[car stuff] man I just had the BIGGEST exhale moment lmao

So my car's check engine light has been on ever since the catalytic converter got jacked last fall, because the car apparently doesn't like the generic third-party replacement converter and ONLY wants a factory-fresh one direct from Honda. Picky bitch.

However you may have heard that there is a nationwide epidemic of converter thefts, which has resulted in a nationwide backlog of factory fresh converters. Like, this happened to me before Thanksgiving. We been WAITING.

My car actually runs fine and is safe to drive despite the check light, so this would not be a problem EXCEPT that it was almost certainly going to result in my car failing its annual emissions test, which is due this month

Each time I brought the car in right after the theft, the check light would go off for about 10 miles before going on again, so Ernie and I were like maybe they can do some fuckery to make it go off for a bit and pass the emissions test....?

I brought it in today and no, no they could not

Which would put my in the position of either having to constantly risk getting pulled over for an expired emissions sticker (It's More Likely Than You Think) or getting a new car

My car is 16 years old with a fucked up bumper but I drive so few miles and Hondas can last for a LONG time so I didn't really want to do that right now/while under a time crunch

Ernie just called me and was like yeah we couldn't make it pass the test....BUT he called the Honda dealership he was working with one more time and they have a converter ready, it'll arrive in 3-5 days

HOORAY

The check light better fuckin' not go on after all this

This is the car equivalent of only wanting a very specific brand of expensive wet food

fuckin CARS

FUCKIN CARS

CARS!!

They could not figure out why the fucketh the check light kept going on when the car was functioning perfectly fine

TURNS OUT IT WAS PICKINESS

If I did not trust Ernie I would swear he was just fucking with me to see how long I'd wait

OMG that's such a relief though

I'm still sweating a little because WHAT IF THE ENGINE LIGHT GOES ON AGAIN