Short Circuit

Friday, May 2, 2008

To add to an already harrowing week, last night my car shorted out. And of course, Ninja was involved.

We were on our way back from DS' baseball practice. Since it was a cool evening and there wouldn't be a lot of time waiting in the car, I let the puppy tag along. Aussies are such devoted dogs that they would go with you everywhere if you let them. It's sweet, but it's sad when it's hot and you know it's not safe to take him, and you hear him yelping at the door, as if he is really in pain to have been left behind.

I find that it cuts down on my destroyed shoes considerably to let the pup come along. He rarely tears up anything in the car, but when left at home he'll drag stuff down from the kids' room and shred it, get into my closet and take my shoes, find a skein of yarn and pull it apart. . . you get the idea.

So on the way back DS was munching on chicken strips. Ninja wanted one. Ninja had eaten two already, but that wouldn't stop him from wanting another. Ninja climbed up on the center arm rest and begged. DS commanded him in a firm voice, "Back seat, Ninja!" which normally would have worked, but he made the fatal mistake of waving his hand to the back seat with a piece of chicken in it.

Instead of getting in back, the pup jumped forward to grab the chicken. . . and knocked my iced tea over into my center console. At the same time his paw came down on the passenger window power button. The window went down and stopped. It would not go up. Neither would the drivers' side window. In fact, most of the buttons on the center console don't work now. Not the power windows. Not the power mirrors. Yet the power sunroof and the sunshade in the rear window work fine.

The windows are even now stuck rolled down. When I got home I armed the car and went inside. DH was out for the evening. I went back to open the trunk later to get a bag out of it and the key now had no effect on the car except putting the alarm into panic mode, and it just keep going. It was a fun evening. The car is now parked in the garage waiting for DH to look at it.

Is this Ninja's fault? No, not really. But was he involved? Well, of course. So much for my week calming down. I'm just thankful that tomorrow is another day, and hopefully things will start going right!