This week: 3 short/short-ish posts, 3 days in a row, all related to parking. The Wednesday one being my fav. Get excited . . .
Last week Coach told the kids to drive the red minivan to school. He planned to take the kids' 'nicer-than-what-my-folks-drive' Kia in for an oil change.
Translation: the kids would be rocking it out to Neil Diamond.
We actually just drove a distance in the red minivan on Saturday and we dug up a few more CDs. Most were scratched. Some were scratched so badly that the car spit them out without even attempting to play them, as if insulted that we'd asked. Other artists sounded hilarious with the added stutters or long pauses between syllables. We were dying. Imagine James Taylor with an unintentional almost rap like twist to his songs. Some things should not be combined. James and rap are two of them.
Ever wonder what we're up to? Entertaining ourselves with stuff no one else would find funny.
Coach ended up not having time to get that oil change. He and I had an important zoom call. Before it ended he had to bolt for a dentist appointment.
Coach typed into the chat line that he'd tune in from the car for the last few minutes while driving to the dentist. Then, Tank called my cell. I ignored it. He persisted - 3 more times.
I finally answered: ON A ZOOM, CAN'T TALK.
Tank: OK, I WAS JUST IN A CAR ACCIDENT.
Me: Is everyone OK (while telling the zoom people I had to go).
Me: Have you called the police?
Tank: Should I?
He was parked in the school lot. Mini's friend's older sister, a senior, backed into him. Hard. The damage was not the slow, love-tap from backing up kind of damage. Still, I told him NOT to call the police. I figured her folks would rather pay out of pocket.
I called Coach, who said: I heard from zoom.
It was like Big Brother was watching. He drove by the school and looked at the car before the dentist. It was drivable. The trunk still opened. No broken tail lights. We ARE blaming the broken radio on this fender bender. KIDDING.
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| Maybe this is typical parking lot damage? I expected more of a dented bumper. Can I get a collective sigh for how we manage without one of our fleet while it's being repaired. |
We informed Tank that he could've used less alarmist verbiage. He was parked not moving, and not at fault.
A few years ago someone hit the parked minivan. They drove away. We never got the car fixed and I wasn't sure if we should repair this. The car has 144,000 miles on it. It drives great, but it's BYOT (bring your own tunes). Coach wants to get it fixed. While they're at it - figure out the radio, PLEASE. Lad's dealership will do it for a discount: $900.
Anyway, Tank was steamed: Who does this? Learn how to drive.
Reg was in the car and commended Tank for not losing his cool with the girl even though while he was inside the car he slipped into rage mode. I'm thankful no one was walking between the cars. The girl said she thought someone was going to hit her from the front, so she backed up in a hurry. Her mom told me: I SAID, WELL TRADITIONALLY YOU LOOK FIRST.
My kid: The school lot is a dangerous place.
*I was unaware. Now my blood pressure increases at 3:00 pm daily.
We were relieved that the kids drove the minivan that day and not the Kia. The girl's mom said that the girl was mortified because everyone at school knew. Well, yes - it happened in front of half the school, plus I have three word-spreading kids in attendance.
***
At the end of the basketball season, Mini messed up the time for her game. Another player's mom called me. "UM, IS MINI THERE?"
Me: YEAH, WHY.
This mom: The entire team is waiting for Mini at the high school. She's 30 minutes late. *The bus needed to leave.
Me: Tell the bus to drive. We'll get Mini to the away game. *Simultaneously screaming upstairs to 'space-case' that she was about to miss her playoff game.
Tank (walking in after hanging out with Max): Where's Mini? A girl on her team (the one whose mom called me) snapchatted Max to ask him to ask me where the hell Mini was.
Me: Yeah, she almost missed the game. Never looks at her phone. Thought the game was at 7 pm. It was at 2 pm. (Tank: eye roll).
Reg (walking in from somewhere): Um, is Mini at her game? The guard on her team (a freshman) snapchatted me to say that the bus was waiting for her.
If you're a Shenanigan or you know a Shenanigan or you bump the Shenanigan's car, you can run but you can't hide.
14 comments:
Wow, backing up quickly because someone was going to hit her! Yikes! It's like being in my local Co-Op where all the elderly back up without looking, you need to say your prayers before walking through the lot, if you know what I'm saying. Reminds me of when my MIL was telling me about a woman who once drove through the window of her hair salon at fairly high speed and used the excuse "I thought I was in reverse." HOW FAST ARE WE REVERSING. Also, imagine. All those old ladies sitting under the dryers as a car bursts through the window.
Nicole - Exactly. So dangerous. I once drove Eddie to his baseball game. He was little. It was drizzling. Rather than get the toddlers and baby out of the car, I decided to sit in the van for a bit longer and stay dry. A few minutes later, an elderly man accidentally slammed on the gas while in reverse and plowed through the lot and into the adjacent park. My heart stopped. Had I been loading my little guys into the double stroller behind my car, we would've been right in his path. It totally shook me. Fortunately it was still morning and no one was at the park. Could've been really ugly.
