In Case of Emergency Only
21 November 2004
It looks like we will finally be breaking down and getting a cell phone. Why? It isn’t because they are nifty fashion accessories or because I have so many friends that I feel I need to have a cell phone so that I can call them up and discuss the new purse that I just bought on sale.
We will be getting a cell phone for the oldest reason in the book: in case of emergency. Unfortunately, we didn’t decide this until yesterday when we really could have used one… for an emergency!
We were driving along on the autobahn when A. said to me, “Look behind us. Boy, the road sure is dusty!” We were on the part of the freeway that is undergoing extensive reconstruction, so this could have been possible except… our car was the only one that had “dust” blowing out behind it.
Being the mechanic’s daughter that I am, I thought to myself, “It looks like we are burning oil.” So I asked A. if any of the car’s “dummy” lights were on. (So called because by the time they turn on any dummy can figure out that there is a problem!) At the time they weren’t, but a couple of seconds later the motor started sputtering and the oil light came on. Luckily we weren’t far from an exit, so we pulled off and when I peeked under the front of the car… lo and behold! … I discovered an oil leak! (Not just minor dripping either, but a steady stream.)
It was at this point that a cell phone would have come in “handy.” A. doesn’t know much about cars, but he knows enough to know that even though we were less than 5 kilometers from home it probably wasn’t a good idea to drive the car any further.
Luckily we had pulled into a parking area off the ramp, so we were able to flag down someone who did have a cell phone. He called the police for us, who in turn called a tow truck. When the police came and learned we didn’t have a cell phone, we got more than one disapproving look and a not-so-subtle mention that we were lucky someone with a cell phone was nice enough to stop and help us out.
The car was towed and tomorrow it will be going into the shop to figure out what exactly caused the oil leak and then once it is fixed, I guess we will be going cell phone shopping.
Oh yeah, did I mention that our car, the one that developed the oil leak, is a three year old BMW?! (mutters… “Overpriced, overrated, German piece of junk!”)
