Check Engine

I will not bore you with details on how effing cold I am. I will not tell you about how one of my baby toes was so cold that it was numb all day, even though I've been inside for all but about 20 minutes. I will not explain just how many yards of fleece I am wearing or how I have only moved far enough to go from a scalding hot shower to french-kissing our fireplace. I won't talk about that, because we all know it's stupid cold.

But I will tell you about the 20 minutes I was outside of my house, because it was a disaster. That's what I get for leaving the house. See, I got in my car to be a good wife. I was going to pop over to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients to make a hot, delicious meal for din din. I started the car and was on my way.

About 5 blocks away, my bar went ballistic. Suddenly, all these lights were flashing and turning on like I had hit the jackpot at the casino. I waited for coins to spill out of the dash, but no such luck. I illegally U-turned and raced back home to Google the freaky symptoms. Turns out, my car is not the only one who has lost her mind.

I'm pretty sure Leslie (that's my car) is just another victim of the adjustment to a move and to the cold. Like me, Leslie has had to do some work in recent months. At least once a week, Leslie and I have trekked up to the Cities through ice, snow, rain and frigid temps. Back and forth we go, packing up bags in trunk and returning home with empty fuel tanks. We're both tired, I think.

So tonight she went nuts. Probably because I let it slip that I'm going to be driving back to the Cities like 6 times in the next two weeks and she panicked.

The Check Engine light turned on, cruise control light flashed and some picture of a slippery road buzzed in my dash. Apparently, that meant it was in Limp Mode and had to conserve power by cutting other systems. I looked up what I had to do and the answer was simple: unhook the battery for a few minutes, let it rest and  then restart the whole thing.

It seemed like a good solution to other energy problems, too. I've been sluggish, tired, run ragged from packing bags and moving around and not getting things done around the house. It's been exhausting and all I want to do when I AM home is lay around, watching Dexter and well, setting the cruise control. But it's caught up to me and now it is I who needs to check my engine. So I tackled a bunch of tasks at home, undesirable as they may have been, and took that shower I've been needing since Saturday. And while I didn't get to the gym, I made plans to hit up a kickboxing class tomorrow with my pal Angie. Plus, I managed to eat zero pieces of bread or bagels today.

After I reconnected the battery and restarted my car, all the warning lights were off. Leslie and I drove around for awhile, each trying to warm back up before we stopped for gas and some Heet and K-cups (both of which make it easier for us to get going in the morning). It was uneventful, but nice. Freezing, but fine.

It was a good reminder, however, that we all occasionally get freaked out and spazzy and go into limp mode in the winter. So hopefully by the time this polar vortex gets over itself and gets out of our lives, we'll have some recharged batteries and some fuel back in our tanks.