Tuesday afternoon TSWITW went to the ophthalmologist. When she got out, her eyes were still dilated, so she called and said she was going grocery shopping at a store in the same location because she didn’t want to drive home with her eyes dilated.
Well, a couple of hours later, she called. She couldn’t start the car. We went through the routine, gearshift in park, etc. Car wouldn’t start. So I went over there. Sure enough, the car wouldn’t start. We loaded the groceries into the truck. She left and I called AAA. I knew then that it was the battery because the lights didn’t come on.
About 45 minutes later, the AAA truck came. The guy cleaned the terminals and tested the battery. Sure enough, it was gone. I needed a new battery.
He just happened to have a battery he could sell me. It cost $120.00. That seemed to be a bit steep for a battery. But I had this choice. Pay $120 and have him put it in, or I could get a boost to start the car and drive to Sears, Walmart, AutoZone or some such. Knowing that if I turned the engine off, it would stay off. And I figured a Sears battery would be about $75.00.
What do you think I did?
At the Lions Club yesterday, I told Mel about my escapade. He suggested that I call AAA and complain. I thought of doing that, but first I went to the website to check the cost of batteries. The AAA battery I bought cost $108 at the site.
I decided to leave it alone.
That Motorcraft battery was seven years old. The one in my truck is five years old. I’m wondering what I should do. Being stuck somewhere is not an exciting adventure.
And batteries don’t give a warning anymore. They used to go through a “hard to start” routine before quitting. Now they are strong ‘till the end.
I wish they would give a warning.
In answer to a question some of you guys might have, I used to carry jumper cables around in my car, but not anymore. I don’t even have a pair. I thought I did, but I don’t.
Buy your truck a new battery for Christmas this winter . . . I’ve heard the same story about AAA and batteries. Is your time and trouble worth $12? $45 . . . Maybe. OTOH, there’s something to be said for peace of mind. 🙂
Chas, batteries may not give a warning, but I do think they can still be tested for how strong they are.
When I bought my Corolla, the battery looked all corroded, and I figured it had maybe a few months left on it. I think at some point I got it tested and it was still strong. So I kept driving the car. Several years later I thought my luck had to be pretty close to running out, so I asked to have it tested, and they said it was weak and so I replaced it. But I got at least five years, and I think it was at least six or seven, out of it before then, and it looked pretty old when I bought the car.
I also had four lightbulbs in my bathroom in Nashville, standard incandescent bulbs, that lasted at least six years. Since they were in the bathroom, they were used daily several times a day, and I didn’t have a fan in that bathroom so they were exposed to humidity too, but they just would not burn out. Finally they went one by one and were replaced. But before I had replaced those bulbs once, I had replaced each of the bulbs in the living room ceiling fan several times, and those lights hardly ever got used. (I was far more likely to sit in the den, and those lights only got used if I sat in there, not if I was just walking through, since I had a table lamp in there too.)
Sometimes it seems almost random how long something will last.
Chas, yes, I did. I also tried starting it in neutral and shifting the gear shift back and forth several times. 🙂
🙂 Baby shower on Friday for Georgia Faith
🙂 I’m having great fun decorating and prepping for it
😦 Only 2 women from our Bible study have responded to their invitations, which means so far, I only have 6 people coming, including Georgia’s grandmother. I’m not sure how much I should encourage (push) the rest of the women to come. When my daughter was born, we were very new to the area and the church threw me a baby shower where I only knew 2 women. 17 women came and absolutely showered me with new gifts as well as a huge bag of used clothes. (We were just out of college and had no money with student loans and not many baby girl clothes) It was just such a huge blessing to me.
That battery was inspected on 28 July and rated green in a Green-yellow-red rating scheme. It had 465 cold cranking amps. I don’t know what it should have.
I bought one of the higher end batteries at Sears last time and it’s lasted for maybe 7 years years so far? The more expensive batteries (they said) were built with newer technology to last longer. I bought it (the sales line and the battery). But so far it seems to be paying off.
And I will say that AAA membership is worth its weight in gold. i would never be without it since I don’t have a husband with a truck to come get me when I’m stranded. 🙂
🙂 Saturday & sleeping in.
🙂 Cold nights and flannel sheets.
😦 Alas, my all-time favorite comforter may have to be tossed. The dry cleaners sent it through several times but there’s still that faint whiff of skunk … I love that comforter. Feather-filled (not down) & a blackwatch plaid. Bought it at Ross for pretty cheap years ago (it’s where I get most of my bedding, they have all the irregulars for deep discounts) and now I can’t find one like it.
