I guess the cat had the day off from waking you...

I got a call the other day from my wife. She sounded a little concerned.

"Umm... I had a little problem today."

"With what?"

I panicked a little because she had her review the day before and she had told me how much her salary adjustment would be. I was now concerned that they had decided against it and would be getting rid of her.

"With my car."

I was immediately concerned and a little relieved at the same time. We had just fixed the car for over 500 dollars due to a leak in the rear engine seal. We had tried to ignore it, but the oil output in Laura's Dodge Stratus had jumped up from two quarts of oil every three weeks, to two weeks, to one week, to every three days, to almost every day! It got so bad that my wife's side of the driveway was filled with large droplets of oil that seemed to be leaking from every pore of the engine. We used to joke that she'd never get lose because she'd always have a trail to follow from the day before.

We finally decided to get it fixed. I guess the seal was only being held in place by the parts behind it and it was flapping back and forth, which explained why the oil output fluctuated.

"The car didn't break down did it?"

"No, the car's fine."

I now imagined my wife getting into a fender bender somewhere. It had been some years since she last had an accident, but considering that she drives like a trucker on a caffeine IV facing a deadline somewhere in America, I thought the worst had happened.

"Then what's the problem?"

She sighed, "I had to get it towed."

"It was towed? Why? What happened?"

"Well," Laura said, "it all started when I woke up late for work."

I knew she had to be at work at 11am. She usually leaves at 10:30 am.

"What time did you wake up?"

"10 after 10."

"How come you slept so late?" I asked.

"It's Susie's fault! She didn't wake me up this morning!" Laura protested.

Susie is our newest cat. She's about 6 months old right now. Laura had told me before Susie always woke her up between 8 and 8:30 every morning by walking around her on the bed while she's sleeping. Today, she must have forgot. I guess you can't count on cats these days to keep a schedule.

"You know they do make these things today that wake you up when you set them to a certain time. They're called alarm clocks," I muttered.

"Ha Ha Ha. I forgot! Besides, Susie usually wakes me up."

"I guess you can't rely on cats to wake you up these days."

"Whatever."

Maybe Susie slept in herself and after Laura jumped out of bed, she thought, "Oh crap! I forgot to wake up Laura! I'm hungry! I'm thirsty! Pet me! Pet me!" This would be as close to cat remorse as you'd ever get.

"So what happened. You were late and?"

Laura continued, "I was a little late, so to save time I parked in a ten minute spot near the building."

Laura usually parks in the parking garage a block away. Considering she pays for it, I think it would make sense to expect her to park there.

I guessed, "And it got towed."

"Right." Laura confirmed. "If I ever park there, I usually move it after an hour, but... today I forgot. By the time I remembered, it was gone."

"So let me get this straight. You got your car towed today because you overslept because a cat didn't wake you up in time. Then you parked in a ten minute spot instead of the parking garage, which was only a block further away, to save time, but then forgot to move it."

"And I had some unpaid parking tickets," Laura reminded me.

"How much did it cost to get the car out?" I asked.

"Enough," she said.

As much as I would be mad about this, and this is the second time this has happened, my other fear of her job status was put to rest.

To borrow a line from the Simpsons Halloween of Horror show when Bart and Lisa raised the dead and Homer was more concerned that the car was okay over the zombies, I felt like asking:

"Did you lose your job?"

"No"

"Did the car get towed?"

"Yes!"

"But the job is still there."

"Uh huh."

"All right then."