My "Check Engine" light has been on. 

I'd say it's probably been on since... June? Okay, I'm a procrastinator. Part of my problem is the damn inconvenience of getting the car to the mechanic and doing a jittery-jig of then getting a ride to work. Of course the counter-argument is you'll be doing more than a jittery-jig when the car implodes.

Luckily, that hasn't happened. However, my inspection sticker expires at the end of the month (that would be tomorrow). I figure Check Engine probably will get me a big, fat, letter R and I do the jig and get the car to the shop. He gives it a tune up, replaces the plugs and runs a diagnostic to find its this little part that he doesn't have (now that I think of it, I have no idea what it actually does). Although, it doesn't impede driving, he resets the computer and it should be okay. 

I tell him thanks and he says, "Oh, you have to drive it eighty miles."

"What?" I say, because I figure that's an odd thing to say after getting a tune-up.

"You're sticker is up. You have to drive it eighty miles before you can get a new sticker."

"Huh?" 

Then he explains that it's to keep people from resetting the computer and then getting a sticker without fixing the underlying problem. "You know, so you can't cheat the system."

"Okay," I say and start thinking about how I can clock 80 miles before tomorrow morning. When I get back in the car, I reset the trip odometer and start thinking of taking the long way back home. When I get there, I look down and it's a whopping 5.3 miles. So I'm not going with my original plan of getting a sticker Friday morning.

*Sigh.*

This morning I drove Kelly to school and took the longest way to work I could think of: 35.4 miles (5.3 + 30.1 = 35.4). Yeah! At lunch I think I might drive over to a game store in Waltham. GoogleMaps puts it at 14.5 miles so there and back should be 29.00. That should get me to 64.3  [(14.5 + 14.5) + 35.4 = 64.4]. Now if I take the long way back home, it should be close enough to 30 miles to put me over the top (64.4 + 30.0 = ~94.4).

As long as it doesn't start down pouring at lunch, I might be okay to get up early tomorrow and stand in the inevitable long lines for a sticker.