I never, ever, drop my car at my mechanic's without calling first.

Except I did today. Bad brake problems developed over the holiday weekend. Arranged for my son to meet me at the mechanic's early, before they open. Put my keys (including my house key, which I forgot to remove) in an envelop, dropped it in the mail slot with a note, and headed off for the 40 mile drive to work. Called the mechanic when I got to work and got a message saying they are on vacation and closed all week.

Now, I have an extra car key, but not a spare electronic fob to unlock the car. Know from experience that if I lock the car with the fob and unlock it with the key, the alarm sounds. Called a Subaru dealership. They aren't up to speed on 14 year old Subaru's, but said they thought if I relocked the car with the key and then unlocked it, the alarm would reset. If that didn't work, I could start the car and then stop it and that would reset the alarm.

Guess what. Relocking and unlocking reset nothing. Some anti-theft provision prevented the car from starting with the alarm blaring. some how or other, and I really couldn't tell you how, I managed to get the alarm to stop, but never could get the car to crank. Called Triple A. Unless they can talk to the mechanic to document I am not trying to make off without paying a bill, they can't touch it.

Pulling out this evening from the mechanic's lot in my teenager's 2000 Taurus, the battery light and the engine light come on, and the transmission freezes.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car, anyone?