Thursday, October 2, 2008

It's Things Like This That Keep Me From Reading

I took myself to Taco Bell the other day, knowing that I would get my three crunchy tacos and big drink and park my car at the end of the parking lot and read my new mystery book by Monica Ferris called "Sins and Needles." I'd been waiting for that book for a week. I'd ordered it through the Inter-Library Loan System and it had finally come in.
So...there I was, eating and reading. Just as happy as could be. I looked up as I took a bite and saw a man at the nearby service station, trying to open a window on the driver's side of a white Jeep. He had a flat metal bar stuck in the window. Right away I knew someone had locked their car keys inside. Sure enough, a little lady in a gold T-shirt and black skirt walked up to the man. Together, they looked inside the Jeep, and then he went back to using his metal bar. And I went back to reading.
In a couple of minutes, my curiosity got the best of me and I looked at the man again. This time he had moved to the back of the car and with a screwdriver was prying the back window out of the Jeep. It was one of those vehicles with a tailgate and window that opens into the "up" position. I watched until he had the glass out and had carefully propped it against the side of the car. Good, I thought, now he can crawl in. I went back to reading.
The next time I looked up, the man had taken a long metal pole (the one that you see men use to dip into the underground gasoline tank) and was poking it through where the back window had been. He poked it all the way over the back seat and past the front seat, but all that poking did not unlock the driver's door. I watched him poke until I got tired and went back to reading.
I actually read for about five minutes and then absentmindedly looked over at the man as I took another bite of taco. By this time there was a medium-size tool box on the ground beside the Jeep, as well as a fishing rod and reel. He was lifting the car jack out the back window's opening. Apparently, he couldn't get the tailgate down. Then he took out the spare tire. After that, he tried to pull out of the window opening a red-handled thing shaped like a large upside down "U" with a cord wrapped around it. I never figured out what that was. Finally I got tired of watching and went back to
reading.
When I looked up in a little while, the man had crawled into the back of the Jeep (the red-handled thing was still inside!) and was stretched on his stomach over the back seat as he reached over the front seat and attempted to open the driver's door. I think he made it.
I watched as he crawled backwards, with great difficulty, until he had all of himself out of the Jeep except for his left leg, which was hung inside the tailgate. Realizing his leg was not going to come out of the Jeep, the man climbed up onto the back bumper and with both hands pulled his leg, with great difficulty, over the tailgate until his foot was on the bumper with the other one, and then he stepped down to the ground. I was greatly relieved! I was afraid he would fall to the ground on his you-know-what!
As you can see, I just gave up reading. I watched the man open the tailgate (why didn't he do that before he climbed out?), pull the back window frame down and put the glass in with his screwdriver. He checked it thoroughly before he raised it back up. Then he began putting everything back inside the Jeep -- the spare tire, the jack, fishing rod and reel, and the tool box.
I had eaten my lunch, but I didn't get much reading done.
It's things like this that keep me from reading. And I have to admit, this one was just too great to miss!

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