About 2 weeks ago, I started noticing these little black winged ants in my apartment now and then. It was really odd, because I'm on the second floor of an apartment building, so it's not like they're coming up from under the ground. Well, last night, I found out how they're getting in. I went into my bedroom, and all around the closet there was about 100 ants of various sizes, some with wings, some without. Since I don't have any bug spray, I chose to deal with this infestation by using my vacuum. So, I was up till 2am sweeping up ants! I'd clear out around the doors and the framework where they were coming in, and then go back half an hour later and there'd be more! When they finally stopped coming out, I took the container out of the vacuum, put on some shorts, a t-shirt and sandles and headed outside into the drizzling rain to dump my nefarious cargo into the dumpster. I took the filter out of the container, and as I started to dump, something jumped up from the bottom of the dumpster at me! I jumped back, but in the motion the container slipped from my hand into the nearly empty dumpster! As I'm yelling WOAH!, what I was able later to determine was a cat jumped up to the top of the dumpster, then down to the parking lot and scurried away. So there I am, at 2am, in the dark, drizzling rain, hanging over the side of the dumpster trying to fish out my vacuum container. I had thoughts of leaving it till the morning, but then I had visions of trash being piled on top before I could get to it, and I'd lose it, and not be able to use my vacuum anymore.
Well, I was able to fish out the container, and I went back into my apartment to get some sleep. I noticed a strange smell pervading my apartment, and after awhile it dawned on me that it was the unmistakable smell of gas. So I got up and went to the kitchen and smelled around the gas hose going to my stove. I smelled nothing. I thought maybe somebody from another apartment was having a problem, and it would be cleared up in the morning, so I went to bed.
I got up at my regular 6:30, and the smell of gas was terrible! I was worried about going to work and the whole building blowing up, killing those who were still home, and distroying everything I own, which I have no way of replacing as I can't afford insurance, and I don't have anything of value anyway that the insurance would pay for, only cheap junk furnature, a 20 year old tv, and 2 laptop computers worth @ $50 each. But I don't have any money to replace any of it, so I would just be out of luck!
Well, when I went out to the kitchen to make my coffee, I could smell the gas very strongly. That's when I noticed that when I'd moved the stove out earlier to see if that's where the ants were getting in, I had inadvertantly turned one of the burner handles partially so that gas was seeping in and there was no flame. I'd slept for 4 hours with gas slowly building up in my apartment and didn't even know it!
I quickly shut off the handle and opened the doors to let the gas air out, and finished getting ready.
I went out and got in my car, turned the key, cranked it a couple times, it caught, and then stopped. I spent the next 20 minutes cranking, and the engine just wouldn't catch!
I went back into my apartment and called in to work to let them know I would be late. Then I went back out and opened the hood (not that I thought I would be able to fix it) and looked for anything obvious that I could find. You see, it had seemed to me that the fuel pump was not delivering any gas to the engine from the way it acted and sounded. Then I thought maybe a fuse had blown, so I took off the fuse cover and started looking around. But since I don't have a fuse tester, and there was no fuse associated with the fuel system anyway, all I could do was switch the fuel system relay with the horn relay, hoping that was the problem. The horn still worked, and the car didn't start.
I started having visions of an expensive tow and hundreds of dollars in repair bills, money I did not have. And since I just started my new job, I haven't gotten my first paycheck yet, so I didn't even have any money to pay for a tow or have my car fixed till possibly friday or saturday! Not to mention that I couldn't see them letting me stay there if I don't show up for most of my second week of employment!
I decided not to panic. I knew that a simple answer to this problem would be given to me, and I just had to wait for it. So I took a shower.
When I got out of the shower, that little voice in my head told me to google it. So I googled '2004 chevy classic will not start'. On the fourth site that popped up, there was a person describing the same symptoms that my car had. The answer from the mechanic was that sometimes in chevy's the anti-theft system will lose the stored code from the ignition key and cut the fuel when you try to start it, thinking someone is trying to steal your car. It tole me to turn on the ignition but not start the car, and look to see if the anti-theft warning light flashes. Which it did. The fix, it said, was to leave the ignition turned on without the car started for 10 minutes. After that 10 minutes, turn the ignition off. The onboard computer will relearn the code from the key and the car will start. So, I turned on the ignition, let it set for 10 minutes, and when the anti-theft light went out, I turned off the ignition, and then tried to start my car again, which started right up like nothing at all was wrong! So I was able to drive to work, and no costs in tows or repairs.
I didn't even know my car had a 'passive anti-theft system'!
It's been quite a day, but I survived, lost nothing, and cost nothing. And I didn't even panic.