🙂 Bills paid. Yay. Love-love-love the online bill pay options at banks now. It takes maybe 3 minutes (if that) — no stamps, no envelopes, no writing out checks or envelopes, no trip to the post office. Everything paid. Instantly. In a few (mostly painless) moments.
Kare- Your Jeep may have a security system that needed reset. Our Malibu has one and the first time it wouldn’t start the mechanic suggested turning the key to the “on” (not start) position and waiting ten minutes. Then turn it off and try starting. It worked!
🙂 Started packing my suitcase yesterday. I wanted a place to put all the gifts! I kept sticking them different places and was getting worried that I would forget something.
🙂 A young Cooper’s hawk came in and took one of the house sparrows that insists on hiding out in our bushes. Then it stayed in the cottonwood tree nearby, plucking it and eating it, and allowing me all the photos I wanted for the next half hour.
🙂 Such easy prey means it will come back for more, right? I figure if it takes two or three a week, over the winter it will get them all. Win-win. I’ll even throw in an occasional goldfinch, house finch, or junco if it will just get most of the house sparrows.
😦 The last week or two have been fairly stressful, but they’re over. 🙂 Almost. And the snow is finally almost gone, too. (Snow should not stay on the ground from Sunday to Saturday in November, not in Indiana anyway. I have no opinion on what it should do in Michigan or Minnesota.)
😀 I have completed the last unit of my science course. All that is left now is the final exam.
🙂 I have also submitted the first unit of the third course, which is in History.
🙂 I am almost finished the 2nd unit of my English course. There is a lot of writing involved. In this unit alone, I have to write a book review, a 1000 word narrative, a modern retelling of a fairy tale, several short answer study questions, and a detailed plan for a stage play – and I have done most of it in the space of a week. I know, not much for you seasoned writers, but it is a bit of a challenge for me.
Nice to be able to watch the hawk, Cheryl. We had a northern goshawk grab a squirrel and watched it tear it apart and eat it for almost an hour. We haven’t seen it again. We also watched a shrike strike a vole or mole several times until it was near death. It is easy to forget how vicious birds can be. It is somewhat amusing to listen to some people’s view of nature. Somehow they forget the violence.
Kathaleena, so true. When we watched the momma bear attacking the elk calf, I didn’t know who to cheer for – I was very conflicted. I didn’t want the calf to die, but the bear cubs were so cute and would have benefited from a meal of elk calf.
Kathaleena, birds often seem unnecessarily aggressive. The hawk must kill to eat, and I suspect even vegetarians are willing to accept that a hawk has no real choice but to kill. (And house sparrows are imports that sometimes kill other birds to get their nest sites, and that will fight with other birds to hog the feeder . . . so I’m more than happy to lend a few to the cause of keeping a young hawk alive through its first winter!) But we see hummingbirds sit in the tree just to guard the bird feeder, even when they are not hungry. And one downy woodpecker keeps chasing another one from the tree, even though we have two suet feeders up right now and they can easily both eat. Realistically, it’s better if only the healthy animals reproduce, and being territorial is part of their way of surviving, especially during breeding season. But it isn’t breeding season, the food is free, and we are the ones providing the food. So it seems “unfair” of one woodpecker to decide that another of its kind can’t eat here! (I suspect the one being driven away is a now-adult offspring of the other one, and it’s time to find its own territory, but I don’t know.)
🙂 I got to go out to lunch. My husband and another elder were going out to lunch with a missionary looking for support, and apparently they decided it would be unkind just to send me home to fend for myself, so I got invited too. We had some very good conversation and good food.
🙂 My husband thought a couple days ago that he might be getting sick, but he’s feeling better. Last Thanksgiving (and maybe the one before that, too) he was home sick while I went to his parents’ for Thanksgiving with the girls. That isn’t what either he or I want the holiday to look like, so I’ll be glad if he can be healthy this year.
Wandering Views 
RANT 😦
Tuesday afternoon TSWITW went to the ophthalmologist. When she got out, her eyes were still dilated, so she called and said she was going grocery shopping at a store in the same location because she didn’t want to drive home with her eyes dilated.
Well, a couple of hours later, she called. She couldn’t start the car. We went through the routine, gearshift in park, etc. Car wouldn’t start. So I went over there. Sure enough, the car wouldn’t start. We loaded the groceries into the truck. She left and I called AAA. I knew then that it was the battery because the lights didn’t come on.
About 45 minutes later, the AAA truck came. The guy cleaned the terminals and tested the battery. Sure enough, it was gone. I needed a new battery.
