State Farm loves me

Last night, Hubby stepped outside our front door to get something out of my car. He stepped back inside and asked, "Honey, why did you park where you did?"

"Uh, because that's where I always park!" I replied (insert eye roll)

"Really? Are you sure? Would you come and check."

So I sigh loudly, drag myself up off of the floor, stomp slowly over to the front door, and poke my head out of the front door.

Where is my car?

My eyes start where my car should be and slowly go DOWN the driveway and across the street where it has nicely parked itself up on the neighbors snowy lawn. Yes folks, the daughter of a mechanic (who really tried to pass on his mechanical genes and know how) has been stupid enough to let her car roll across the street, in traffic, in the dark. Thankfully there were no cars parked there. There's one there now, and there was one there this morning. I was very lucky.)

The really sad part of all of this is how many arguements Hubby and I have gotten into about this. He never leaves the car in gear and I always do, so everytime the car jerks because he didn't check it, he gets mad at me. Well, used to. This was an old overdone arguement until last night.

So for all of you out there who are unsure what to do about your parking brake, here's what I have learned (and it turns out we both we wrong!!!):

It is recommended that you use 1st gear or Reverse when parking your car, however if it is not extremely cold then you should use your parking/emergency brake. If it IS cold, which is the case here, you could risk freezing your brake and not being able to move your car. The solution is to leave it in gear and apply the brake partially. Just enough to slow or almost stop the car if it leaves gear but also with enough movement left in it that if it froze you could move the mechanism to break it free from it's icy trap.

Yes, my car now has the brake one. Thanks for asking.