This is not happening.

Dashboard gobbledygook from this helpful website.

So I was driving along a remote stretch of highway when my radio blinked this message: OIL CHANGE DUE NEXT SERVICE. And then the oil light came on. And then all these lights seared into my brain. And then I began to have my usual this-vehicle-is-likely-about-to-explode-inner-anxiety-attack.

So like I always do in these situations, I just continued driving.

Before I elaborate further, dear reader, I must say, I don't blame you if you're already pre-judging me but in my defense I will say I've never been one of those typical guys who understands/is fascinated by/falls in love with vehicles (except for the hubcaps, those are cool and remind me of all the matchbox cars I had when I was a kid). I must also inform you that my father was a mechanic and when he discovered my uh, disability aka my complete ineptitude in all matters mechanical, he would just shake his head, shake his head, shake his head and even though I was ten when I discovered how deeply this disappointed him, I still feel that shame hit me in the face like a pail of water every time I'm forced to problem-solve vehicle issues thus the aforementioned inner-anxiety-attack. Plus, if you only knew how many vehicles I wrecked when I was a kid using the just-keep-driving strategy and how many times my father just shook his head, shook his head, shook his head (barely mumbling swear words) then you'd know just how immobilized and irrational a broke-down vehicle situation makes me.

Anyway, now that I've overshared, despite experience teaching me otherwise, I continued with the just-keep-driving strategy while these thoughts bounced around my pea-brain:

1. This is not happening.
2. This is not happening.
3. This is not happening (this was my go-to phrase for vehicle break-downs until I finally started buying vehicles that were manufactured in the current decade and considering I bought this sweet little car just a few months ago this should not be happening).
4. This is not happening.
5. I just had the oil changed last week.
6. Why isn't there smoke coming out of the hood yet?
7. Did someone forget to put the plug back in the oil pan? But that was a week ago.
8. This is not happening.
9. *continues to drive*
10. Nothing is happening.
11. Nothing seems to be wrong. DO NOT THINK RATIONALLY.
12. I'm in the middle of nowhere.
13. I think there might be bears out in those trees.
14. And they're laughing at me.
15. Where are my brothers when I need them? Oh right, they have their own lives, and I'm a grown man.
16. This is probably not happening.
17. I should stop and check the oil.
18. I don't want to.What if the car won't start afterward?
19. *pulls over near someone's home along the highway* I bet hillbillies live here.
20. This is just like this.
21. If I phone my wife will she call me a wiener? *texts wife*
22. This vehicle is full of oil. WTF?
23. *waits for the hillbillies to saunter down the road with their pick-axes and dental tools*
24. *wife texts me that the garage forgot to reset the oil change warning after they changed the oil last week*
25. *eats everything in my lunch kit as I drive home*