When I came back to Dallas, the problems began. Lucius Malfoy is my car. He is my prized possession as he takes me everywhere. He is a Volvo XC90 that I've had since freshman year but never got to bring to school until last year. Lately, he's gotten into the habit of setting off the alarm for whatever reason whenever he feels like. Does Lucius discriminate against the time of day or night? Nope. It's not like I can disarm the car and make it stop. There are certain European tools that are required for the maintenance of the car, and I don't feel like blowing myself up trying. At first I thought it was just a mean prankster trying to break in or set off the alarm because of my bumper stickers (I've gotten plenty of flack for my Obama paraphernalia), but then I thought no. Too much effort. It didn't even occur to me that it was my car until I walked outside and it was happening. It's not that I don't close the doors or forget to lock the car. Before spring break, Claire and I went to the mall for some cowboy boots. Well, the next day I had to return because one boot in the box was a 7.5 instead of a 7. I parked as close as I could to the nearest entrance and walked over to the doors. Right when I got to the entrance, the alarm went off. Frustrated, I went back and unlocked the car then locked it again. I turned around to go back and not even halfway to the entrance, it happened again. I then proceeded to have an embarrassing hissy fit in the middle of the parking lot. I disarmed the alarm, then locked it again. Upon returning to the car after my exchange at the store, the alarm was going off. Cut to later on that evening when at 3am I woke up from my sleep, presumably to roll over and fall back asleep, and heard the alarm going off in the parking lot. THREE IN THE MORNING. This isn't even once every few days, this is EVERY DAMN DAY. Last night I had to disarm and turn on the alarm close to 5 times. Finally I called AAA for assistance and they sent over a mechanic to look at the car and assess the issues. He said it was either a problem with the clicker or with the alarm itself. This afternoon, I came back from class to the car blaring in the parking lot and although I had a 6pm appointment at Volvo, I got my keys and hauled ass to the service station to just dump Lucius off as I had just about had it. I'm surprised that while I was there it didn't happen. Just now, as I write this, there are birds outside chirping. I'm so paranoid right now, that to me it sounded like the alarm going off so I panicked and tried to run outside and disarm the car. While at the service station, the man doing the paperwork said that it wasn't necessarily common, but it does happen a bit often with older XC90 models. Apparently the computer that controls the alarm system fries and shorts itself, causing the alarm to have a mind of its own. To assess and repair/replace the computer will run up to $600. More or less. How exciting is that? Well, that's my first rant of the evening. I can't wait until this is all over.
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| This man's name is Lucius Malfoy. Does he look trustworthy? Didn't think so. |
<3 Ally
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