parking lot madness

today I was borrowing my dad’s SUV because he’s out of town and I’m in town without my car.  my mom asked me to run to Home Depot to grab 2 big bags of top soil so she could finish transplanting a palm tree.

had I known what near heart-attack inducing chaos this would cause, I would have not have agreed to do the favor.

I go to the ol’ HD.  buy the top soil.  toss the heavy bags in the back of my dad’s SUV on top of miscellaneous tools he had sitting in a crate.  no big deal.  helpin’ my mom out.  like a boss.

I start pulling out of the parking lot and turn a corner and suddenly…

POOF!  and then what sounded like a  “hoooooooooooooonk” and something letting pressure out.

now, anyone who knows me knows how much I love sudden loud noises.  this was loud enough to freak anyone out, I swear. 

so I’m ducking and still driving and quick pull back down another aisle in the parking lot and park all caddy-whompus across like 3 parking spaces.  I turn the truck off and jump out – safety first, people.  there was no way I was going to be caught in that thing if it exploded.

I call my brother-in-law because my dad’s out of the country and I can’t instantly get a hold of him.  the conversation went something like this:

me: ANDY!  something just like…I don’t even know, it sounded like it was some sort of gas explosion in the back of dad’s sequoia!!!!
Andy:  haha, aunt jen – is this some kind of joke, like YOU were the one who let out a massive gas explosion?

(…touche, touche)

me:  NO!  I’m being serious!  I don’t know what happened, it sounded like a “POOF!” and then something letting air out but it was like…super loud, like an air horn!

Andy went thru a number of scenarios that he thought it could have been – air in the gas tank, something with the brakes – but I kept telling him it was super loud, like a horn. thoroughly confused but knowing I was serious because of the sound of panic in my voice, he told me he’d run it by the guys he was with and he’d call me back.

I get off the phone and it’s been like, over 5 minutes since this started.  I figured since the Sequoia hadn’t exploded yet, maybe it was safe to open up the back and just gently look around for what may have caused this fiasco.  so I pull out the top soil bags and…

…there’s an air horn sitting under them.

I kid you not.  apparently I had put the bags right on top of it and when I turned in the parking lot, they shifted just enough to land on the horn.

which begs the question – why would someone have an air horn hanging out with the tools in their truck?!?!  that’s what I want to know.

this concludes my story.  I don’t have a grand spiritual analogy for it.  I’m sure someone could think of one.