Prior to going on this second vacation of the summer I had a chore to do. When my mother moved away and left me, she forgot something. Nearly one and a half years ago. We got all the way to her new house. We unpacked the truck. We began unpacking some boxes and she looked at me and said, “Where is the swing?” The swing would be the free standing porch swing. She found the cushions but none of the frame. So we began thinking…and thinking…and thinking.
We finally realized that it was in her friend’s garage where it had been stored since she sold her house. We had gone to the garage to get my mom’s things but it was tucked back into a corner and we all missed it. But we did not panic about it. I would just go get it and store it in my new storage at my new apartment and when I moved I would bring it with me.
Only I didn’t move. So it sat in her friend’s garage (I meant to get it but then her garage door stopped working and then we just decided to leave it).
As I was preparing for this vacation up to my mom’s house she asked if it was possible for me to bring it with me. Big, long, heavy pieces of metal. Oh sure. I could try.
I don’t have a roof rack. I almost bought a car with a roof rack. My second car choice had one. But the one I picked (standard transmission won out over the sun roof and roof rack…go figure), did not. But I did not give up. I searched the internet. Way too much information for me to figure out on short term basis. I searched Craigslist. I found exactly what I needed but the person selling it refused to answer my email (I did seriously consider emailing them every hour until they responded or took down their ad but I decided to be mature about it and just leave them alone).
Then on tax free weekend (even though this purchase did not qualify to be tax free) I found one for $30. Nothing special. Really. Just the basic. So I bought it and made the arrangements to get the porch swing.
The night before I was due to get the porch swing I attempted to put the roof rack together and install it on my car. I say “attempted” because I was ultimately not successful. First, I was missing a part. A kind of important part. A screw. That connects the bar to the mount that is then secured to the car. But I decided not to panic over that. One bar could not be installed (as is) but the other one could. Again, I was not successful. Every time I opened the door, the straps would pop off. But again I refused to panic.
The next day I went to the hardware (do it yourself) store on my way to the garage. I bought a replacement nut and bolt, some rope, and a ton of bungees. This was going to work. Really.
At the garage, Ladybug danced around in front of the neighbors window, amusing the dogs and annoying me, while friend and I sweated our butts off (if only that were true) trying to get this put together. Luckily, my obsessive meticulous mother had tied together a good portion of the porch pieces. We used every bungee. We used all the rope. We tugged and pulled. We wove under. We wove through. We wove over. We made a mess for whoever was going to be taking this thing off my car. We stood back and admired the obstacle course we created. Then I gave one last tug on the bar to make sure it was all secure.
The entire system popped off the roof.
No joke.
So we took it all off and came up with a new plan.
This time it worked. It did require me to have bungees strapped to the porch swing pieces and then threaded inside the car and wrapped around the “oh shit” handles – you know, the handles I hold onto for dear life whenever I am in a car with my father driving.
I gave it a little tug. Nothing happened. I gave it a slightly bigger tugged. The car rocked a little but nothing popped off.
I drove around town like that for a couple of days checking and checking. Everything was secure. I was ready for the trip. I just needed to hope for no rain. Because if it rained, the bungees would get soaked and it would start dripping on the inside of the car.
Mean Mama
No comments:
Post a Comment