Your check engine light might not mean what you think

There's the culprit.

Does anybody remember from Big Bang Theory the running gag that the check-engine light was always on in Penny's car? It drove Sheldon crazy. Well, yesterday, I had a Penny/Sheldon event. My truck had been sitting in temperatures around zero for a week or so. With the temp reaching 10 yesterday and the fact that I was running out of some vital groceries, I went out, started it and drove down to a market that's less than a mile away. When I came out of the store it would not start. It being a short distance I decided to walk back and get my portable jump starter. In the cold on a snow-covered sidewalk I started uphill. Too long a story for here, a neighbor recognized me and gave me a lift, then drove me back with my jumper. The truck started right up but something new, the check-engine light came on. Now, the way my life is going these days my mind immediately took me to a super expensive repair bill as I drove home. I assumed this was next in a series of huge difficulties to overcome. I fell asleep anguishing about it.

     In the morning I read the book and also remembered a mechanic telling me at one time or other that more than 140 things in the engine can activate that warning. I had to go out again today thinking that and from the book  (and from Penny's experience :) realized I could probably drive around with it for a while. I had left the truck plugged in overnight (I don't pay utilities here) and it started right up. When I lifted the hood to unplug, I noticed I had forgotten to close the little plastic flip cover for the positive terminal on the battery after I had started the truck the day before. (That's it in the photo.) I closed it, unplugged and dropped the hood.

      I climbed back into the driver's seat and restarted the engine. Guess what. The check engine light flashed like it is supposed to at startup but then it went out. That thing was connected to the flip lid on the battery. Suddenly the number 140 made more sense. I wondered what part of the sales price related to the warning system connections to all the little gadgets in the engine compartment . I also wondered how much it would have cost me to take it to the dealer to be checked. Talk about getting you coming and going. It's no wonder cars cost so much these days. I can roll my own windows up and down. I can lift a lever and push my seat backward and forward. And I could probably drive around for weeks like Penny with that little cover flipped up and then closed it when I finally noticed.

     Then, too, I could probably tamp down my reactions to all the little difficulties that pop up in life instead of overreacting like Sheldon. Lesson: Don't be Sheldon; be Penny, at least where the check-engine light is concerned.