Does anyone find it odd that "chunks are missing" out of a belt? Would this imply that someone seldom looks under their hood or has not had the belts replaced anytime recently?

Sounds like some basic maintenance may fix and/or prevent this sort of thing.

Other than that, maybe something has frozen up on you which grabbed the belt and tore a chunk out of it...

In either case, I bet if you replaced the belt, your problems might be solved or at least you'd be one step closer...

Can you put on a/the belt on your own? If not, you have your answer as to whether or not you need to have to hauled somewhere. And no, I probably wouldn't drive the car. When the car does get into the shop, I'd go ahead and let them do most all the normal and routine maintenance items since it sounds like the basic stuff gets ignored, like the other belts too.