If it's not one thing, it's another...

and another, and another, and another.

First it was a nail in a tire.

Next it was the alternator & battery.

Then it was a flat tire.

Now it's the horn.

That's right, the horn. Quite possibly the most useless vehicle accessory ever invented, unless you do a lot of driving in a big city.

And it's not that the horn just stopped working...


A couple days ago someone's car alarm was sounding. I figured it was an attempted break-in (not entirely uncommon around here), as that's the only reasonable explanation I could come up with.

It sounded as though someone had passed out in the driver's seat and laid his head down on the wheel. It was obnoxiously loud and unrelenting.

We didn't have any way of knowing just by looking outside that it wasn't our car, so Derek smartly grabbed his keys and went to check it out.

Of course it was our car. Why wouldn't it be?

Maybe because we don't have a car alarm?

Did I mention that it was 7:00 in the morning? On a Sunday? On the first nice day we've had since, I don't know, last April? Everyone had their windows open.

I heard Derek drive through the complex parking lot, siren blazing. Then out into the neighborhood. Then out onto the main road. I heard him the whole way.

I began busily calling around and googling for advice. Derek thought he fixed it, but right as he walked in the front door it started up again.

We finally got it stopped for good by locating the fuse box schematic in the owners manual (which I had thrown on the floor board 2 days prior in an effort to locate the proper tire pressure measurements so I could fix the aforementioned flat), and pulling the fuse.

So we have no horn, in a city full of terrible drivers.

I guess for now I'll have to make other drivers aware of their vehicular indiscretions the old-fashioned way...