Took Mom X to the auto-body shop today: they took her neck brace off a few weeks back and pronounced her broken neck healed, adding, "Drive when you feel you're ready."
She was heap ready on Monday and went out on a long. complicated set of errands; got about half of them done and stopped at a drive-through for a cool, refreshing soft drink (or a milkshake. She loves 'em. Who says the fun ever stops?). The place is known to have some nasty tight turns and Mom hung up her 19[redacted] Fricken Boatmobile-Superba on the curb, then attempted to bull on through, resulting in minor paint removal to a Hardy-McKingFC lamppost and serious front and rear door smashage plus a side-mirrorectomy on the driver's side of the car, all at 5 mph or less.
She's none too happy about this, but after a couple months of not driving, in a huge car, navigating a fast-feeder set up for Minis, Fiat 500s and Yarii, I doubt I'd've done much better.
Anyway, I drove the thing up to the body shop with Mom navigating, got the estimate (!!!), stopped off at a different fast-feeder for forage (no names, please -- let's just say they sell well-cooked Roast Beef), took Mom home, and drove my car back to Roseholme Cottage where I shortly learned I'd arrived barely in time to avoid ruining my jeans. ($40 Carhartt Double-Fronts, painful to replace.)
See, right there are two good reasons why I rarely* do the drive-through thing: they'll tear up your car and/or your innards.
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* Rally's, of all places, sells a nice old-fashioned ice cream cone that occasionally calls out to me irresistibly -- I'd stop up my ears and have the crew lash me to the mast 'til we were safely past but the cats don't drive well.
I've scuffed a sidewall or three using drive throughs with my pickemup truck. Just. Don't. Fit.
ReplyDeleteNowadays since I can't eat 'em, I sure remember with fondness Peanut Buster Parfaits at DQ, ice cream bastion of the Midwest!
Since we got a DQ here in Upper New York now, the only Midwest foodery I still miss is Rally's. But yeah, they need to do a better job of dredging the channel if you're going to sail a Continental-class land yacht through most drive-throughs.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Yukons don't fit either... Which tends to STOP me from going through them... Good for the diet though!
ReplyDeleteThere's been more than once I've hit Rally's when I wasn't even hungry, just because I was driving by. And I b'lieve I've navigated a `77 Olds Delta 88 through the drive through sans incident, but that was when I was young and spry.
ReplyDeleteNo good deed goes unpunished.
ReplyDeleteWhen my mom started bouncing off things in the Nimitz class station wagon that my late father had loved, we had a family meeting.
ReplyDeleteMe: Let's get her something smaller that she can handle.
Smart Brother: I think we should keep as much steel and iron around her as possible.
Smart-ass Sister: Yea, maybe you can rig some old tires on the outside like a tug boat.
Gerry
I feel your pain.
ReplyDeleteI can't eat at KFC anymore unless I either stay there for the results, or drive immediately home.
Gewher98, avoid anything Sonic then; they mostly don't have restrooms.
ReplyDeleteDon't ask me how I know this...
Takes practice and patience.
ReplyDeleteI've driven a 21 foot long-bed pickup through drive-throughs ... and sometimes you need to back and fill a bit.
It's a hell of a lot easier in the Corolla.