I’ve only had these horns for a couple weeks, and already have a couple stories.
- Last Tuesday, I was driving home from work, after picking up my stepmom from her job (she’s an x-ray tech at a skin clinic). We carpool, and we switch drivers and vehicles once a week. Soon after pulling out of the entrance way to her workplace’s parking lot, we saw a red car on the opposite shoulder of the divided highway, with people standing around. Something had happened, although we couldn’t really see any damage to the vehicle.
We pulled into the left turning lane at the next intersection (which was maybe an eighth of a mile later), and we saw a white car, stopped, with pieces of plastic scattered in front of it. Instead of a solid line dividing the turning lane from the other lanes, there is a striped area wide enough for a car to fit, and this white car was stopped in this space. It had obviously had a head-on collision with something, but the other vehicle was missing. We guessed the red car we had seen earlier was the other vehicle.
There were two guys–one leaning on the car, and the other standing in the middle of the turning lane, taking pictures of the car. The light was green, and the oncoming traffic had cleared. But the guy taking the pictures didn’t move, and we had places to be. I didn’t really want to give him the full IQ-regeneration treatment (he was more than likely involved in the car accident), so I just gave the smallest tap on my horn switch.
Both guys jumped up, and the guy taking pictures landed out of my way. My stepmom also jumped in the passenger seat, and I’m pretty sure the woman driving the minivan behind me also jumped (my horn is aimed in her direction, after all). We continued on our way home, with no more trouble.
- Last Friday night, I went to see a movie with my parents. After we got out, we went to a restaurant. My sister decided to meet us there. I was on my car because I had gotten off work soon before meeting my parents at the theater. My sister called me and told me to go to this other restaurant instead, and our parents would meet us there.
I pulled into the parking lot of this restaurant, and drove around the back of the place because the lot in front was filled up. On the other side, there is a place where you can parallel-park your vehicle against the building. And my sister’s car was parked in one of these slots. So, I parked behind her. Me and my sister both get out, and we’re greeting each other, when I use my key fob to lock my car.
You ever have that problem where you get something and don’t use it for a while, so you forget you have it? Well, I’m so used to locking my car that I press the lock button twice–once to lock the doors, and again to arm the security (I assume that’s what it’s doing when it beeps the horn and flashes the lights).
I didn’t jump because I’m kinda used to the sound, but I did cringe a little. At least there weren’t any more people in the lot. My sister, who didn’t know about the horn, jumped like 3 feet into the air. When she was done playing spastic rabbit, she asked me what that was, and I smiled and told her “It’s my horn”. I then immediately believed that that’s the greatest pick-up line ever (although diluted a bit when using it on my sister), and started making plans on using it on other women. Back in reality, my sister says “I thought that was a semi behind the trees!”
Had some excellent fried shrimp soon afterwards…
I guess I should invest in some dashcam recording equipment or something?
