It is a good thing I own this car outright.
April 20, 2013, I was just enjoying a lazy Saturday morning, sipping my delicious dark Verona roast coffee, watching some show with adorable puppies, when suddenly John rushes
in from the garage in a panic. He goes straight to the kitchen cabinet that hold pots and pans.
“What are you doing?” I ask calmly.
“Your car is on fire!” He shouts back running out the door with a pan full of water, and another pan filling in the sink. As you can imagine this is not anything I was
expecting to hear today, or ever.
“What!?” I jump from the couch round the corner to see our smoke filled garage, and flames flickering out from
the grill of my precious 2003 VW Jetta. Even though it happened so fast, my mind certainly started to reel. What if my car explodes? Is my house going to catch on fire?
“Where's the fire extinguisher?” He shouts from the garage.
“We threw it away, it had gone bad!”
I shout back, and run more water out to him. I thought back to my basic knowledge of what to do in case of a fire. I grabbed baking soda from a cabinet, that was the only other thing I could think to try. Fortunately, by the time I reached garage the fire
was out.
John and I both regroup. I open the garage door to let the smoke roll out. We both stood there for a minute. Our hands were shaking from the adrenalin.
John's hands are burned from the melted plastic. Once I realize that we are both safe our house is safe, my thoughts start shifting in a different direction.
“John,
why was my car on fire?” Apparently, Mr. Fix-it was tinkering around with something in the garage and a paper towel caught on fire. He stomped it out with his foot, or so he thought. We think part of the towel that was still on fire floated into my grill,
where there must have been some kind of grease or oil, because it went into flames immediately.
The good news is my grill is the only thing that was damaged,
which needed to be replaced anyway. It was an accident and John feels really bad, and he is very motivated to get it fixed. However, until it I have my new grill every time I walk to my car and see that melted hole I will have to chant a mantra that sounds
like, “I love my boyfriend, I love my boyfriend, I will not kick him in the kneecaps, because I love my boyfriend.”