The Average Gal VS The Ginger Ale

I came home with bags of groceries after work tonight and opened the fridge to start putting stuff away ....ACK yup needs a clean out.  I pull out old stuff and gave it a quick wipe, the whole time eye-balling and semi ignoring the 3 large glass bottles of homemade Ginger Ale. 
"I really should pour those out" I said to Padmé who was poking her nose into the bags of food.

*side note - I made this ginger ale last summer, it was supposed to be fizzy after 3 days.  When I tried it after 3 days then 7 days later, no dice.  I left them in fridge thinking I could still use the mixture somewhere as even though it wasn't fizzy it WAS rather tasty. *

I pulled the three bottles out placed them on the counter and popped open one.  SWEET MOTHER OF PEARL it was like that Geyser at Yellowstone National Park.  It was like someone took a bottle of champagne, shook it for a millennium and then handed it to me laughing like a jack ass.... Padmé RAN for her LIFE! I stood paralised... what was happening .. WHY was this happening... the stuff was flat!  It took mere seconds for the entire bottle (minus a small amount) to spray up and around my kitchen.  Most of the 1.5 litres was now running down my counter top on to my tile floor, splashed up above on my cabinets, microwave dripping, the fridge across from the counter, dripping... OHHHH NOOOOEEEESSSS!

I pulled every tea towel I own (which is an amazing amount, I have come to the realisation this evening) out and started to mop it all up.  My socks - soaked through, my pants, splattered and wet... my dog... no where to be found (heart of lion Padmé has).  Her food soaked through and mushy, water bowl, topped up.  What a flippin mess!

After wiping it all up, I was left with a nasty sticky mess, so I have had to also wash all my floors, all my cabinets, my microwave, fridge and counter tops.

Lessons learned:

1. 1.5 litres can cover A HUGE area, when sprayed
2. Flat homemade ginger ale will eventually fiz up if you leave it long enough
3. my awesome video game reflexes has diminished in my old age
4. Padmé is afraid of flying ginger ale and piles of wet floor mats and tea towels..
5. Swiffer wet works well on sticky ginger ale floors

*sigh*

I'm exhausted, I think I will have a strong cup of tea and maybe a biscuit.

The Average Gal vs the Brake Lights

So earlier this week, as I was stopped at a light, a guy pulled up next to me and motioned for me to roll down my window.  I hesitated, since I potentially could have cut him off earlier with my assertive driving, but he didn't look mad, so I rolled my window down.

"Check your brake lights!' he shouted at me ... Caught off guard, I shouted back 'errr hu?' by this time traffic was moving and he should have been long gone.  "CHECK YOUR BRAKE LIGHTS' he bellowed, with the car behind him laying on the horn, he gave the driver behind him the bird and took off. 

Hmmm I thought, I guess I should check my brake lights... I drove home and TOTALLY FORGOT cause I was tired and not really thinking about it.

The next morning as I backed out of my parking spot, and hit my brakes, I could see the red of my brakes and thought, oh yeah check my brakes... but I see red.. they must be okay.  Maybe the lights are just dirty and with the sun, the guy couldn't see them right.

Couple of days passed, and last night driving home from picking up my weekly comics, there was this huge truck behind me.  One of those ones jacked up 50 feet high, that looks kinda stupid, the kind you joke about that they are making up for lacking in other areas of their life *cough* you know what I mean. 

I popped into my local grocery store for some milk, and this mass of man comes in, that I realise quickly is the driver of said massive truck and he very politely says to me ''scuse me" I turned to him and he smiled and said 'sorry, but your brake lights are out" ... "all of them?" I asked.  "No, the main 2, the centre one in the hatch-window is working"  "Oh thanks very much" I said, feeling firstly stupid about not realising the red light was the middle light I noticed, and 2 judging the polite and kind young man for chasing me down to tell me.

So, how long had both my lights been out?  I shudder to think, hopefully not much longer then the first warning I got.  It also, made me think, wow 2 different guys made a big effort to tell me about the lights being out, because really, how do you know if your rear lights are out?  You can tell when the head lights go, even the left and right blinkers are easy to check... but brake lights?  Note to all, get someone to help you check your brake lights!

I also found it interesting that no women tried to tell me, it was a man both times.  After that 2nd incident I googled, 'How to change the brake lights on Mazda 3 sport" then removed a bulb, went to Canadian Tire, found the correct bulb and changed them both out.  In the parking lot, I found an older man and told him I had just changed my brake lights and could he tell me if they worked.  I touched my brakes and he gave me the thumbs up.

I now have all three brake lights working just fine (yay me for changing them myself, difference I am guessing between $5 and $105, if I asked Mazda to do it).

I found driving home today that I was studying the brake lights on all the cars in front of me, if I ever see someone with burnt out bulbs, I am going to do my best to let them know!