Car Shenanigans

I have already banged out a post today (I am writing on Tuesday to post Wednesday), but I may as well start one for tomorrow . I have the time after all because I am car-less, and there's nothing else pressing here on the homefront.

Yesterday, I drove the car into the city because it has a unique problem. Interior lights come on when I am driving and resist strongly my attempts to turn them off. And then, I have trouble locking it, and when I do manage, the alert horn is prone to begin blaring.

This happens because the seatbelt sometimes gets caught in the door, and the switch that activates lights and locks and so on and so forth, has become damaged.

We were to visit daughter and grandkids at the trailer park on the weekend but decided to refrain due to these problems. It seemed better just to let the vehicle stand forlorn and unused in driveway as punishment for its sins.

The visit would have been part of an autumn drive to revisit some of the locks on the Rideau Canal. It would have been nice to have an autumn day trip and also see the colours. Unlike last year, the weather has not been conducive for colour drives, and then the car chose to compound the problem.

Yesterday, I drove it into the city. I specifically took it to the Honda dealer because I deduced that they would have the parts to do a quick job. Wrong! Even though I had explained the problem ahead of time, they didn't have a switch in stock. It should come in today at extra delivery expense to you-know-who. Fingers crossed for a timely resolution.

I had left it there rather than waiting, for Bob had offered to pick me up and drive me home. He's a jolly good fellow. If I had driven it home, who knows whether lights would have come on and if horns would have resumed blaring.

Hondas are excellent and reliable vehicles, but they do have this little quirk of seatbelts not retracting after awhile. Since this is our second CRV, I think I can attest to the fact that it really is an issue. Perhaps they can help with the seatbelt issue, but if they can't, how do I go about remembering to check whether it has retracted properly every time I exit the vehicle? This is after a long lifetime of conditioned learning that I simply get out of a car and walk away? I mean, really, how do you overcome that conditioning and remember to check every time?

Effectively, we have been car-less for 4 days at the time of year when we could have taken a trip or three to see the colours. There are colours within walking distance, but since walking is problematic with this dadgumblasted foot, they might as well be on the dark side of the moon.

This is Tuesday morning, I will append later one way or t'other to post on Wednesday.

And here we are. Almost as soon as I typed this, they called to let me know that the vehicle was ready. Less than a minute after the call, they texted me the same thing but added that I could pay online in order to minimize contact the in office. I complied happily.

I stopped a few times for this and that on the way home and discovered that the seatbelt now retracts. So a problem solved for now, but Sue is still working on a visual reminder anyway because it will likely return at some point.