My husband traded away his gift at the office Christmas party for a set of reindeer antlers and big red nose to put on my car. I had remarked that I thought they were funny and so, he passed on the other silly presents to get them for me. And, of course, I happily put them on my green Saturn Vue and thought myself pretty cool.
Well, they did look cute. The red velvet stuffed nose fit on the grill and the antlers (brown velour with bells!) clipped onto the top of the car windows, which roll up to hold them on. That’s where the trouble began. The next day I went to the post office and without thinking rolled down the window to put the mail in the box. Down fell the antler. I couldn’t open the door to get it or back up because another car was waiting. My daughter had to get out, go around the car and rescue the poor antler. That’s one.
The next time, I was leaving the driveway and wanted to say something to my husband, who was raking leaves. Down went the window and, you guessed it, off came the antler. That’s two.
Those were relatively easy, right? Well, the next time, my son and I were coming from Target on Forest Hill Avenue. We got on Chippenham Parkway at 45 miles an hour, my mouth going about 48. “Whew, it’s really warm,” I said, and without giving it a single thought, rolled the window down about four inches. Not 10 feet later, the poor antler flew off the window landing almost dead center on the parkway. That’s three.
You might think that was the end of the antler, but no. My intrepid son, swifter than an eagle, waited for the traffic to pass–traffic that miraculously missed crushing the poor antler–and darted out into the road and retrieved it in a move that would make an Olympic relay racer proud.
Yes, I am a slow learner as my husband remarked. But, I did learn. I finally put the antlers on the backseat windows. Ahhh. And there they stayed until New Year’s Day. Hope I remember that next year.