He just happened to have a battery he could sell me. It cost $120.00. That seemed to be a bit steep for a battery. But I had this choice. Pay $120 and have him put it in, or I could get a boost to start the car and drive to Sears, Walmart, AutoZone or some such. Knowing that if I turned the engine off, it would stay off. And I figured a Sears battery would be about $75.00.
What do you think I did?
At the Lions Club yesterday, I told Mel about my escapade. He suggested that I call AAA and complain. I thought of doing that, but first I went to the website to check the cost of batteries. The AAA battery I bought cost $108 at the site.
I decided to leave it alone.
That Motorcraft battery was seven years old. The one in my truck is five years old. I’m wondering what I should do. Being stuck somewhere is not an exciting adventure.
And batteries don’t give a warning anymore. They used to go through a “hard to start” routine before quitting. Now they are strong ‘till the end.
I wish they would give a warning.
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In answer to a question some of you guys might have, I used to carry jumper cables around in my car, but not anymore. I don’t even have a pair. I thought I did, but I don’t.
LikeLike
Buy your truck a new battery for Christmas this winter . . . I’ve heard the same story about AAA and batteries. Is your time and trouble worth $12? $45 . . . Maybe. OTOH, there’s something to be said for peace of mind. 🙂
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Well Chas, you are making me feel cheated. I recently paid $175 for a battery. Ugh.
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😦 same rant as Chas’ On Monday morning, my Jeep wouldn’t start – wouldn’t even turn over, but battery seemed fine.
😦 Husband was away until Thursday evening
🙂 Co-worker offered to come pick me up and try boosting me 😦 boost didn’t work
🙂 Was able to use the camp truck for commuting until husband got home
😦 It’s an old donated 2000 Dodge and reeks of diesel (former oilfield truck)
🙂 Husband tried starting the Jeep with his key – it worked!
🙂 Then he tried again with my key – it worked
😦 Now we don’t have a clue if it will happen again or even what it was
🙂 But it worked to get the truck back to camp and to go to Bible study and home again last night
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Chas, batteries may not give a warning, but I do think they can still be tested for how strong they are.
When I bought my Corolla, the battery looked all corroded, and I figured it had maybe a few months left on it. I think at some point I got it tested and it was still strong. So I kept driving the car. Several years later I thought my luck had to be pretty close to running out, so I asked to have it tested, and they said it was weak and so I replaced it. But I got at least five years, and I think it was at least six or seven, out of it before then, and it looked pretty old when I bought the car.
I also had four lightbulbs in my bathroom in Nashville, standard incandescent bulbs, that lasted at least six years. Since they were in the bathroom, they were used daily several times a day, and I didn’t have a fan in that bathroom so they were exposed to humidity too, but they just would not burn out. Finally they went one by one and were replaced. But before I had replaced those bulbs once, I had replaced each of the bulbs in the living room ceiling fan several times, and those lights hardly ever got used. (I was far more likely to sit in the den, and those lights only got used if I sat in there, not if I was just walking through, since I had a table lamp in there too.)
Sometimes it seems almost random how long something will last.
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Kare. Did you check the gear shift? Some cars won’t start unless it’s in “park”.
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Chas, yes, I did. I also tried starting it in neutral and shifting the gear shift back and forth several times. 🙂
🙂 Baby shower on Friday for Georgia Faith
🙂 I’m having great fun decorating and prepping for it
😦 Only 2 women from our Bible study have responded to their invitations, which means so far, I only have 6 people coming, including Georgia’s grandmother. I’m not sure how much I should encourage (push) the rest of the women to come. When my daughter was born, we were very new to the area and the church threw me a baby shower where I only knew 2 women. 17 women came and absolutely showered me with new gifts as well as a huge bag of used clothes. (We were just out of college and had no money with student loans and not many baby girl clothes) It was just such a huge blessing to me.
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That battery was inspected on 28 July and rated green in a Green-yellow-red rating scheme. It had 465 cold cranking amps. I don’t know what it should have.
LikeLike
I bought one of the higher end batteries at Sears last time and it’s lasted for maybe 7 years years so far? The more expensive batteries (they said) were built with newer technology to last longer. I bought it (the sales line and the battery). But so far it seems to be paying off.
And I will say that AAA membership is worth its weight in gold. i would never be without it since I don’t have a husband with a truck to come get me when I’m stranded. 🙂
🙂 Saturday & sleeping in.
🙂 Cold nights and flannel sheets.
😦 Alas, my all-time favorite comforter may have to be tossed. The dry cleaners sent it through several times but there’s still that faint whiff of skunk … I love that comforter. Feather-filled (not down) & a blackwatch plaid. Bought it at Ross for pretty cheap years ago (it’s where I get most of my bedding, they have all the irregulars for deep discounts) and now I can’t find one like it.
