Like many people, I'm bombarded with messages. News alerts. Text messages. Breaking news to my phone. E-mail, to both phone and computer. Appointments on my calendar also beep computer and phone. But amid this otherwise welcome and useful drumbeat of information, one annoyance stands out: My car won't shut up about its scheduled maintenance.

My messages are generally helpful, especially The Californian's e-mail newsletters and its menu of text phone alerts. For example, even though I'm off this afternoon, my phone just told me that Assemblywoman Nicole Parra is curtailing her political ambitions. I'm thinking, good for her.

The annoyance begins when I get in the car and turn the key. I'm greeted by a plaintive wail from the dash, accompanied by a text message: TIME FOR SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE. It stays there, glaring at me in bright green letters, until I click it off. It then reappears throughout my drive at inopportune intervals, such as when I'm trying to focus on texting, or a phone call.

You may be thinking, "get the maintenance, and be done with it." I assure you I intend to call the dealer, schedule an appointment, call again later to reschedule due to an unforeseen crisis, figure out a way to get the car to/from there, a way to get myself to/from work, and a way to get the kids to/from school. All this for a nonexistent service issue. It's going to happen. But between now and then, frankly, I'm sick of my car browbeating me.

We all have our albatrosses we must carry. For me, it's one fact: My car won't shut up about its scheduled maintenance.