Today was Vanessa's first "Doctor's Appointment". This weekend my car had her first hiccup. While I was driving to work on Saturday the ABS indicator on the dash suddenly came on with a warning tone.

I wasn't sure what the problem was but I knew that ABS stands for Antilock Braking System, so I pulled over and checked Vanessa's owner's manual.

The manual said that as long as the BRAKE indicator wasn't illuminated, the car was still safe to drive, and would use normal braking instead of antilock braking.

Over the course of the weekend the indicator flicked on and off half a dozen times.  On Monday I called my dealer, Robert's Chrysler of Fitchburg, to set up an appointment for Vanessa on Tuesday (today).

So I took her in and sat in the waiting room... waiting for the verdict on my car.  At only 10,650 miles, I doubted there was any sort of serious problem.

Meantime the 9/11 hearings were on the TV there, and I was grateful that I was not being subjected to standard daytime TV.  Daytime TV sucks balls.

While waiting I had the pleasure of talking with an elderly gentleman who had brought his Town & Country van in for service.  He told me he was getiing a loaner PT Cruiser while they worked on his van.  I told him that I owned a cruiser, and how much fun it was to drive.  We talked about cars for awhile until the serviceman came up and told him his loaner was ready.

I had an opportunity to chat with the sales manager who had helped me with my PT cruiser purchase.  He told me about the beautiful new PT convertible, but I let him know that I loved my car far too much to consider replacing her.

It was nice to learn that the salesman who had sold me the car had read my article "Driving Miss Vanessa", enjoyed it, printed it out and passed it around.

It turned out that the car simply had a faulty sensor.  They ordered the replacement part, changed my oil and oil filter, and said they would call when the part came in.  Groovy!

So Vanessa is okay... think I'll stop at the carwash on my way into work.