Car Back To Giving Me Problems Again

It was a cold day, but when I drove home from work and was idling at the on-ramp, I noticed that I could not get the car to drive past first gear for a few seconds. And now the accelerator is shaking.

I flew over a nasty bump on a side street when I was heading downtown a couple weeks ago. Maybe it has something to do with that. Oh my God, I hope it's not the transmission and it's just the weather.

Thought changing the tires would do the trick. It solved the little shaking, the one where I'm just driving and I could feel my steering wheel shake back and forth. That's done now with new tires. But the acceleration, gone when I step off the gas pedal, still plagues me.

And I am reminded about the series of maintenance items the car faces soon:

• new spark plugs
• timing belt
• struts (both front and rear)
• systemwide fluid flush

I don't need this shit, not right now.