Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Antenna Saga

The day after Thanksgiving last year, I had a family photo shoot for someone that my husband works with. We were going up the canyon to get pictures of them in the snow. (For a family that is from California, this was going to be pretty cool) We decided that since my husband knew the family he would take the kids sledding while I took pictures. It had been snowing there all night and there was about a foot and a half of fresh powder to play in. It was a fun photo shoot, but everyone was tired, wet and cold by the end of the afternoon. It was starting to snow too. We started packing up our gear in the jeep and getting the snow clothes off of the kids. In the few minutes that it took to get little dude undressed and in his car seat, my little princess climbed into the front seat and locked the door right after we had closed it. This was not good since the keys were sitting in the cup holder so they wouldn't get lost in the snow.
Do you ever have moments in your life where time really does stand still and you think to yourself, that really didn't just happen? Then it hits you like a ton of bricks that your kids are now locked in the car by themselves. While you are standing out in the cold, up a canyon, it is getting dark, and starting to snow pretty dang hard. What a moment! We kept trying to get her to unlock the doors, but she didn't understand. Every time we would yell through the window to "push up" she would laugh and wave like it was some sort of game. We tried everything to get into the car. There really wasn't many people in the canyon at this point because no one is crazy enough in Utah to hang out in a small canyon when it is snowing pretty hard and getting dark. The family that I had just taken their pictures did stay and try to help, but we were still clueless as to what to do. About an hour or more after endless tries, someone had the idea to take the antenna off of the jeep and see if we could pry the door open enough to get it in there and unlock the door. It sounded like a good idea so we found a tool, and went for it. I think that after a half an hour and very close to a nervous break down I said something to my husband that went something like "If we can't get the blankety-blank thing open soon, we are going to call the police to get our kids out of there." About five minutes after saying that about 3 cops show up and right as they were pulling up "CLICK" the door came unlocked! What a blessing! As we were leaving we actually saw about 7 cops coming up the canyon. I still have no idea how they knew that we were up there, or who called, but Utah doesn't take the safety of kids lightly.
Since that day we have been driving around with a VERY bent antenna on our jeep. Every time I see it I think that it is totally funny because I can picture this innocent face smiling and waving through the window and laughing that mommy and daddy were locked out.
The saga of our antenna isn't over yet though. A few weeks ago we were in a drive through car wash, and the spinner thing got caught on the antenna (which before then has been bent back a little so it didn't look too bad). It pulled up the fender and bent the antenna even more before the car wash stopped. We got out and couldn't believe that had just happened. We made a complaint with the place that we were at. They said that they will have to look into it and get back with us because the sign says that no jeeps are allowed in the car wash and that you are supposed to take off your antenna before going in. WHAT THE...! This didn't make me very happy to hear, it sounds ridiculous. Well the did get back to us and said they might fix it and to get some estimates on how much it will cost them to fix it. So we did that. It is going to cost over $500.00 to fix! Crazy huh!?
Good thing that the whole car wash thing happened. If I had to pay for a new antenna on my own I would have to kill my little princess instead of laugh every time I think about her locking us out.

1 comment:

Becca G said...

Doh Doh the kid from outer space!
Doh Doh can go go any place,
with antennas on his ears, propellers on his heels.
He's a science fiction pixie from a strange atomic place!
Doh Doh- the kid from outer space!
Doh Doh!