The roof of my car

My car's roof has been a source of much humour, and occasionally, frustration. It's now a source of loss.

When unlocking my door, it's tempting to put things on the roof as I fumble for my keys and try to free my hands. I've put many things atop my vehicle, yet I rarely remember to take them off.

When we were driving across the country, Carmella and I stopped in at Kanga's Sauna in Thunder Bay. After, I opened my door, got in, and began pulling out of the parking lot. A woman frantically stopped me, motioning to the roof. I had left my wallet up there, and a map.

In Whistler, I bought a subway sandwich after work one night, and was excited to eat it. I put it on my roof, and then forgot about it. I remembered before I got up to speed, and pulled into the taxi loop to rescue it. I was happy to provide entertainment for the taxi driver pulling up behind me.

Another day, I loaded Celeste into the trunk and took her to the dirt jumps. After riding for an hour, I loaded the bike back in the trunk and set off for home. I heard a noise, and decided to investigate. There was a friendly skateboarder frantically skating toward me, with my bike helmet in her hand. I had put it on the roof and forgotten about it! It slipped off when I took a turn.

I've recently misplaced a pair of generic black skate shoes that I wore to work. I cannot find them anywhere. When I think about it though, I remember placing them on my car's roof before I got in, and thinking that even though the roof was wet, it was OK because I had the shoes in one of those fabric grocery bags. I had them in a bag because I was wearing my new winter boots and was leaving work. I had a Nature's Path granola bar in the bag too. Or is it Nature Valley? The ones in the green wrapper that are fairly healthy.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my shoes are on the side of the highway somewhere, along with the granola bar. I hope someone who was both hungry and needing a pair of shoes found them both in the bag. I'm not too sad about the loss, because they weren't my favourite shoes anyway. But I'm disappointed that I continue to place things on the roof and have not learned my lesson! And it is one less pair of shoes that I have to wear now.

I'm thinking of getting some red electrical tape and making a big "X" on the portion of roof just above the driver's side door. That could remind me to not put anything up there. It'll make my car seem broken and in disrepair though, so that's unfortunate. I think I'll just try and remember not to put anything up there, since I've lost my shoes forever now. I don't want to lose anything else.