When I was a child, my parents had a car that would die at red lights. Before the light turned green, my mother had to jump out of the car, pop the hood and do something under the hood to restart the car. I didn’t think there was anything odd about this. As far as I knew, everyone did things at traffic lights to keep their cars working.

A billion years later, I drive a car that randomly decides not to start. Since it only happens when I am not at home, maybe it’s not random as much as it is inconvenient. The only way to make the car start again is to hop out, remove the gas cap and put the gas cap back on again.

I hope my children don’t think this is normal automobile behavior. I would not like special needs cars to be a family tradition.