Day 16.315: How did this happen?

At around 5:50 pm this evening, I left Exile #2 like this:

Yes, she's sitting on a car seat on the sidewalk by the mall.

So, how did that happen?

It started with a text from my pastor yesterday showing a box that was six and half feet long and four and a half feet wide containing a large TV intended for our new church building in place of our projector/screen arrangement. When I replied to her out of context photos with a joke, she replied, "Well, it won't fit in my car. Do you think you could fit it in yours?"

We realized that this evening was our only window to try since Exile #2 will be traveling in our large vehicle to collect Exile #4 for Thanksgiving tomorrow, so off we went to try. Neither we, nor the very obliging young men who came to try to load it were confident and there was no chance it would go in with the middle seats in place, so out the came. In went the TV (just!) and this was how I left Exile #2 while I went to deliver it (with some hastily arranged assistance at the other end).

Exile #2 was getting quite cold by the time I returned 25 minutes or so later. Her most common interaction with passers-by (after weird looks and a wide berth anyway) was "It was either me or the TV!"