I've had that experience when I had to back up stat in order to not be hit by a truck coming at me. I did about the same amount of damage to my car, and the man's car I hit barely got a ding. It's always something when it comes to driving and cars and other people. Stay safe
The high school parking lot at 3pm is horrific. I witnessed it once. I will never go again. I'm in awe that Anna never got into an accident there. They almost need police to direct traffic out of the lot. I'm not even joking. It's ridiculous.
Ally - That's scary. I don't think I would have the presence of mind to back up in that situation. I'd probably freeze. When my kids call me shortly after they've driven away, my heart always stops. They think I'm silly, but things happen. It was a big relief to know that Tank's accident was not major.
“You can run but you can’t hide” haha
My husband was walking out of a store a few weeks ago and watched a lady back into his new truck and drive off. He RAN after her yelling stop, and when she stopped at the end of the row to turn he knocked on her window and finally got her attention. She said she had no idea she hit him so he knew he’d need to get insurance involved because he’d have never heard from her again. She denied to the insurance that she hit him but luckily a couple of people gave him their numbers as witnesses after seeing her drive off so her insurance will be paying to fix it. Anyway, all of that to say, he was like “do you think I can blame the ding in the door on her too??” (A gust of wind got the door and bounced it off of one of those cement things at a gas pump) So your blaming the radio on the fender bender made me laugh extra hard. Can’t wait for the rest of the parking stories!
-AM
Kari - The crazed parking lot was not on my radar until now. Often my kids are staying after for sport practices, but maybe they should do a slow release system. Last names that start with A-M leave at 3. The rest leave at 3:07. Something. Your police idea . . . well, hello foreshadowing to tomorrow's post. Great minds, think alike.
AM - Oh my gosh. How do you not know that you hit a truck? Huh? People. Glad he caught her and also glad witnesses said they saw cray-cray lady hit him. Maybe her radio was functioning and she had the stereo BLARING and didn't hear the crunch? Oh, that crunch. That's the worst sound/feeling. I don't know how someone can drive away. Me? I'd be partially frozen, as in OH SHIT. When I thought about what I was going to write about this week, I was surprised to realize I had a little cluster of parking stories. They get funnier as the week goes by. (In my humble opinion).
THE FUN NEVER ENDS!
Goodness. Thank the lord a kid wasn't hit by the 'quick backer up' girl.
I do recall that Linds said there were many accidents in the parking lot at school and I seem to recall that she might have backed up into someone, but not enough for it to be repaired.
James Taylor rapping? NO THANKS.
What's the deal with sending messages to Snapchat? I had no idea that was a thing....thought you only used it to make yourself into a doggie or bunny? Mini is a funny one; living in her own world I suppose.
Suz - I'm also so relieved that a kid wasn't injured in this incident - or others, since clearly the school lot is a dangerous place. When Mini tried for the school liaison position, that was going to be one of her issues - addressing the lack of safety in the parking lot.
High school kids rarely text. They rely almost completely on snapchat. They send messages. Mini has tried to explain to me: I SLID UP, THEN SHE LEFT ME UNOPENED. Leaving me the confused parent, status quo.
Mini. I love that I have a teen who isn't completely obsessed with her phone - but might be nice to look at it a few times a day. She's an odd duck. Funny as hell, but so often out of the loop.
Sigh. I'm sure glad everyone is ok, that's the most important thing, but what a mess. I never let any of my kids drive to school just for that reason. I worked at a high school most of my life and saw what a disaster it was!
By the way, I live in Nokomis, right around the corner from the golf course. It really is a small world! :)
Martha - Yes, so glad no one was hurt. When I found out it was a sister of one of Mini's good friends, I had to laugh. What were the chances that this would NOT have been a friend of one of my kids?
That is so crazy. My in-laws are religious zealots and oh how I wish they were easier to tolerate, because we would've visited more often. There were always lots of strings attached to our visits. They were so ticked a few years ago that we drove down and rented a house for spring break after they'd moved away. Um, figure it out.
A girl backed into Peter in the school parking lot a couple of months ago. Luckily she was going pretty slow and the damage was minimal and we just left the tiny dent in the truck. And YES! The school parking lot is very dangerous! I'm glad no one was hurt.
Beth - Backing up slow is certainly the preferred way to do it. I was torn, should we just add the minivan to the fleet of teen cars (that we are eventually sure to own at one point, instead of the one teen car we currently own) and not bother fixing it? Coach vetoed that . . . it's going to be another interesting summer with 6 drivers and 4 cars. I think Ed will just caddy this summer vs use a car to go to an internship, so that should help.
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