Wednesday, August 30, 2006

today's phenomenon

I’ve always thought I have some weird electromagnetic field going because I used to stop at intersections at night and the street lights near me would go out all the time. It was freaky. I also have some sort of bizarre effect on cars where the air conditioners don’t want to run cold when I am at the wheel. Then there is the power window that will go down but not up unless it is near 90 degrees and sunny. Oh yeah, we can't forget back when the TV used to randomly turn off or on over the course of about a year, like someone was outside with a remote. Now that was electromagnetic weirdness.

But today was ridiculous. On top of all the usual stuff which I have adjusted to, I got in the car to pull out of my driveway and I thought I heard the trunk pop open randomly. At first I figured it was my imagination because I knew I hadn’t pushed the button on the key ring. Yet I was pretty sure I heard a sound that only a trunk popper makes, so I got out to check. Sure enough, it was open. I slammed it back down and drove on wondering a faint sort of wonder about it. I got to PGA and Military and while I was sitting at the light “clunk!” the trunk popped up again like my electromagnetism was back on the loose. I tilted my head like a perplexed dog. I could have yelled out loud about it too because frankly I'm prone to talking out loud while I drive. It seems to quell bad drivers if I talk them down from their erratic driving as they enter my field of vision. Of course they never hear me, I just annoy my passengers. But this trunk popping just weirded me out. My hand had definitely been no where near the trunk button this time; the keys were there dangling in the ignition quietly on their own. There I was, in the front of the line of traffic and I had to get out while at the light, run to the back of my car to slam the thing down. I couldn’t take a chance that it might pop all the way up while I was driving and have all that junk in there flying around for other drivers to see. Yes, Heaven knows I need to clean it out and have needed to for about 15 years. How embarrassing it suddenly seemed. Usually a trunk is a great place to use as a holding tank. Of course, that was when trunk lids stayed shut until opened on purpose. I still think it’s a great storage space for the most part, except during weekly trips to the grocery store when I pop the trunk to put the groceries in and there before the bag boy’s eyes I have to exclaim in feigned amazement... like where did all this come from and why didn’t those kids of mine remember to take all this stuff out... like it’s some bizarre anomaly outside of my normal realm.

So then today, after a full day of work, I got in my car to come home, and “clunk” it popped AGAIN while driving in mad traffic. Do you know what this does to a person’s level of control when at the wheel? I’m high strung enough, do I really need a random popping-trunk phenomenon to deal with? It put me so on edge. I think the fact that it popped again, and this time in the evening, rules out any Candid Camera stuff. Who’d want to wait around all day following me just to pop it on me again? It was just another in a wide range of true flukes that grace my life, my crazy electromagnetic life. Could it have something to do with the barometric pressure from the storm? Have trunks been popping all over South Florida and I just haven’t heard about it yet? Well, if it suddenly becomes all the rage, just remember you heard it here first.