Everyone has, has had, or will have one of those neighbors. You know who I mean- the guy that seems to have an itchy “panic button” finger. The guy whose car alarm goes off at least once a week, usually between midnight and 4:30am.

Yeah, that guy.

So, last night I was visiting with some friends, and I left just a little late. Pretty much midnight on the dot. And my friend’s house is just outside of town- far enough out to be a pretty nice neighborhood, but close enough that a paranoid person like me prefers to not be alone as she gets into her car. Granted, there was NO ONE out there, but, to be on the safe side, I thought I’d be all clever and hit the lock button on my key as soon as I got into the van instead of fumbling around for the lock button on the door. It worked, and I was very proud of myself.

Until I tried to start the engine. Oh yeah, it was loud, and it wouldn’t stop. You see, my husband always referred to hitting the lock button as locking the doors, and hitting it the second time as “setting the alarm”. And that made sense to me, because I always heard the locks click on the first button push, and the horn honks once on the second.

But apparently, they’re both alarm setters. And my natural response was to hit the “lock” button repeatedly, trying to make it stop.

It didn’t work.

I did eventually figure out that hitting the “unlock” button works. And I immediately pulled away before any of her neighbors could make it to their windows to see who was making all of that noise. (My apologies, Deb, to you and your neighbors.)

Of course, that didn’t end the story. Of course not! My friend lives very close to one of those mini-marts. A mini-mart that I had to pass to get home. So, after I managed to get turned around into the direction that I wanted to go, a cop pulled out of that mini-mart and followed me half way home. He never did pull me over, but it’s incredibly nerve wracking having a cop follow you through exclusively 25MPH zones. (Seriously, can anyone go 25MPH without riding their brakes?) Especially when you’ve just set off your own vehicle’s car alarm, close enough to where the cop had been sitting that it’s likely the reason why the cop is following you home. Eep!

On the bright side, I do know now that my alarm works!