Let me answer my own question very clearly, very honestly, and with zero drama (okay, maybe a little drama).
A DISASTER. 😄
From the first day my husband and I bought our car, it somehow became my responsibility. Why? I still don’t know. Maybe because I drive it more. Maybe because I said once, “Yes, yes, I’ll handle it.” Biggest mistake of my adult life.
Apparently, in our house, a car is just for driving from point A to point B. That’s it. You sit. You drive. You park. End of story.
But excuse me…
Does the car change its own oil?
Does it check its brakes at night while we sleep?
Does it magically switch from winter tires to summer tires because it feels the temperature rising?
No. Unfortunately, we are not living in 2050 yet.
Although imagine how beautiful that would be. The car sends you a message:
“Hey girl. Time for service. Please don’t make plans today. I’m driving myself to the workshop. Stay home. Drink coffee. Relax. I’ll be back soon.”
Perfect world.
Anyway. One day I decided to be a responsible adult. I thought, “Hmm… maybe I should check if everything is okay with the car.” (Yes, sometimes I surprise myself.) So I drove it to the workshop on Wednesday. They told me it would be ready on Friday. No problem. My brother gave me his car for two days. Easy solution.
Thursday evening, it started snowing. Just a little bit. Romantic snow. Cute snow. Instagram snow. I didn’t worry.
5:15 a.m. on Friday, my coworker calls me. I was so angry. Who calls at 5:15 when I’m sleeping?! She tells me there was an accident and they are standing on the road, not moving.
“Okay,” I say. “You’ll be a few minutes late.”
I go back to sleep. Big mistake.
At 6 a.m. I wake up for work. I’m already late, so I don’t even look outside the window. I just get dressed and go out.
And then I see it.
Snow. Everywhere. Not cute snow. Not romantic snow. Apocalypse snow.
It was snowing like crazy. Roads were not cleaned. And I have to drive down a hill. Of course I do. Why would my life be easy?
My brother’s car? Completely covered in heavy, wet snow. At least 10 centimeters.
I look for a snow brush inside the car. Nothing. I look again. Nothing.
The only thing I find? A cardboard box.
So there I am. At 6:20 in the morning. Cleaning a car with a cardboard box like I’m in some survival reality show: “Woman vs. Winter.” The snow was heavy, wet, freezing. My hands were dying. But I did it.
I arrived at work. Chaos. Half of the team was missing. Highways were closed. Accidents everywhere. Every 10 minutes new bad news. People stuck for hours.
Then suddenly...loud emergency alarm on every phone. The whole building starts beeping. Residents come out of their rooms, scared, asking what is happening. (I work in Austria with people who lived through World War II. That alarm sound is not a nice memory for them.)
We had to calm everyone down. “It’s only because of the weather! It’s just snow!”
My coworker arrived FOUR hours late. Normally she needs one hour. She said she could barely see through the windshield because it was snowing so heavily. Others came five hours late.
It was madness. Half of Graz had no electricity. Roads closed. Highway blocked. I have never seen so much snow in one day this whole winter.
And then I remembered.
After work, I need to drive to Slovenia to pick up my car.
HOW exactly, if the highway is closed? No chance. I’m not crazy.
Around 5 p.m., my mechanic calls. His first words: “GIRL. Who is taking care of this car?”
Silence.
“Do you know your tires have no profile left? You’ve been driving with these M+S tires for two years. You have new summer tires at home! Why didn’t you change them? You could have died today in this snow!”
I felt my soul leave my body.
Was it intuition that I took the car to the workshop two days before? Or just pure, unbelievable luck?
Of course, the mechanic is a friend of my father. So five minutes later my dad calls me, almost screaming: “Are you crazy? Why didn’t you change the tires? You are so lucky you drove your brother’s car!”
Me: “Yes, dad…”
Dad: “You said last year you will take better care of the car!”
Me: “I was waiting for my husband to start taking care of it…”
Because usually, men take better care of cars than women, right?
Well… not in my house. In our house, the woman drives. The woman forgets to change tires. The woman almost creates a disaster.
When I told my husband that we need to pay more than 1000 euros for new tires, brakes, and other things I didn’t even understand, his reaction?
“Oh. Okay.”
That’s it. Calm. Relaxed. No stress.
Meanwhile I’m having an emotional breakdown about tires.
So yes. Lesson learned. From now on, I will change tires on time. Summer tires in summer. Winter tires in winter. Revolutionary idea.
And tell me honestly…
Are there really many men who leave car care to women?
Or am I just a special case? 😉
