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There is one and only one little reason why I am sitting here able to write this blog today and not still walking up and down the parking lot at the mall in an effort to distinguish my car from the thousands of other ordinary-looking cars parked there. No, it’s not any kind of car-finding app on my smart phone, but rather, a little red foam ball attached to the antenna. It prevents me from wandering aimlessly up and down the parking lot with my cart of groceries. I’ve tried the high-tech apps but sadly, they’ve only led me to the cars of other shoppers and never to my own little Honda. I’m sure it was more of a function of user failure rather than app failure considering I often need my 11-year-old son to show me how to work the various remotes for our home entertainment system. My antenna ball, however, is very user friendly.
If you have never suffered from parking lot amnesia, then you can’t appreciate the sense of calm my little red ball provides. You see, I have a long history of forgetting where I’ve parked my car. I have called my husband in a panic on countless occasions, ended up soaking wet from spending 30 minutes in the pouring rain while holding my key remote in an effort to spot my car blinking its lights at me, and have even gotten into the wrong car on one occasion.
Thanks to my little red ball, friends who travel with me no longer have to witness my transition from calm, confident professional into panicked, wild-eyed woman who darts frantically between cars as if searching for a lost child.
So while others depend on an endless array of apps to help them navigate through their days, I am thankful for my little red antenna ball which will soon, thanks to the sun, be turning orange at some point, and then maybe even white. That’s when I’ll rummage through my kitchen drawer for the red permanent marker and restore my antenna ball to its youthful red beauty again.
