Further evidence that my gremlins do in fact exist.

I don't like driving. Although I've never been behind the wheel when in an accident, I've been told that I'm not a good driver to begin with. I don't like being crowded, so I'll linger back to avoid being boxed in by other cars at 70mph on the highway. I don't trust that other drivers are really paying attention to what they are doing when I can see them yakking on their cell phones. I hate driving in the rain, which is a fairly common event here in Florida.

For almost seven years I have shared a vehicle with Garith and more or less just stayed home while he takes it to work, shopping, whatever... If I absolutely needed a vehicle whenever our schedules clashed, I would either borrow or rent one.

Last year one of my best friends started nagging me about how I needed my own vehicle. He was right, I was holding my career back by limiting my mobility. It took many, many months to get me to come around to the idea, but eventually I did.

So I embarked on the Hell that is car-hunting, knowing what my needs were and comparing that to what the car lots had to offer. Not fun. I didn't think my requirements were such a big deal... Asian make, automatic transmission, less than ten years old, under 10K, and enough cargo space to hold my gear.

After several weeks of scanning ads online and another two days physically pounding the pavement at every used dealership in a three-town area, I finally found an Isuzu SUV that met all my needs.

I'll admit, the first couple days were fun while zipping around town and doing errands that I would normally have to put off until someone in the house had a day off. I even bought a GPS because Google Maps is notorious for sending me on wild goose chases when going to new destinations.

I even splurged a little and bought some car toys and a custom bumper sticker that gave drivers (and police) a clue as to my occupation because I do in fact travel with weapons and rolls of plastic sheeting when I'm on a job.

And then, less than two weeks after purchasing my vehicle, my husband's truck breaks down.

Tell me gremlins don't exist!