Having Another Slipped Cog
Although the gears in my brain usually mesh quite well even after the head injury in February 2015, once in a awhile something happens to cause my mind to jump the track. This aberration was the first time in my fifty plus years of owning and driving a vehicle.
As I was driving back from my volunteer work at the Chestnut Ridge Historical Society Wednesday, I noticed that the inspection sticker for my car had run out at the end of November. What upset me was that I kept telling myself that I needed to get my car inspected before the end of the month, but somehow my thought process shifted the date to the end of December and not November. The realization suddenly hit me, my car was out of inspection and I was driving illegally.
As soon as I arrived home, I called my mechanic and he said that he would squeeze me in on Thursday since my car’s inspection was outdated. I am now legal and passed inspection. Several days ago I purchased new tires for my car and had the front end aligned. About a month ago, my mechanic replaced the rotors and pads for my brakes. I knew my car would pass inspection. The only thing it might have needed was if a light bulb had burned out. Thankfully all my lights and signals functioned properly. I fished out the proof of insurance and the registration for my car. I was ready and I got my new sticker. I’m legal again.
What now worries me more happened later in the day. I answered my home phone. It was my mechanic. He was missing the paperwork for another customer. He was inquiring whether he’d given the missing papers to me with my paperwork. I tossed the plastic sleeve with my papers into my console without checking them. I had a similar plastic pouch. When he asked, I checked and I had someone else’s papers tucked in the sleeve with mine. My mechanic was very much relieved when I found and returned the papers to him.
Now I am beginning to be worried that cog-slipping may be catching. I hope that it doesn’t turn into another pandemic. If it does start a pandemic, the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization will require people to don tinfoil caps to prevent the spread of the invasive slipped-cog disease. They may even try to force inoculations that cause sterilization of men, abortions in women, and other health problems without actually curing the “disease.”