Wanting to end the New Year on the right foot, I went to the gym around 8 this morning with Brady. I left the gym just before 9, and I walked out to my car and and strapped Brady in his carseat. I shut the door, walked around to the driver's side, and realized the car had somehow locked...and the keys were sitting right next to Brady.
This is not the beginning of the day and end of the year I was anticipating.
Since my phone was also locked securely in my car, I flagged down a man who was walking to his car and asked to use his phone. He handed it to me and of course, it was completely dead. He said I could sit in the passenger seat while he plugged it in to the car charger and I was trying to be very patient as the phone booted up, but I spotted another person in the parking lot and thankfully, his phone worked.
Eric was at work, but I knew he didn't have a spare key. He'd have to drive 15 minutes home, then 10 minutes to the gym, so instead I called 911, thinking they could quickly come jimmy the door open.
Depending on Durham PD was my first mistake.
I called 911, explained the situation and they said they'd send someone right out. After about 10 minutes, a firetruck turned into the shopping center. It stopped a few shops down and I thought they were confused. Nope, just 3 firefighters wanting to make a morning breakfast run to Hardees. Hey, don't worry about the toddler locked in the car...we'll be just fine.
I used another stranger's phone, called 911 again to see if they were planning on waiting until 2013 to send help, and as I did, a cruiser pulled up...a leisurely 15 minutes after I called.
I falsely assumed that since the 911 operator didn't tell me any differently, that the policeman would actually be able to do something for me. Fun fact of the day: police are no longer allowed to carry Slim Jims. He said he could call the lock people but he wasn't sure how long that would take. So he did, and apparently they were busy this morning, because it was going to be an hour. It would have been great if I could have had some of this information about 15 minutes ago when I called 911 in the first place.
Ok, next option. Break a window...or have Eric go home and get me a key. Brady had already been in the car for a while and my rational mind had to remind myself that he was safe and there was no need to go smashing car windows. I called Eric on the policeman's cell phone (which, FYI, the police department does not pay for) and he went home to fetch the spare key.
The policeman informed me that I was handling this much better than most mothers. This may have been aided by the fact that Brady was happy as a clam sitting in his car seat. And I knew that although it was chilly in the car, he was warmer in the car than I was outside. Standing outside for 50 minutes in my thin capri tights was not my idea of a good time, but Brady was dressed better than I was.
After about 40 minutes in the car, Brady was sucking his thumb and twirling his hair and I saw his eyes get heavy. Sure enough, he managed to put himself to sleep for his morning nap (which is still going on as I type this). Brady has a way of making dumb things I do easier on me by being awesome.
Eric arrived to save the day and rushed back to work as I pumped the heat and drove Brady home.
Perhaps a fitting end to 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment