More Car Trauma

I left work in the middle of Friday night rush hour to go to the airport and pick up Rabeca. I was happy to be in my Little Red Car again. The radio was blasting. The sun was in my eyes. Rush hour traffic was, well, rush hour traffic which meant 'heavy.'

My phone rang.

Now, is this the time to answer the phone? Nope. So...I answered it. Here I was, in the middle of rush hour traffic on 101 trying to have a conversation on a cell phone. I had to turn down the radio. I couldn't find the right button. (remember, the sun was in my eyes, too). So I asked Steven to hang on a minute while I found the right button. The power button didn't do anything. Hmm. That's funny. I tried switching stations. Nothing. I tried the volume. No response. Everything was just as loud as before. I tried switching to CD because I knew the CD cartridge wasn't in the trunk so (hopefully) nothing would play. Nothing changed. That's weird.

I apologized to Steven for not being able to hear him, finished the conversation quickly and realized I'd missed my exit.

(ha! you thought I'd CRASHED The Little Red Car.)

I took the next exit to head back to the airport. Unfortunately, I was at one of those exits where it isn't possible to get off the freeway & then get back on going the other way. I opted for city streets. Except there's no City in that area, just a lot of concrete and roads winding through warehouses. I could see airplanes so I knew I was close. Part of the problem was that SFO is under construction. All I could see was this huge hunk of metal building skeleton. I figured the main terminal must be behind the structure and started in that direction. Every so often, there would be a sign directing me to turn left or right around the piles of metal and concrete. There wasn't anyone else on the road. I think they were all on 101.

All this time, the radio is blasting loud as before. Fortunately, it was on FM music, not AM traffic reports separated by Shane Company commercials.

Eventually, I found the terminal and parked The Little Red Car. I turned off the ignition and the radio quit playing. So far so good...except that the radio was still on. The display still showed the correct time. It was even illuminated for night. None of the buttons responded. I tried starting/stopping the car several times to see if there was any effect on the radio. None. Well, Rabeca's flight was almost here so I left the car and went inside the terminal. I met Rabeca at the gate. Fortunately, she'd only brought carry-on so we didn't have to wait for luggage.

"I have a problem which could become your problem" I said.

"Oh?" she said.

"My car radio won't turn off. I dunno how long the battery will last."

"Oh...." she said.

We went back to the car and headed for my house. We tried to figure out why the radio had suddenly quit working. When we got home, I asked Ron what he knew about car fuses. Ron does know something about cars so he crawled under the steering wheel in The Little Red Car (feet up - he barely fit!) and proceeded to remove every fuse in the car. None of them had any effect on the radio. I think it's wired into the alarm system.

In the middle of this, we tried poking & prodding at the controls...and the power button fell off. I have no idea where it went. It may have blended with the black interior & be stuck in the car somewhere. Or maybe it fell inside the radio itself. Either way, there's not an on/off button anymore. Leaving the radio powered on over night would almost certainly kill the battery. I parked the car facing downhill and Rabeca & I relied on public transportation and cabs for our Friday night adventures.

Saturday AM was the moment of truth. Would the car start or not??? It did. First try. We headed for Custom Car Alarms. They remembered me. I think this is like having an orthopedic surgeon. For most people, it's best to not be on too familiar terms with a physical therapist, orthopedic surgeon or a car alarm company. Me, I know all three. Custom Car Alarms told me that 1) the radio had some weird short in it which they fixed immediately by pressing the magic reset button. This cleared all my preset radio stations and made the buttons work again. and 2) this model stereo has a known problem with power buttons falling off. they ordered a replacement unit. Until then, I'll leave the stereo on & just turn the volume way down when I want to pretend the stereo is off. Oh, and it now turns off when I turn the car off. That's a good thing.