I'm Dying to See You

For many months now, my car has had this peculiar little quirk I hadn't thought much about. It has an alarm system (not factory standard), which I don't really use for alarm purposes -- who the hell even pays any attention to a car alarm going off these days? I simply use it because, as anyone with auto door locks will tell you, locking and unlocking your car at the touch of a button is a handy frakking invention.

Well, the alarm is supposed to beep twice when you lock (arm) it, and once when you unlock (disarm) it. If the alarm has gone off in your absence, it beeps three times. Simple enough. Except that for going on what might be half a year now, it has beeped five times every time I unlock the car. I suppose I could (should?) have dug out the manual, but everything seemed to be just fine, so I didn't think anything of it. One of my friends even commented on the odd personality it gave my car; it clearly "missed me" while I was gone, and chirped its happiness to see me return.

Then, three days ago, I went out to run errands, tried to unlock my car, and nothing happened. The button on the key fob just wouldn't trigger anything. I went back inside my place, got the spare, and unlocked the car. Suspecting that the battery had just gone out in my fob, I went and got a replacement during that round of errands.

And ever since then, the car alarm has beeped just once when I unlock the car. So... it would appear that five beeps might mean "the battery in your fob is dying." A handy warning I suppose, except that as I said, this has been going on for half year, easily. Maybe longer. Has this "almost dead" battery really been functioning all this time? Damn!

At least it finally gave up the ghost while I was at home, in easy reach of the backup. I can only imagine the headache if, say, I'd been at work and couldn't disarm the damn thing to drive home.