bizarre

So, I was working this evening, and around 7:30 pm, returning from a delivery, I made a right turn into the Pizza Hut parking lot and...my turn signal didn't stop. I mean, the little handle clicked back into the "off" position and everything, but the light on my dash was still blinking, and the little ticking noise was still ticking, and, sure enough, both the front and rear signal lights were still blinking. Pulling into my parking space, I clicked the handle down, as to signal a left turn, and found that instead of helping the problem, I'd only succeeded in turning both signals on at the same time. Which would be cool, if I wanted emergency flashers (mine work, but are unusable because the button sticks) but totally useless as turn signals. And so the problem was thus: the left turn signal worked normally, but the right one was always on, no matter what I did. I could put the handle in any position, I could turn off the car and remove the key, but no matter what, the signal was still on, ticking, flashing, and everything.

I told the manager when I went back inside, and he said (after he quit laughing) that there was nothing to be done for it just then, but if things slowed down and I got a minute, I should take out the fuse, and that would at least turn it off until I could get it looked at.

Well, things never slowed down, and so I finally drove home at 10:30, turn signal still blinking merrily away. When I got home, I explained the situation to my mother, and we got a flashlight and went to work on the fusebox.

I took out each and every goddamned fuse, and nothing stopped that signal. I think there must be something more to it though, because the dome light didn't go off either, and one of the fuses had to be for that, too. So we were doing something wrong, but we didn't know what. Finally, exasperated, we dug out a socket set and disconnected the battery. Obviously, that did the trick. Except we still don't know what the problem was, or what we were doing wrong with the fuses. So tomorrow morning, I get to call my uncle Rob, who's a mechanic, and explain to him the new and weird habit my car has apparently developed.

And also the weird thing with the brakes, but that's another (and probably far more mundane) story.

My mother has now officially declared that I "do bizarre things to cars." I resent this statement, because this is the first bizarre thing that has ever happened to a car under my care, and I most certainly did not do it.

Also, she'd better hope that's not the case, because I'm scheduled for a 9-hour shift tomorrow, and guess whose car I'll probably be driving? (Hint: not mine!)