I am generally the only one if the car, maybe 90% of the time; the wife thinks it's too loud and low to the ground

. I agree completely with the fact that leaving it inoperable is not a great idea. The justification that comes to mind is the fact that this is the door airbag, not the main one in the passenger dash.
This seems to have started right after a rather large and ungainly person from work went for a short drive in the car. I was wondering initially if maybe he screwed up the seat belt tensioner or yanked on the door handle or something. I do wipe the doors down with leather cleaner occasionally though as well lazerx, I wonder if just taking the door skin off and poking around a bit will help... (My indicator is on all the time, it doesn't flash, same with you lazerx?)
I've asked them not to fix it and will do a bit of investigation myself first. I would doubt they looked too exhaustively into easier (cheaper) fixes. Is there an electrical connector for the seat belt tensioner under the seat that I can look at?