Yet Another AT oil temp story...98 Forester

OK. I've spent the last 3 hours looking through these forums for information, and have gathered a lot of information. Thanks; I hope therefore I am not asking too much of a newbie question. Here's the deal:

The "AT oil temp" light in my 98 Forester has had 2 blinking episodes: once when my wife was driving the 9 miles from work to home, and once when we'd been out driving all day. Each time the light simply starts blinking while the car is in motion; each time it's a constant blinking. It blinks more than the 16 times I've read of elsewhere--it's continuous as far as I can tell. Each time, we stopped the car as soon as possible--say, within 4 minutes. The first time, we left it overnight; the second time, we simply stopped and then restarted the car a few seconds later. The two episodes were about 2 weeks apart. We have experienced no binding at all, no clunking. The car runs just fine. I took it to the mechanic today and they say the fluid levels are good, the fluid condition is good. No burning smell. No slipping that I can tell.

Note that I have I have read Legacy777's postings--or at least as many as I have found. I have the "secret handshake" instructions. I will get ECM codes either that way or at the dealer.

My questions: apart from checking the codes, which I should do anyway, of course, has anyone had a similar experience, or can anyone shed any light on this?

With gratitude in advance for any responses,

Bob in Nebraska