Scene - Blogs - If ignorance is bliss shouldnt ignoring my cars warning light feel better

If ignorance is bliss, shouldn't ignoring my car's warning light feel better?
Published: 11/29/2012 7:00 AM
Last Modified: 11/28/2012 5:47 PM

My car has one of these, and I'm afraid something's wrong with it.

How was your Thanksgiving? I dare say it wasn't half as gluttonous as mine -- the curse of having a mama who could throw down with the best of chefs from the Food Network.

But it was time to drive back to reality -- and a commitment to Weight Watchers -- on Tuesday, a trek that takes me across Arkansas.

Smack-dab in the middle of the Natural State, my dashboard did an unnatural thing: the "maint reqd" light came on -- maintenance required, I assume.

"Well, crap," was my exact reaction. I'm in the middle of Arkansas -- a lovely state in which I've had many fun experiences, from Little Rock to Fayetteville and my beloved Eureka Springs. But I couldn't help but hear the initial strums of dueling banjos from "Deliverance" echo in my head. Crap. I can do a pretty good impression of Edith Bunker singing "Those Were the Days" from "All in the Family," but I really don't want to perfect a pig's cry ala Ned Beatty.

In true Cleopatra, Queen of Denial fashion, I chose to ignore the light and prayed frequently that God grant me safe passage to Tulsa, and that if anything should explode, PLEASE let it happen once I've pulled into my driveway and taken out my new messenger bag and this fabulous '70s-vintage corduroy car coat I raided from Dad's closet. Amen.

The next day, feeling quite guilty for not stopping by the awesome dudes at Hesselbein first to see what might be up, I went to work and was told by web editor Jason Collington that he, too, had a Toyota with a maint-reqd light that came on -- and stayed on for at least a year. He said it had something to do with coming on when you needed an oil change (which I had at Hesselbein a little more than a week ago). So what gives?

Obviously, I'll be taking my car in, just to be safe. But how many of you do the same thing: turn up the radio when your car starts making noise? Or put masking tape over the check-engine light when it starts blinking at you? Confession's good for the soul, so let's hear it.

Peace, love and dueling banjos ... XOXO

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DomoArrigato (3 months ago)

If the "check engine light" or "maint reqd" was really important it would be accompanied with sirens and buzzers like a Nuclear Powerplant in meltdown...LOUD, CONSTANT, and HARD TO IGNORE.

But they aren't, so "Don't worry, be happy" and put a piece of duct tape over that annoying light!!!

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Living Wright

While other kids were watching "The Smurfs," Scene Writer Jason Ashley Wright was tuned in to "Style with Elsa Klensch." By fourth grade, he knew he wanted to write, and spent almost three years publishing a weekly teen-oriented magazine, Teen-Zine -- circulation: 2. After earning a degree in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi, he became the medical reporter and teen board coordinator for the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, a Gannett newspaper. Eight months later, with visions of Elsa dancing in his head, he applied for the fashion writer position at the Tulsa World, where he began working on Aug. 3, 1998. He is now a general assignment reporter for Scene.

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