It began last August.

I had a cooler in the back seat of my car, filled with ice. As ice often does, it melted, forming water. Is everybody getting this?

Now, as a cooler filled with melted ice (water) often does, it spilled. After that, the red "brake" light on my dashboard came on, which I assumed to be a direct correlation to the upside-down cooler in the back seat of my car.

I thought it was merely a short circuit caused, of course, by the water. It briefly occurred to me that the back seat of my car was a weird place to have a wire connected to my brake light, but hey, life is funny like that. At the time, my brakes felt fin e, so I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Every once in awhile, though, I would pound my hand into the parking brake, just to see if the light went off, but it never did.

I soon got used to it. Also, it was a nice conversation starter. "Hey, your brake light's on," someone would observantly point out to me. I would then relate the story about the cooler and the water, which was so logical it quickly shut them up.

After driving my car one day, my dad asked me, "Hey, did you know your brake light's on?" He suggested perhaps my brakes were bad. Sighing, I related yet again the story of the cooler, specifically emphasizing the part about what happens to ice when it me lts.

After about five months of driving around with that annoying light, my brakes started to get soft. Really soft. And the light was still on. Even worse, my short-circuit theory no longer held water (pun regrettably intended).

Anyway, my dad, using spare brake fluid he had just "lying around the house," refilled my car's reserve. Amazingly, the light went off. If only life were that easy all the time.

But life isn't that easy. A few weeks later, I noticed a grinding noise every time I made a right turn. After looking under my car, I discovered the plastic covering under my car was hanging, grinding against the wheel during right turns.

To me, the solution was simple: Avoid making right turns. Sure, it took me somewhat longer to get places, but at least I didn't have to hear that irritating noise.

Apparently, however, my ignorance angered the car gods, who were obviously trying to get me to perform some sort of automobile maintenance. This is the only explanation I could think of for why my brake light came on again.

One day, my brother borrowed my car. He called me later that night.

"Monty!" he said. "Your car!"

"What happened?" I exclaimed, thinking he was going to tell me how the brakes failed and he hit someone, and blaming myself for whatever might happen ...

"Your brake light!" he said. "It came on again! And there's a weird grinding noise every time you make a right turn!"

Yes, I shared the same thought: The car gods work in strange ways.

Monty Phan is sports editor of the Arizona Daily Wildcat. His column appears Fridays.