I. Hate. Cars.

So. I'm on the highway, last night, enjoying the speed limit ride in my new (old) Volvo....when the check engine light comes on.

Okay. Not necessarily a horrible thing...sometimes they come on for the most mundane of reasons....and it was running fine. I figure I'll take it over to Rick's on the weekend. Then as I was merging and needed to slow down, I took my foot off the gas, and it didn't slow down.

I'm thinking "Hey, is the cruise control on? How could that be?" Well, it wasn't. And as I'm trying to stop, I can feel the car fighting me. I slowed down to about 30 MPH, and when I took my foot off the brake, the car sped up. Not a good thing. I popped it into neutral (where the engine, of course, just raced) and tried to kick it down by spearing the gas. Nope. Finally, I put it back into gear, and after a few moments I felt the engine relax. At that point I wasn't sure if it was a mechanical thing with the linkage or something else, but I decided just to take it directly to Rick's. I called him and he said bring it over, no sweat.

Great.

So I swung up 77 to 490, and as I was getting onto 90 (and into a HORRIBLE traffic jam), I finally had to come to a complete stop. Fine. As I was sitting there, foot on the brake, the engine suddenly started to race again, fighting me as I was trying to keep it stopped....so it's not a mechanical/linkage thing. Good thing I'm on the way to Rick's, I think. Then, as we're crawling along, suddenly the radiator lets loose, steam pouring out from under the hood. Wonderful. I'm in the left lane, so I flip on my turn signal and try to make it to the berm. Of course, the other drivers (seeing steam pouring out from under my hood) can't be bothered to give me a break. Anyway, I did get it over pretty quickly and got it shut off. Called for a tow and got it towed to Rick's, where it sits now.

Didn't get home 'til 'bout 8:30.

God, I love cars.