I’m in my new sitting room drinking hot ginger tea and watching two little brown bunnies having breakfast in the back yard.  I’d gotten up early and was going to drive to the beach for a surf check, then opened the garage door and was reminded my Toyota Prius got towed yesterday.   Saturday I had quite the adventure with it not starting.  I was going to go banjo shopping with Bryan Tilford and I put the key in the ignition and… nothing.  It was like a dream sequence where you do all the right things but nothing works as it should.  I checked with Byran and he assured me I was awake.

I did what anyone else would do in that situation.  I called my buddy Bo Frazer, also a Prius owner, and asked him what he thought it might be.  He said he didn’t know but it sounded as though the vehicle’s theft detection was in effect and wasn’t recognizing my key.  He suggested the key battery might be dead, so we drove to Walgreens to buy the CR2032 battery and installed it.  No change.  Hmmm.

Then I gave in and pulled out the Owner’s Manual to see what the warning lights meant.  One was the malfunction indicator light, and the other was the hybrid vehicle immobilizer/theft deterrent system indicator light.  So Bo was right!  I called Toyota and told them which lights were on and that the car wouldn’t start.  They suggested I call Jack’s Wrecking and get it towed in.   I called Jack’s and 90 minutes later he had my car on his magic hydraulic lift truck and gone.

I figured it was the perfect time for Toyota to do the recall work on the floor mats and water pump that I’ve postponed the past year.  While we waited, we unloaded all personal items from the car, including the 40 stacks of the June Horizons Magazine I just got in.  I removed cds, glasses, phone chargers, incense, books, hats, jackets, hand puppets and dismantled the dashboard altar.  Bryan reminded me I didn’t have to go through items and decide what to keep and what to purge, I just had to dump it in a box and get it out of the car.  Good reminder and saved me time as well.

An hour later, Rene from Toyota called and I need a new 12 volt gel battery (not the hybrid battery,) then they can check it for the warranty recall work on Monday.  The battery lasted me almost 60,000 miles!  She said they’d have the car done by lunchtime for $305.75. Rene said they’d also clean the inside and wash it.  Heck I would have paid $300 just to wash the lovebugs off.  It’s like I get a free battery.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing things I could do without my car and without my computer, since Chuck was putting a new hard drive in it.  It reminded me that even when “bad” things happen to me, they aren’t that bad.  I have several out of town trips to make next week and I could have gotten stranded hours out of town.  It’s nice to know I vibe in a place that lets me be with the right people at the right time for it all to be just a fun adventure and not a disaster.