Car locks, Child Safety, and the Oz man

I left the viewing of OZ muttering, "Now there is a solid two hours of my life I'll never get back."

I'm not sure classics are meant to be disturbed and although there were glimmers of some magic, the plot line and corny story structure was a tremendous buzz kill.

But none of that compared to actually getting to the theater. What a night!

I picked up Lois and Luis, and knowing the little guy likes to open the door while we drive, Lois suggested I put the child safety lock on. I tried. But what I apparently did was maneuver the lock into locked position so the door wouldn't close. Long story short, we drove to a gas station to see if the attendants could help us (it was also a service garage). The man who spoke no English was dumbfounded and trying to explain what the problem was to him, I inadvertently did the same thing on another door. I had two doors that were locked but wouldn't close. He couldn't help so we decided to go home. Of course, Lois had to hold one door shut and the dude gave me a string to tie to the other door which I had to hold with my hand while driving. I have rope burn. We laughed the entire way because the drama caused Luis to cry in hysterics that we weren't going to see the movie.

I did an Internet search and lucky for me, after the hour ordeal, I figured it out. I thought I was going to have to take the battery out so it didn't drain (I couldn't get the doors closed), but I read on what Answer.com site that if you hold a door handle up, turn the child locks off, and pray, you can jimmy the locking mechanism back to its original latching space. THIS WORKED! I said to Lois, "Okay, we're going. Get the kid. We'll do a late viewing."

And of course we laughed all night because the though of us driving while holding the doors in place cracked us up. It was supposed to be stress free evening but I managed to screw that up. It didn't help that the movie was a complete clunker, too. I feel bad for the actors that signed on to that flick. Poor devils. I imagine they too had better hope.

Even so, I'm counting my blessings that the doors are now shut. Now, if anyone ever has a similar problem, I know the solution.