Car go boom

Okay, so the car didn't go boom.  It went, "Bing bing bing bing bing!"  (That sound makes me want to watch 'Friends'...)

I was on my way home from the vet, and the ABS light wouldn't go off.  That didn't seem good.  Then, as I was stopping before pulling out of the parking lot, there was a loud beeping sound, much like the sound that means I'm almost out of gas.  I looked down at the gauge, and I was not out of gas.  Then I saw the 'BRAKE' light flashing.  That seemed worse.  As I started going, the brake light turned off, and the beeping stopped.

Then I came to a red light.  As I stepped on the brakes, the care started screeching at me again, and the light came back on.  Again, not good.  This went on the whole way home.  Keep in mind, I'm on my way home from the vet, and so I have a puppy in the car with me.  She's not a happy puppy.  She doesn't like the vet much, even though he didn't give her any shots this time.  (I'm not sure I like him, either... he's got creepily vacant eyes.)  I pulled into Arby's to get dinner (because that's what we do on the way home from the vet), and I went through the drive through.  Of course, this involves much stopping, and there was much binging from the unhappy car.

I finally got home and pulled out the manual.  All combinations of brake light and ABS light apparently require an immediate, slow trip to the nearest VW dealer to fix either broken brake cables or empty brake lines.  Hmm.  I was right.  This is not good.  Of course, all of this was going on AFTER work, so I couldn't get in anywhere.  The place I called is fully booked tomorrow, but the guy on the phone was super-nice, and told me to bring the car in tomorrow and they'll hook it up to the diagnostic computer to see if it's a major problem, or if I just need to top up fluids.  

So I may have to spend my Christmas shopping money on fixing my car.  *sigh*  On the bright side, this guy was really nice on the phone, which says a lot about the company (in my opinion).  As long as they don't charge three times what the market rate is, I think I've found my 'shop.'  Yay!  And since the car's going in anyways, I'm going to get a quote on the price to fix the electrical outlets (can't charge anything!) and the roof (the lining is falling off).  I don't think I'll necessarily get those repaired soon, but it would be nice to know what I'm saving for.  :)

And that was today's car fun.