A grand outing.

I was making a right turn on red, onto a busy one-lane road, when my car shuddered and died. The only thing on was the Check Engine light. I thought, Well, that's non-ideal. 

My first concern was that I was dead on the road with traffic coming my way. So, putting aside concerns of trouble and expenditure, I hurriedly restarted the car (ten years old this spring) and, after much disagreement between it and me, it did choke and rumble back to life. On we went, me hoping for momentum. There are no traffic lights between me and my mechanic from that point, which was good, because I thought that if I had to come to a stop I might not be able to come to a start again. But that was irrelevant, because I had to go home first, because I'd just come from the supermarket and there were a hatchload of perishables behind me. 

Look back on it, I suppose the wise move would have been to go to the mechanic, call my wife and ask her to meet me there, transfer the groceries to her car, and then I wouldn't have to worry about them. But I went home instead, hoping I could start the car again after it was unloaded and not have to call AAA for a tow. Did I mention that it was snowing? 

I did not. It was snowing.

After I unloaded at home, I called the mechanic, who was able to take the car immediately. Prayers answered, car started, I was able to drive to the garage. 

That check engine light unnerves me. It is so freaking broad. Oil light means oil is an issue; battery light is equally obvious. But the check engine light could mean anything from a loose gas cap to the engine being half out of the chassis and scraping along the pavement. I immediately dedicated $1,000 from my mental bank account as I drove to the garage.

Everything starts at a grand, at least around here. Water heater? Furnace? Dental work? A/C? Roof? Slice a grand off your savings for starters and then we'll get into the real money. 

Or so I was figuring. 

As it turned out, it was a very small issue -- my heart sank when I heard the word "crankshaft," but it was actually the crankshaft sensor. The great news was that was about a $50 part. The less great news was, the hours of labor to get to and replace the thing added up to $400+.

So, I guess the good news is, it was less than half the grand I had already deducted in my mind, so I was $500 ahead of the game. The bad news is I was still down almost $500. Somehow I still didn't feel like a winner. 

I guess the real good news is that no one happened along in the snowstorm at high speed and rear-ended my car while I was stalled. That would have been unpleasant. Even if I didn't get hurt, my groceries might have been squashed. And who wants squashed groceries?