Well, not quite -- and in more ways than one. I had to go to my alma mater's Game-watching event even though I had to bug out at Halftime to go back home and take my parents to the airport. When I was parking my car at the lot close to the bar, my dashboard suddenly flashed a "NO KEY" sign. I was kind of freaking out, but I switched fobs, and the one I got went through its last battery really quickly, so I think it's not good.
I thought that was the reason for that warning, so I wasn't really worried when I finally decided to leave. But when I tried to open the door, I didn't hear anything. I had to literally take it apart for it to finally work. So, I concluded that the fob was so bad that I had to now use the one I switched out, and use it from now on.
But that didn't work, either. As I started the car in the driveway, the damn "NO KEY" warning flashed again. I turned off the car and tried to start it again, but it wouldn't work. I ran back inside the house to switch the fobs back (I concluded I should do this, but I didn't) and there was no sign. But after I dropped off my parents at the terminal, I tried using the fob to lock the doors at both Jimmy John's and the Mall Of America, but it wouldn't respond. I could do the thing where I could open the door if I grabbed the handle, but I couldn't do anything if I wasn't close. When I got the OK by Mother to leave because they boarded their plane (which was delayed by 80 minutes), I just pulled the fob apart. I hit the button, and the doors opened, and the car started just fine.
While I was just walking around the Megamall, my mind was racing with what could be going on. There were two commonalities between the two fobs I tried to use. One commonality was the battery, which I kept switching between the fobs. The other was, well, the car. There is the possibility that the car was going haywire. And that thought terrified me all night. Meanwhile, I also was afraid that somehow, both fobs just failed at the same time, and I had to buy a new one. Last week, I tried starting the car, but it wouldn't. At the time I thought it was because the fob was in the same pocket as my phone, but with what happened Friday and yesterday, a pattern was emerging that the fob (or fobs) wasn't (or weren't) working. I got more evidence for that theory when I got home, tried to close the doors using the button, and it once again wouldn't work. And then I accidentally set off the car alarm. I was able to open the door and start the car (to stop the alarm) with the battery in the fob, but only if I put the fob right up to the ignition button.
Now I'm freaking out. But I had only final play before I had to take drastic measures in order to prepare for the Vikings Game and my (abbreviated) work week. I decided to use the other disc battery we had. This is an Energizer battery, and it was a package I bought. When I took it out of its blister, I immediately saw a difference, and probably the difference: This battery was thicker, way thicker, than the battery I was trying to use. That's when I realized they're not the same kind of battery. The one I first used came from a package Father bought. It's not a company I'm familiar with, and I also had a fleeting thought that a bad battery was the cause for all of this. But it turns out, or at least I hope to Buddha that this is the reason, that the first battery was too thin to reach all the contacts inside the fobs, and that's why the car couldn't detect the fob inside the car. I popped the Energizer battery in its place, and I could open and close the doors to the car from the front door just fine.
All that anxiety, stress and worry, and it was because of the wrong type of battery. I'm sure everything's fine now, but my body is still reeling from the trauma, dammit.
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