Vehicular aggravation

Since I paid my Jetta off earlier this summer, it's slowly started to need work done. This weekend, one of the engine cylinders decided to misfire and now it's in the shop needing a tune up. I can't complain, it's lasted eight years without one and pushes 10,000 between oil changes.

I know, I should get the oil changed every 3,000 miles, but Google said I could go for 10 - no prob. I'm sure Google advice is why my car is in the shop.

Anyway, while my car is getting repaired, I'm driving the boyfriend's Xterra - and I'm grateful for that option. The only three issues I have with his vehicle are:

1. The seat does not slide up and my legs aren't long enough to reach the gas pedal.
2. The car doors do not lock unless the remote is nowhere near the vehicle.
3. Randomly and without warning unlocking the car will set off the alarm.

I've learned to deal with all except the car doors not locking. Since the remote needed to be no where near the vehicle, I decided to leave it at home and use the key to lock and unlock the doors so that I knew it would stay locked and bad guys wouldn't sneak in the car and ambush me after dark like in the movies.

In theory this should have worked.

Well, today was the magical day that the alarm on the car decided to set itself off when I unlocked the door with the key - in the parking lot at work. I could not get it to shut off by putting the key in the ignition, locking and unlocking the door or by yelling random swear words and promising to punch it in the grill.

So there I was sitting in the driver's seat, flipping through the front of the owner's manual and in big, bold letters it states:
"Car alarm can only be deactivated by pressing the deactivate alarm button on REMOTE."

The remote that I left at home so the car would stay locked. Seriously, what company doesn't make a plan B for situations like this? Nissan. That's who.

After about what seemed like, oh, I don't know -FOREVER, the alarm finally shut itself off. I decided to let myself out of the car and planned on asking my friend for a ride home to get the remote. The minute I opened the door, the I set off the alarm again.

Really. There had to be a way to bypass this. And there was.

In the very back of the manual, the first place anyone would look, it stated that the alternative to using the remote to deactivate the alarm was to unlock the car from the passenger side door. It worked.

Guess I won't be leaving the remote home anymore. Thank you Nissan, for making things aggravatingly difficult.