To Vinko, or Not to Vinko

While everyone else has real problems and things to sort out, I'm wondering about my dog.

Here's the thing: Just about everywhere I take my dog with me. Leaving aside for the moment what that says about me and how pathetic that makes me sound, it's just how things are. While it's true that about the only places I go are to stores, I rarely do it alone.

Vinko, my dog, likes to ride in the Jeep, by which I  mean he has no choice in the matter but puts up with it. He doesn't stick his head out the window, doesn't smile or wag his tail in excitement or anything, but he sits quietly in the passenger seat and looks around or lays his head on the padded console. He doesn't complain, but probably enjoys the change of scenery.

This morning I have to take the Jeep in to see about getting rid of that pesky "check engine" light. The light isn't on now, of course, because it goes off after turning the Jeep on three times without being triggered again, but it still has me a bit worried if only because of how much it might take to get rid of it once and for all.

I've been able to do the Internet trick of turning the engine on and off three times (without starting it) to display the codes and, for the curious, the engine codes are P 2074 and P 0108. From what I can tell from looking those up, they're both related to some unexpected condition about manifold pressure. It might be just the sensor that's gone bad, or it might be more serious.

At the moment, the Jeep is running as good as ever, so I'm a little hopeful that if it can do that, the manifold itself or gaskets aren't totally hosed.

The error first showed up when I was running the air conditioner and climbing a mountain. The Jeep hesitated, acted as if it had an automatic transmission that went out of gear before finding the right one. The other time it happened, and the first time I took it in to be checked out, was in the same sort of situation, but this time on a much more gentle slope.

Then, last week, I got another, this time on a flat-ish road without the air conditioner on at all. So, I figured it wasn't the AC that was causing the problem but, looking back, it may have been that truck I passed. I downshifted to do that, ran the Jeep at a high RPM to get the speed necessary to pass, and later the error showed back up.

It took a day of driving around with the Jeep doing a lot of hesitating and having even less power than usual before the error went away. By that time I'd made today's appointment, and now it's time for me to take it into town and see if it will take all my Christmas money to get rid of the damn problem once and for all.

And this is where Vinko comes in.

Like I said, he almost always rides with me when I go anywhere. He's been to the dealer a few times with me so far for normal servicing, and the people there are "dog people" and don't mind. They sometimes give him treats, always make sure he has water, and scratch his ears.

He doesn't like hanging around in the waiting room much, there not being much for a dog to do on the linoleum floor, so we'll take walks around the lot and look at the cars for sale, disappoint the sales people, and stroll around.

Then, when the Jeep's all washed and ready, we drive back home and call it a day.

But today, it may take more than an hour to fix Jose. Once before, before Vinko, the car people drove me home when it would be a long time and picked me back up, but that was just me. I'm a little hesitant to put them through that trouble when I have a dog with me. Yes, he wouldn't have to come along for the return trip, but the driver might not like driving both me and my dog from the dealership back to Landers.

One of the reasons I take my dog with me everywhere is because, well, he expects it by now. If I don't take him with me, I have to leave him inside the cabin. Well, I could let him run around the property, but then I worry he'll run out the gate when I open it to get back in and into the street and get squashed.

Also, if I let him run around the lot, I'm always afraid of running over him myself.

So, I lock him indoors, which is both safer and easier.

I guess that's what I'll do today, but he won't like it. Not until I get back, anyway.