
minutes at this time of the morning.
But my interior light won’t
go off. I turn on my headlights and put the car in gear (hoping to make it
realise I intend to drive off), but the light remains stubbornly on. So I check
that I’ve shut my door properly. I have. I fiddle with the switches. The light
stays on.
There’s no way I can drive
with it dazzling me, so I fetch useful (if somewhat disbelieving) husband. He
has a fiddle. Light stays on. “We’ll have to think of some way to cover it up,”
I say.
He goes in the house and
comes out with some tape and a piece of card which he tapes over the light. He
goes back indoors and the card drops off. I stick it back. It falls off. I
stick it back. It falls off. The air turns slightly blue.
I’ll have to drive round
there holding it in place. Useful husband reappears to find out why I’m still
sitting on the drive at 6.58. I’m panicking. I hate being late.
“You’ll have to come with
me,” I say. “You can hold the cardboard over the light.”
He jumps in and I reverse off
the drive and a dashboard light flashes and an alarm says, “Beep, beep,
beep, beep!” A door is open (why couldn't it have said so sooner?). He jumps out, checks all the doors and finds the
rear passenger side door isn’t shut properly. He closes it. Interior light goes
off.
Absolutely everyone who has
been told this tale says right at the beginning, “Did you have a door open?” Well
I did check MY door. I just didn’t expect one of the rear doors not to have
been shut properly the night before. Sigh. I’ll know better next time.
*
Here’s Harley enjoying her cosy new bed. It's actually a carrier, but she liked it so much I left it up and she even prefers it to sleeping
on the printer. Little does she know she’ll be travelling in it to the vet this
afternoon for her annual check-up.
