So. Today I went to the car so I could go to the grocery store. The battery was dead. Ugh. I called my brother to confirm how to jumpstart the battery. He gave me a battery charger years ago beacuse I’m single and he’s the one I would call to demand a jump from (and have done). I got the car going, which is great! But the emergency exclamation point light was on (which, I’ll say was the case yesterday–and I thought it was probably low air pressure in my tires as that has happened before), but then another light came on. A message saying to check the hybrid system with an angry red warning symbol.
Well, hell. I Googled it and discovered that it could range anywhere from the car is about to immediately explode to the sensors might be bruised. I have done the very mature thing of deciding this isn a problem for next-week me, which is the adult equivalent of putting my fingers in my ears and pretending I can’t hear someone screaming at me.
My brother called me back and told me it could be a fuse. I really hope that’s all it is. There’s another light on, but I know what that one is. It’s an exclamation point in parentheses–which my brother said is a tire that is flat on the bottom. I can see it now that he’s said it, but I always thought of it as an exclamation point in parentheses (though I call them brackets). I did Google it the first time I saw it and realized it had to do with air pressure, but I never made the connection to the image. I don’t go by images–I go by words.
So this is a angry red triangle with an exclamation point in it. My brother insists it’s orange from the pic he saw on the internet, but it’s red in person. Or this could ba a blue dress/gold dress situation. Anyway, as I was talking to my brother, I went out to the car bectause my brother said there should be another message, and I had thought I had seen one.
I did not. Instead, the check hybrid system message and angry red exclamation triangle both started flickering on and off. Like, it was there, then it would disappear. A few seconds later, it was back> I informed my brother what was happening, and he said it might be a fuse.
This is what I think is wild. The message covers everything from a fuse being wonky to the hybrid battery being bad. That’s a five dollar problem and a several thousands of dollars problem. It makes my head hurt to think that it could be anything from one to the other. Five bucks could fix the problem or it might take $8,000. If it’s anything close to the latter, it might be time to buy a new car.
Even then, I would be able to deal with it if I didn’t have my teeth to deal with as well. That’s going to take several thousands dollars, too, which means this is one hell of an expensive year. I was just joking with Ian that dealing with my car was making me more flustered than dealing with death! I said it was funny, and it is, but it’s also true.
It’s beacuse I know nothing about cars so I can’t troubleshoot on my own. If something is wrong with my computer, I can puzzle it out or ask my brother. Yes, I can ask him about my car, too, but there is a bigger chance he won’t know about that than about my computer. In addition, whatever is wrong with my computer is usually user error and can be fixed with a little fiddling. I know enough about my computer to be able to figure it out eventually in almost every case.
But cars? I know nothing about them. That’s my own fault, obviously, but it brings up anxiety in me when something goes wrong. My way of dealing with a problem is to brainstorm solutions. I can’t do that if I have no clue what the actual probblem is.
Me dying was a thing that happened. (Everyone say it with me:) Twice! There was nothing I could do about it except accept it and move on. I did not have to deal with it directly, so it was in a way easy to just shrug my shoulders and say that it was a thing that happened. I can meditate on it and ponder the life lessons I learned from it, but I don’t have to, say, pay a mechanic to give me a whole new set of tires.
This is one thing I’ve realized after leaving the hospital. Life is oftentimes just a bunch of little things. It’s not always defying death and coming through that experience intact. Sometimes, it’s worrying about your car and hoping that it’s not going to cost an arm and a leg to fix.
Side note: I loved my last car so much. A Honda Accord that I drove for twenty years or so. It was a bit low to the ground and the brake was a tad squishy, but other than that, it was a dream ride. This one is fine, but it’s been more finicky than the last one. Then again, that was a brand new car and this one is used. It’s not the hybrid part that is the problem, I’m sure–but it feels like it might be. In retrospect, I did not have to buy a hybrid for the little amount of driving I do.
This has been a stressful day, and it really didn’t need to be. I’m tired and angsty, and I don’t want to do much of anything. I hate car issues that much, which I’m sure is a common sentiment. My brother is coming over this weekend to see if a fuse will do the trick. I’m crossing my fingers that this isn’t a massive problem–but I fear I’ve used up all my luck on my cheating death twice thing.