LikeLike
🙂 Bills paid. Yay. Love-love-love the online bill pay options at banks now. It takes maybe 3 minutes (if that) — no stamps, no envelopes, no writing out checks or envelopes, no trip to the post office. Everything paid. Instantly. In a few (mostly painless) moments.
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Did they take your old battery, Chas? I think my husband got some money for the old one when he bought a new one from the same place.
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Kare- Your Jeep may have a security system that needed reset. Our Malibu has one and the first time it wouldn’t start the mechanic suggested turning the key to the “on” (not start) position and waiting ten minutes. Then turn it off and try starting. It worked!
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Thanks, Peter, I’ll try that if it ever happens again. Such little things, but very traumatic for a princess 🙂
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The guy took the old battery off my hands.
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🙂 Dog meds picked up — and I was smart enough to get off the freeway before hitting all the LAX Thanksgiving week traffic this time.
🙂 Dishwasher going. My kitchen took a beating this week. Catching up with it all feels so good.
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🙂 Started packing my suitcase yesterday. I wanted a place to put all the gifts! I kept sticking them different places and was getting worried that I would forget something.
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😦 Drummer across the valley thinks 7am on a Sunday morning is a great time to practice. It’s been over an hour now.
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🙂 A young Cooper’s hawk came in and took one of the house sparrows that insists on hiding out in our bushes. Then it stayed in the cottonwood tree nearby, plucking it and eating it, and allowing me all the photos I wanted for the next half hour.
🙂 Such easy prey means it will come back for more, right? I figure if it takes two or three a week, over the winter it will get them all. Win-win. I’ll even throw in an occasional goldfinch, house finch, or junco if it will just get most of the house sparrows.
😦 The last week or two have been fairly stressful, but they’re over. 🙂 Almost. And the snow is finally almost gone, too. (Snow should not stay on the ground from Sunday to Saturday in November, not in Indiana anyway. I have no opinion on what it should do in Michigan or Minnesota.)
LikeLike
😀 I have completed the last unit of my science course. All that is left now is the final exam.
🙂 I have also submitted the first unit of the third course, which is in History.
🙂 I am almost finished the 2nd unit of my English course. There is a lot of writing involved. In this unit alone, I have to write a book review, a 1000 word narrative, a modern retelling of a fairy tale, several short answer study questions, and a detailed plan for a stage play – and I have done most of it in the space of a week. I know, not much for you seasoned writers, but it is a bit of a challenge for me.
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Nice to be able to watch the hawk, Cheryl. We had a northern goshawk grab a squirrel and watched it tear it apart and eat it for almost an hour. We haven’t seen it again. We also watched a shrike strike a vole or mole several times until it was near death. It is easy to forget how vicious birds can be. It is somewhat amusing to listen to some people’s view of nature. Somehow they forget the violence.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kathaleena, so true. When we watched the momma bear attacking the elk calf, I didn’t know who to cheer for – I was very conflicted. I didn’t want the calf to die, but the bear cubs were so cute and would have benefited from a meal of elk calf.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kathaleena, birds often seem unnecessarily aggressive. The hawk must kill to eat, and I suspect even vegetarians are willing to accept that a hawk has no real choice but to kill. (And house sparrows are imports that sometimes kill other birds to get their nest sites, and that will fight with other birds to hog the feeder . . . so I’m more than happy to lend a few to the cause of keeping a young hawk alive through its first winter!) But we see hummingbirds sit in the tree just to guard the bird feeder, even when they are not hungry. And one downy woodpecker keeps chasing another one from the tree, even though we have two suet feeders up right now and they can easily both eat. Realistically, it’s better if only the healthy animals reproduce, and being territorial is part of their way of surviving, especially during breeding season. But it isn’t breeding season, the food is free, and we are the ones providing the food. So it seems “unfair” of one woodpecker to decide that another of its kind can’t eat here! (I suspect the one being driven away is a now-adult offspring of the other one, and it’s time to find its own territory, but I don’t know.)
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🙂 I have been invited by several people for Thanksgiving. Such a blessing to be remembered.
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🙂 I got to go out to lunch. My husband and another elder were going out to lunch with a missionary looking for support, and apparently they decided it would be unkind just to send me home to fend for myself, so I got invited too. We had some very good conversation and good food.
🙂 My husband thought a couple days ago that he might be getting sick, but he’s feeling better. Last Thanksgiving (and maybe the one before that, too) he was home sick while I went to his parents’ for Thanksgiving with the girls. That isn’t what either he or I want the holiday to look like, so I’ll be glad if he can be healthy this year.
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