Slowly dying car update

More weirdness on the automotive front.

Managed to lock myself out of my car twice in the ast two weeks, which isn't the car's fault, but it's a good reason to be h8in' on the car right now.

The check engine light is back.  The shuddery stalling is also continuing.  The really odd part was last week, during the Fringe, when it got blazing hot and humid.


I was going to try to tell a chronological story about everything that went weird last week, but I really don't have a good memory for the chronology right now. So unordered list.

• Air conditioning stopped working (fan still worked, only on highest speed, but no cooling)
• No speedometer (or odo or trip) for a couple of days, in the most blazing heat of the week
• Close to overheating a lot
• Dash lights, headlights, and headlights-on-with-no-keys warning alarm all on, after trying to shut everything off

Now the CAA guy who came to let me into my car for the second time in (I think 10 days), noticed my coolant was low.  He also said that a lot of cars electrical systems were going crazy--the heat and the humidity doing things to circuits, switches, relays, etc. that were just not normal.

So the next day, I added some (premixed) coolant and it was still close to overheating for a day or so, but it was still blazing hot.  Yesterday, or maybe it was Saturday, the real heatwave had broken, and we were back to teens and early 20's in the mornings...and I had a speedometer, normal cooling, and even air conditioning.  Well, maybe not the air conditioning.

But lat night around midnight, I was out driving and for the halibut I put on the AC.  Felt cool (but always does), but the real give away that I was actually getting cooling was the condensation forming on the outside of the windshield just over the vents.  The AC was suddenly working again.

So this car is just possessed, by a spirit that really, really doesn't like the heat/humidity.  Lucky I have friends now clamoring to come car-buying with me.  Hopefully soon. I do not want to be relying on this car all winter.

Next step, check the automatic transmission fluid, just in case....

Adventures in Healthcare

I have atopic dermatitis (exzema, 'pre-asthma', chronic/recurrent bronchitis-rhinitis-conjunctivitis, the works). Certain things 'set me off' with rhinitis, bronchitis, rashes and occasional GI disturbances typical of allergic reactions, but rarely the same thing twice, and depending on lifestage things will express differently.  Right now it's my legs. When I was little it was coughing-sneezing-itchy eyes.

Anyway, I have had a persistent outbreak of something on my legs, particularly the left one.  So it's off to the allergist I go.  Gotta love Canadian health care.

So on Tuesday I see the allergist.  Get my arms prict with about 70 common allergens, no reactions all around. I get prescribed the world's strongest antihistamine/sedative (well, world's strongest is a gross overstatement, but the sedative effects linger into the following day in a not wholly unpleasant but not particularly work-productive way), a topical gluco-corticosteroid, and get taped with six more potential allergens and told to a) not shower and b) come back on Friday (today).

Well, the air conditioning at home is out, which you know if you've been following my Facebook entries.  And it's been freaking hot and humid.  So the no-shower thing is a no go.  Figured out how to shower without getting my patch test/tape stuff wet, yay.

Anyway, in this morning and the patch comes off, airs for 10-15 minutes and the doctor takes a look.  No reactions to anything.

So allergist has confirmed a) I'm not obviously allergic to anything I'm probably eating or coming into contact with on a regular basis, b) I have exzema, and c) what I've done all my life, which is to knock down any symptoms as fast as I can as they come up, is the right strategy.  Got a new prescription for a less sedating antihistamine for when I want to get work done. I can take the other one for serious flare ups when having to be entirely lucid the next day isn't a priority (like today, when I'm trying to read a thesis, and next week when I'm counting money at the Fringe 7 hours a day), and I will probably end up back on daily bendaryl just to keep everything down in between.

So no news is good news, like not having Celiac disease either. Which no one has actually told me yet, but I presume since that by now the test has come back and no one has called me saying "never eat wheat again".

So off to shower, anti-inflame and moisturize.