Car Sadness

My car broke. It's been acting funny for a little while but it finally decided this afternoon that it had had enough. I can't really blame it considering it was something like 16 degrees. I wouldn't run in that either.

Last night as I was driving home from North Olmsted the "check engine" light came on while I was on the highway. I've had a lot of electric troubles with the current car so mostly it just made me sigh, rather than freak out and panic like the first few times my "check engine" light has come on. The engine didn't seem to be doing anything weird, so I kept an eye on the light to make sure it didn't start flashing and continued home.

But my car's been making some really funky noises ever since the last snow storm. At first I thought it was just ice in the wheel-well since the noises seemed to come up mostly when I was turning. Then, as the snow thawed and the possibility of my having missed a chunk of ice somewhere melted, I remembered the last time I was having similar noises. This was again after a big snow storm, the rock shield below my car had been knocked partially loose (which may or may not have been because I parked at a 45 degree angle when the rest of the lot was full) and was grinding on something. I made a note to call Bill (my mechanic) to see if it could wait, but kept forgetting about it.

Only then the noises started occurring randomly, occasionally but not necessarily in connection with turning. Sometimes it started making weird whirring noises when I was accelerating. Sometimes when I was slowing down, and sometimes when I wasn't doing anything at all. Weirder still, my car started deciding to rev up the engine and knock around for no apparent reason when I first started the car and was idling while I put my seat belt.

So all in all my car has been extremely unhappy lately, and definitely due for a doctor's visit. I've just been hoping it could hold out till the next oil change because, seriously, the mechanic is 40 minutes away and I JUST got it serviced. Annoying.

It couldn't. My car STARTED just fine when I went to go to Youngstown this afternoon, unfortunately it immediately turned itself right back off. Several times. And just to add insult to injury I was flustered enough that I then locked my keys in the car which is just brilliant. On the other hand, this is the first time I've locked my keys in my car, so at least it was a time when the car was not running, and furthermore, wasn't going anywhere anyway. So bright side to everything, right?