Why I Carry Duct Tape in My Car

It was the quintessential good day / bad day.

I was minding my own business Wednesday morning, driving to gigs in Ashland, a very agreeable sort of drive when accompanied by a tasty audiobook.  Well, agreeable barring the fact I had to load myself into my car and be gone from bed and home by 5:00 a.m.

And then, an hour into the two hour trip, just before the sun started nudging the dark away, bad news.  A ladder appeared on the highway, dodging back and forth across all the lanes in the most flippant sort of way.

Ah!  Potentilally good news.  For once I was NOT passing, and I was not bumper hugging.  I was safely in the right lane, back far enough to see the car ahead of me swerve away from the errant ladder.  Back far enough to see that the car probably nicked the ladder, because it leaped up behind that car and over into my lane.  I headed for the shoulder just as the ladder landed in front of me.

Bad news.  I hit it.  I expected to come to screeching halt with ladder stuck under my carriage.

Good news.  I didn't hit it head on, and my sweet car kept on trucking.

Bad news.  Shortly thereafter I heard clunkings and scratchings and whooshings.

I took the next exit (I had no intention of stopping in the dark on the highway with other cars whizzing by).  There I discovered the ladder had breakfasted on one of my lights, and several pieces of my bumper were flopping about, hugging my tire.

What to do, what to do.  I had bungie cords in my car, for tying storytelling prop bags onto my  rolling cart.  I used one to hook from the sturdy part of the bumper around the dangling parts, and it all pulled together quite splendidly away from the tire.

Back on the expressway, it took maybe 30 seconds before I heard all those naughty noises again.  Back off the expressway I discovered I was now missing one bungie cord.

What to do, what to do.  Ah.  I carry duct tape with my sound system!  One never knows when one will need duct tape!  And my duct tape was the perfect blue to match my sweet car.

Minutes later I was back on the road, and made it to my gigs early. 

And all four shows were fun.  And my wonderful librarian hostess procured an extra special luncheon.

Back home now, Travellers Insurance has already made a house call; next week my car will have a two day hospital visit.  And I have added duct tape onto my grocery list.  Blue, of course.  Not that I will EVER have to use it on my car again, you understand.  Just because I simply must have  an array of colors always available, because you never know when you'll need it in order to turn bad news into good news.

 And that is today's . . .