Bolting out of here

So, if you haven't read the 140-character Twitter update yet, let me fill you in. (Of course, even if you have read it, I'll fill you in.)

My check engine light came on yesterday, which bothered me because my Vue is less than a year old and ... well ... it's less than a year old. That's it. But come on, do I really need another reason? By last night, the light had gone back off, but Paul had been planning to take it to Saturn for an oil change anyway ... so might as well kill two birds with one stone.

The oil change went fine, but they told Paul the hybrid battery had been recalled and they needed to replace it. It was scheduled to take three hours, so they gave him a rental (an Impala!) and told him to come back this afternoon.

... To skip ahead a bit, they broke a bolt off the battery carriage thingy and don't have any in stock. One will be here by Friday. I'll get my car back then.

Would it have killed them to mail me (or e-mail me!) a recall notice? The timing, though, is really fortunate; the check engine light was on because the battery wasn't holding a charge, meaning the car was running on gasoline only ... thus defeating the point of having a hybrid. And with my trip to Charleston in a few weeks, that would've been very annoying indeed.

But here's the "Aww, maaaan" part: I kind of live out of that car. All of my hoodies are in there ... and my parking lot hangtag, my sunglasses, other clothes (I like to dress while driving ... kidding), and so on. Fortunately, I took out my GPS and Birkenstocks.

I think I'm going to run by Saturn in the morning under the guise of picking up my hangtag -- which I really do need -- and grab some hoodies and my sunglasses while I'm there.