So this happened. Last Saturday night, as your ever-faithful
Hunters Bay Radio cub reporter (hah!) and video correspondent, I was attending
the annual Burk’s Falls Santa Claus Parade in order to post a live video feed
to the Hunters Bay Radio Facebook page. I’ve made a few cellphone videos to
record live local events, and they seem to be a hit with people who couldn’t
attend in person. I enjoyed the parade, and when it was over, I chatted with a
few folks before heading back to my wife’s car. When I tried to unlock it with
the electronic key fob, nothing happened. I tried several times to no avail,
and eventually used the manual key option to open the door. I could not start
the car with the electronic key, and this is odd, because I’d recently replaced
the fob battery. Mildly freaking out, I walked to the local convenience store
to see if they had any batteries, knowing that the chances of finding a specialized
wafer battery at a local convenience store were slim to none. With no success, I
went back to the car and immediately called Shauna at home. I didn’t want to
make her drive to Burk’s Falls to give me the extra key, but that seemed to be
the only option. She decided to go online first to investigate possible options
if your electronic key fob fails. By the way, the owner’s manual for my own car
is provided as a CD, not a booklet, and contains 500 pages of
information. A lot of good that CD will do me in my car! There was, by the way, no indication on the
instrument panel (as there usually is if the battery is dead) that the fob battery
was dead.
We learned that sometimes the signal can get scrambled and
then the fob will not properly “communicate” with the car. Add this to the
constellation of technological glitches I don’t understand! The online advice was to push the start button
multiple times while holding the manual key as close as possible to the starter
button. To my great surprise, this eventually worked, and it seemed to reset
the fob so that it worked properly. That saved Shauna a trip out in the cold.
With no indication that there was a problem with the fob, it simply stopped
working, and this made me wonder what was wrong with using a simple ignition
key? Had I been in the middle of nowhere, without cell service, I’d have been
SOL. Car batteries can die as well, and during the winter any number of things
can go wrong with a car, but why complicate matters with yet another temperamental
electronic gadget? Anyhow, all’s well that ends well, and I was safe and home
in no time.
I put out a notice on Facebook that I’ll be doing my annual
show of weird Christmas songs Thursday, December 19th. Some selections will be
unusual novelty songs I’ve dredged up over the years, and as well, some will be
listener requests. I’ve already had some good suggestions that are new to me.
The trick is to pick some songs that are truly under the radar. I will give
special consideration to original songs from local and Canadian songwriters.
Someone suggested Bob and Doug Mackenzie’s version of “The Twelve Days Of
Christmas” which I have not heard in years. Of course that will be in
the playlist. The audience participation shows are always great fun for me, and
I look forward to airing this one. I already have 15 or 20 “keepers” for the
playlist. December 19th will be a busy night for me, because I’ll
also be performing a rare live set on Silver Lake Joe’s “Live Drive” from
6-7pm. Of course, I’ll be playing one of
my two original Christmas songs. It involves an intoxicated Santa and his elf.
Remember that tip about the electronic key fob, and to
replace your fob battery every so often. It might just save you some
aggravation on a cold winter night!
Jamie Oppenheimer, Songwriter, Author,
Blogger, Radio Producer, & Host has been writing THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
every MONDAY since 1992 and has published the articles on his blog since 2006.
We are including Jamie's weekly reports, as a feature of #HuntersBayRadio, The Bay 88.7FM.
HuntersBayRadio.com #MusicYouNeedToHear #EveryOneHasAStory #GotLocal? #WeAreMuskoka #WeAreAlmaguin #TheOppenheimerReport #JamieOppenheimer
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