After a long week of travel, I was exhausted but needed to go to the grocery store, so off Savanna and I went.  I drive a Prius, and the key fob is battery operated, but automatic, so when you are in close proximity to the car, the driver door automatically opens and the car starts by pushing the “start” button.  This day, the car would not start and alerted me “key battery low”.  I pulled out the key then it alerted me to “touch the start button with the key fob”, so I did and “voila”, the car started, so off we went to the grocery store.

We finished our shopping and headed to the car and I pulled out the key fob to open all the doors so I could load the groceries in the back, but nothing happened, no “beep, beep”, no doors opening…the key fob was dead.  For a split second, panic did hit me.  I actually called my best friend, although I knew she was not available, then I hung up and thought to myself “I got this, I can figure this out!”  I looked at the key fob and saw “push” with a picture of a key, so I began pushing, but nothing was happening. It appeared this button was stuck, so I tried to pry it apart with my not so long fingernail, with no success, so I pulled out a pen and began pushing forcefully on this button, again, with no success.  The key fob has never failed me, so I have never had to use the “key”, so I had no idea how it worked and assumed it was not working. Now panic set in…my two year old is in the front of the cart, the back is full of groceries, best friend not available and parents 20 minutes from grocery store, (but would still have to go to my house to get other key fob then head to meet me), so I went inside the store to do the next best thing, ask for help.

I asked one of the women working the self-check aisle and she was not able to figure out how to get the “key” out, so she called for backup; a guy who is the known mechanic at the store.  After a couple attempts at pushing the side of the key fob, he realized after pushing that button, the key ring pulled out with the key.  I felt not only silly, but so ridiculous.  Mind you, the entire time, my daughter is asking “what happened to mommy’s car”, repeating this question out loud.  Once he showed me the key, he was kind enough to pull apart the key fob and check what size battery it needed, then proceeded to get the correct battery and change it out so now the key fob worked. Then Savanna and I were on our way.

For a few moments, I was having a pity party, feeling alone and thinking how nice it would be to have that special man in my life to help me out in this situation; to rescue me…but I don’t, so I did what I have to do all the time now and figure it out on my own…and do what most men won’t do, ask for help!   🙂