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Mar 23 2006 It’s been a weird few weeks. I have had a cough turn into bronchitis turn into pneumonia. The coughing is ongoing and sometimes involves spasms where it’s hard to catch my breath. And about every time I think that I have turned the corner on it, there seems to be another corner ahead.

Then our well pressure tank became waterlogged, as I have written about. That was all about too much water and not enough air.

In addition, it seems as if our water softener has not been working. So, we have had a build up of sludge in our faucets and other water-related appliances. The repair man came out and replaced lots of parts and gaskets. Even a new Ventura, whatever that is. He also set the softener to a higher hardness level. When it’s “slick” in the shower, all is copasetic.

Today, I took my trusty VW Touareg into the local quick-change oil place, sat and read the paper while they worked, and then got into the car. The “Check Tyre Pressure” warning light was on, which is usual whenever someone fills or checks the tires. Usually, you go to a menu on the dashboard, click on Tyres, and then tell the system to learn the new tire pressures. Today, however, the list of options on the dashboard menu did not have Tyres. It has Lights, Language, Doors, Units. It does not have Tyres.

I looked in the owner’s manual. It should be there. It isn’t. I tried the Set to Factory Defaults button. Nothing. I shut off the car and restarted it…sort of like rebooting a computer. But, alas, while I still have the Check Tyre Pressure warning, bell, and icon visibly displayed and sounding, there is nothing in the menu anymore for Tyres.

Ah, let’s call the VW dealer and see what the service manager says. He says they must have done something at the oil-change place. I ask what they could have done since all they did was change the oil, its filter, and check my tire pressures. He has no clue. Only way to figure this out, I was told, is to come to the dealer for a computer scan to find the problem. The dealer is about 30 minutes away and I know from past experience that these computer checks take up to two hours to complete even if they find nothing, which is often the case.

I called the oil-change place in the vain hope that the manager could shed some light on this. Wrong. Sgt. Schultz in person.

To recap, we have pneumonia, coughing spasms, waterlogged well pressure tank, sludge from faulty water softener, and a misguided air pressure monitoring system in the VW. Serendipity? Kismet? Some grand order of the cosmos?

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