Ooh that doesn't even come close to describing how I felt at the end of my day yesterday. After posting about my losing flickr attempts, I did battle with my car security system. The problem was, I didn't know it thought I was trying to steal the car. I own the car for Pete's sake (and I mean that in more ways than one). So why, when I'm parked and sitting inside to make a phone call, does it start madly blinking and beeping when I turn the key? We've had problems like this before with our car, when the only thing to do was dig the owner's manual out of the glove compartment and explore its pages for a likely answer. In fact, we especially like to take long trips in it while we use the time to research additional automotive options.
Perhaps all this mystery was the result of our precipitous jump from a '93 Jeep to an almost new Audi. We were still cranking the windows up and down, adjusting mirrors by hand and sitting on cold seats. Now I can open and close the back window several times while wondering why the heck the front window button isn't doing anything. However I do admire the ease of pushing a button to bring back my personal seat and mirror settings after switching drivers, and oh, the luxury of heated seats on those cold winter days. Except when it fingers me as a thief, I do love the car.
So back to yesterday when it's blinking and beeping. My first look in the manual made me think that somehow I had pushed the panic button on the side of the car key, but pushing it again - and again - and again, didn't stop the lights and noise. I got out of the car, took a look around, stared at some passers by right in the eye so they'd know I wasn't really stealing the car, and got back in. At which point the beeping stopped. I drove off to pick up Peter still madly blinking but silent. When he got into the car, off went the horn again, honking its warning that I now had an accomplice. And thank goodness I did because I needed someone far less frustrated to read the manual and figure out what was going on. Of course he did. We just had to get out, lock the car and then unlock it again. No more lights, no more noise, just normal calm driving.
How foolish it seems now, but there's nothing like a good bout of frustration to get all sorts of things out of your system and to get dinner made by someone else.