A New Hieroglyph

My favorite Egyptian symbol, or hieroglyph, is the bird. I don’t know why; it just looks neat standing there thinking about whatever, with its tail sticking out like the back of Groucho Marx’s coat. You know, of course, you can catch a bird by putting salt on its tail and that’s what I think of every time I see that glyph. There should be another one behind it of an Egyptian with a salt shaker creeping up behind the bird.

Anyway, I was coming back from church on Saturday afternoon when I noticed a new symbol lit up on my dashboard. Square, with two projecting points on top, labeled either "+" or "-".

“Strange,” I thought. “Never seen that one before. Seatbelt reminder, ABS, other things; but not this new and unusual figure. It looks like a battery and I’m 15 minutes from home. That’s not good; more than that, it’s bad.”

I did get back safely, but that evening I found that I could listen to the radio and use the air conditioning or turn on the headlights, but not all three. Radio and air, or lights. Lights or radio/air. When I brought the car across the bridge to our service station, I noticed the speedometer take a dive as the radio cut out. You can coast with an automatic transmission under 35mph, but the engine still worked and I only had two hundred feet to go, so all went well and I made it safely.

Now I’m waiting to see how my ’98 Cavalier is doing.