Tales of the Weird

As if my life weren't strange and stressful enough - today the car radio decided to act up. On the way to work, I turned it on for a quick traffic update and light morning banter. It turned itself off. And on. And off. And on. And so on and so forth. Off/on/off/on/off/on. I changed it to CD status, and it would play CDs, but if it was on the radio, it was off/on/off/on/off/on. I was able to turn the volume down and turn the radio completely off. I drove into work in silence.

When I started the car this afternoon, I thought I'd try the radio again - maybe a few hours in a parking garage would fix the radio problem, right? No such luck. This time, the CD player wouldn't work AND I couldn't adjust the volume AND I couldn't turn the radio off! It just kept turning itself on/off/on/off/on/off. Over and over and over. The entire drive.

I got to Matthew's daycare, where we had a parent/teacher meeting. I turned the car off. I took the key out of the ignition. I opened the door. Still, the radio continued the crazy on/off routine. THE CAR WAS OFF! But not the radio. So for about 30 minutes while I was in the meeting, the radio continued to turn itself off and on while it was in the parking lot. All the way home, off/on/off/on.

So I got home (after calling Chris and my Dad to relate the crazy story) and pulled open the fuse box. Couldn't figure out from the diagram which fuse was the radio. Couldn't find the operator's manual to the car. Had to go online and print out the fuse box schematic and return to the garage with a pair of needle nose pliers and a flashlight. Found and pulled out the fuse - the radio finally was silenced. We're hoping it's just the fuse and replacing it will correct the crazy radio problem. If not, I think we're going to have to rip the radio out, because driving with the radio off/on/off/on is VERY aggravating.