A couple months ago I stopped at HEB on the way home from work to get groceries for dinner. I made my purchases and loaded the truck. I stuck my key in the ignition and pushed the clutch down with my left foot. At that point I plugged my iPod into the tape adapter and started scrolling through my playlists to find some good driving tunes for the last leg of my commute home.
Still scrolling through playslist I was jarred forward and was startled by a loud boom that reverberated through the truck’s frame. I had no idea what had just happened as the truck wasn’t running and I hadn’t moved. I glanced up and looked in the rear view mirror, thinking that someone hit me from behind. Nothing behind me. Then I looked through the windshield to find that I had rolled four feet forward and hit the parked truck in front of me. I guess my subconcious convinced my appendages that it was necessary to hold in the truck’s clutch in order to operate an iPod.
“Uh… oops!”
I laughed at myself, started the truck and backed up so the two vehicles were no longer kissing and so I could assess any damages. I didn’t get out of my truck. Instead I leaned forward and took a good gaze at the old truck in front of me. The truck I tapped had obviously been around the block a few times and it didn’t look like my little mistake added any damage.
It was then that I saw a lady sitting in her car parked to the right of the truck I hit. She had to have seen what had just happened because our eyes briefly met. So I decided to do the right thing. I made it obvious that I was pulling out a pen and piece of paper. With exaggerated motions I began to write my note and keep a spying eye on my witness. I think she wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing. Once she saw that I was in the process of writing a note to leave on the window, she backed out and started driving away. I watched as my witness turned onto the highway and drove off.
I looked down at my note.
| Note to self: Next time put your other foot on the brake. |