Life Lessons I didn’t Learn

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I learned two things this week. One was how to pick up a lady beetle, and the other was what I did wrong with car seat belts.

Lady beetles, the little red bugs that look a bit like lady bugs, were hard to pick up from the floor. Sometimes I used my nails to capture them, but I dropped a lot. I thought about grandsons David and Nathaniel picking up jigsaw puzzle pieces by pressing an index finger on them. It doesn’t work for me, but I could use that technique. To make a bug stick, I lick my finger, gently press on the bug, carry it to the toilet, and flick it in. I’m very pleased with my new method, and I haven’t heard the bugs scream yet.

We began shopping for a new car this week, since the Honda just had its fourth alternator installed. The salesman sat in the back with me, as John drove and David explored the dashboard. The seat belt locked, as it often does for me. The back seats in all the cars we’ve had always trapped me with demented belts. Other people sat in those seats without a problem. It never entered my mind that it could be my fault.

I asked the salesman, “Do you know why a seat belt locks like this? I can’t move it.”

I was shocked when he said, “Yes. Unbuckle it, put it back to the start position, and do it again.”

I followed his directions and pulled the belt out again.

“Don’t pull it further out than you need to. Just buckle it, and it should be fine. It’s a safety feature for baby seats. By pulling it far out, it locks to hold the baby seat firmly.”

Golly Pete! Not knowing any better, I’ve always extended the belt too far. Where are secrets like this hidden? How do you learn life lessons that are so common they aren’t explained? What else do I need to know? Help!!!

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

45 thoughts on “Life Lessons I didn’t Learn”

  1. Babies need to come with life manuals – maybe. I guess we need to observe and learn. I do get into soups too but can’t think of one just now. Glad you learnt two new things this week. Keeps you growing younger.

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  4. When Chris and I got our new-to-us Honda Fit, we excitedly went to get out of the lot and realized we didn’t know how to start the thing. Talk about feeling silly! We had to go in and ask. Didn’t figure out our foot had to be on the brake as we hit the button. Glad you are now safely tucked in your belt.

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  7. Mine always lock on me just as I need to lean forward to grab something, lol.
    I like the idea of sliding paper under the bug to lift it.
    If your new car has a push button start, don’t walk off without the key fob in a pocket or purse! Just because you no longer need a key to start the car, doesn’t mean you can get back in without the fob. After getting my Honda, this was new to me as well!

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  8. Wow! I never learned that seat belt trick either. Who knew? As a retired teacher I rather resent that it wasn’t taught by the car salesmen/women when we all bought our cars. It should be required. Thanks for passing along the tip. As far as lady bugs go…ick! I think I would have just sprayed them with windex or something and swept them out of the house. Picking them up sounds icky. 🤮 LOL

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  9. My Nissan is suppose to be lockout proof, because if the key is inside when you lock it, it lets out this shriek. I was delighted since AAA and I were buddies from too many lockouts. Well, I discovered that “lockout proof” is only true if your fob battery is not weak or if the last person out or who closes the door is the driver. I leaned in one day from the passenger side because I’d forgotten something and closed the door from the passenger side and oops! the key was locked in and I out. So there is a caveat to the claim.
    Seatbelts. I still pull mine all the way out and once buckled, pull the top part out again and let it go and it will automatically go back and settle in snugly. No comment on the bug thing, other than I didn’t know there was such a thing as lady “beetles” vs bug. lol. Have a great weekend.

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      1. No, you can guide it to a comfortable spot. Practice, a couple of times. There is also a gizmo on the side of the door jam that lets you slide it up or down, so the seat belt sits where you want it. (I just learned that myself) After my breast surgery I also got this cushy pad (found at auto stores) that wraps around the belt so that it sits gently on my chest and keeps the seat belt away from my neck. But… adjust the slider on the door jam first, see if that helps.

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  11. Gee – I’ve never sat in the back seat of a car with the newfangled seat belts so I’m sure I would be clueless. I’ve had my car 10 years this September and I’ve not read the manual yet. I just passed 5,672 today as I put it in the garage … it is just a baby itself. I don’t even set the clock in the Fall when we fall back as I don’t go out much in the Winter. At least you deal with the lady beetles unlike Yours Truly who trapped the centipede under the glass bowl and waited a solid month for it to take its last breath.

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      1. Wow! Our state had an infestation of lady beetles about 10 or so years ago. People were finding clusters of them hiding behind their switch plate covers … I don’t know why that fact sticks with me, but it does … now Michigan is plagued with stinkbugs.

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              1. Thanks Anne, wait til you see the ice on the Detroit River in today’s post. You would have seen that on Long Island I’m sure – I was just amazed as I never saw the ice on the River at ground level, always from an office building.

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  13. I did not know that trick either, so thanks for enlightening me! I recently learned some tricks about our newer Ford truck from a car show salesman. I am not a fan of all of today’s safety features, but I suppose in larger cities where crime is more of a problem some of these measures are necessary. I recently jumped through all of the hoops to turn off the irritating seat belt chime in our newer truck. In Oklahoma, if you have farm plates on your farm trucks, you are not required to wear a seat belt (farmer’s are often in and out of trucks checking crops or cattle so a farmer-legislator had the law amended). We have two trucks and even though we’re more of a hobby farm situation, I got the farm tags specifically so I do not have to wear seat belts in this state.

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  14. It looks like no more layovers at the Funeral Home are in the cards. Electronics on our new CRV 12/04/18 are still being digested. We had a rental in OKC last year and had no clue when we got into a new Ford Fusion. I call it the DAH factor.

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  15. If I quickly jerk my seatbelt, it sometimes “locks” on me because it is trying to protect me if there had been an accident – but I’m suddenly held tightly in place and then need to figure out how to get it “unlocked” so that I can comfortably move.

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    1. Perhaps your seat belt is trying to kill you, like mine has done on occasion. Is it hugging your heart or trying to stop it? If I didn’t feel I now have the answer for the too-tight beltr, I might carry scissors in my pocketbook.

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