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I've remarked several times about how many of my friends are having major car trouble this year--either with having cars totaled, or suffering through expensive repairs. I paid $900 in May to get my steering repaired. So I thought I was done with the evil Car Demon for this year. I was wrong.

Tonight, as I was driving Eric to dinner, I stopped at my local bank, which is about 3 or 4 blocks from my house, to use the MAC machine. As usual, I parked in the driveway because it's after banking hours, the driveway runs right beside the MAC machine, and I was only going to be there a moment or two.

Or so I thought.

After I used the machine and got back in the car, I put the key back in the ignition and turned it. The car went "urrrrgh", and the dashboard lights flashed feebly. A second try produced an even feebler "urrrgh", then nothing. Yet my dome light still worked normally, as did my emergency flashers, so the battery was not dead. I had no hint that this might happen, since the car had started normally and run normally as far as the bank, when I turned it off when I hopped out to use the MAC machine. Worse still, the car had just passed its state inspection only two days ago.

So I called AAA, wrangled with them about whether my membership was current (it wasn't), paid it over the phone, and got them to send a tow truck to take my car back to my mechanic's garage. After dinner at the local sandwich shop (not quite what I'd been hoping for), I sat in my dead car with Eric until Tow Truck Guy showed up about an hour later.

Tomorrow morning, I get to call my mechanic, explain the problem, and pray that it can be fixed with an hour's hunting and a 89-cent part. But, somehow, I doubt I'm going to be that lucky.

In other news, our home HVAC system needs fixing, again--for the third time in approximately six weeks. I fear that the Air Conditioning Demon is coming for my home system, very very soon....