My Greatest Fear #3

We got a few inches of light powder in St. Louis last night, so this morning I had to brush the snow off my car. This happens a few times every year, and it ices over a few other times.

I always turn on the car before I start brushing/scraping. Here’s where my third greatest fear kicks in: I don’t close my driver’s side door all the way. I legitimately think that the door is going to lock behind me with the key in the ignition.

It’s really a matter of faith. People tell me that the car “knows” not to lock my door. How does it know?! It’s a car! My car doesn’t “know” to prevent magpies from taking giant berry poops on the door handles. My car doesn’t even “know” to unlock all the doors sometimes when I click the “unlock” button on the remote twice. She’s a smart car, my Camry XLE, but I have a feeling she’d lock me out and have some alone time if I gave her the chance.

As a result, I leave the door open when I brush snow off the car. Not all the way open–just enough that some snow ends up in the car. It’s not too bad. It’s worth the sacrifice.

Is this a common fear? Or are spudopticaphobia and dinner-roll-open-ophobia more common?

14 thoughts on “My Greatest Fear #3”

  1. I’m thinking that majority of the crowd is more with you on the carlockophobia than your fear of potato eyes or a loaded pillsbury dough boy. Every time I close a car door with the ignition running, I worry that I’ve potentially locked myself out somehow. Maybe we should both buy cars with that autostart function so we can get the car running without a key.

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  2. I have the exact same fear. I start my car every morning and leave the door ajar.

    On a side note, we have the same car. Even the same color from what I can see 🙂

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  3. Looks like this might be a more common fear than I thought. Someday I’ll get one of those autostarts…someday.

    Penelope, the car in the photo isn’t actually my car (but it looks very close to my car)! I drive a silver 2003 Camry XLE.

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  4. When I cleaned my wife’s car off a couple weeks ago I got the driver’s seat completely covered in snow and soaking wet because I was terrified of closing the door.

    Luckily the seat heater’s dried it off pretty quick.

    (and I actually look forward to and get excited about the canned bread “pop”, in fact I think I’ll go make some right now, I’ve been thinking about them all morning anyway)

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  5. I have the same fear, and yes it’s legitimate. We got a bunch of snow from the same storm and my boyfriend managed to do just that this morning. He locked himself out of his car while it was running and he was scraping off the snow. The driver’s side door was just barely closed—you know, locked but not entirely closed? Anyway, he tried a coat hanger for awhile to hit the lock button and then eventually we left the car running, parked on the street outside my apartment while I drove to him home and back to fetch his spare key in the lovely, semi-plowed downtown streets…

    So yes, it’s definitely okay to be paranoid because it does really happen 🙂

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  6. Absolutely agree. On a good day, I’ll triple check that it’s unlocked and pray for the best. On a bad day, it’s cracked.

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  7. I actually unlock all four doors and keep the driver’s door open just a crack when I’m brushing off snow or scraping ice! But my bigger fears are a) whether or not I’ll actually be able to make it down the snowy, icy driveway to my car, which is parked on the street, and b) stepping over that huge mass of refrozen snow/ice that the plows push against the car. The whole journey to the car just freaks me out!

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