battery

hi there

well, what can i say, a most interesting start to my day! it would be correct, however, to suggest that the foundations of the start to my day began a few days ago. let me try and give you the full story....

a couple of days ago i stopped at some shops. an elderly gent, who seemed like a lovely bloke, was in some distress. his car, a Japanese thing, would not start. he asked if i could possibly give him a jump start to help him on the way. having been in his position more than once, except without the age and the Japanese part, i said of course i would help. 

we got the cars into a position where the jumper leads would allow connection. i then rather unfortunately used plain, straightforward English as i explained to this chap that he should not touch a single thing whilst i was busy putting the bonnet ("hood" for my dear American readers) up on his car. what happened next was perhaps predictable, in no way enjoyable and had me revise my opinion of the nice old chap to one along the lines of "stupid dithering old bastard".

that he did not know that the bonnet / "hood" of his car could actually open should have been a clue for his skill and prowess with a car, which would seem to be even worse than mine. in his enthusiasm he had somehow translated "do not touch anything" as "connect the cables at random and make it do nice sparks".

OK, the above picture is not quite a true representation of what actually happened, but for symbolic purposes it will do. i am unaware of anyone actively taking pictures of jumper cables sparking. my Dad has probably taken one, but i don't have a copy of it.

the conclusion of the actions of Mr Sparks is that by yesterday afternoon the car battery was no more. that meant an early morning trip to the battery menders for me. thankfully as it was only the battery that was out of order - a rare thing for my wheels to have such a simple issue - a quick jumpstart off Michele saw me on my way this morning. James and William helped a great deal with the jump start, by the way, by pressing the horn frequently. thanks boys.

i had to wait a mere 30 minutes for the Mr Battery Mender place to open, and during that time i was able to send some mails to my chum Spiros and my MMA Andrew, as well as a range of those blueberry message things. when Mr Battery Mender arrived for work he did a fancy test on the battery and this is what the result was.

i am uncertain as to what all the numbers and that mean, but the words at the top kind of say it all. well, in fairness, the battery was six or seven years old, i think. Nassie and Jayson helped me put it in, if i recall correctly. it had given a pretty good go of life, but it was time for it to exit this world. goodbye and thank you to it.

here then, for a rough calculation cost of US$109.26, is my sort of shiny but all the same new battery.

i am coping with the cost of this new battery by pointing out to myself that it is class as it is called Willard, which was the name of Martin Sheen's character in Apocalypse Now. this will at the least allow me to say "the horror.....the horror" if something goes wrong with this one.

hopefully the start to your day has been somewhat cheaper and not featured quite as many Mr Battery Menders as mine has!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!