Spinning Yarns

One of the problems with lead-acid batteries is that, if you ever completely discharge them, they will never again hold a “full” charge. Since automobiles use lead-acid batteries, and since my automobile battery in particular was completely discharged not too long ago, it has become necessary for me to replace it. Since the old one was the original battery that came with the car seven years ago, it certainly doesn’t owe me anything. Anyway, I drove down to Sears yesterday afternoon, bought a new battery, and drove back home with the idea of installing it, figuring I could then take the old battery back for the trade-in rebate they offer you when you bring in the original for recycling.

Unfortunately for me, all the nuts and bolts inside the hood of my little Saturn are metric sizes, and my socket wrenches are all English measurements, and nothing I had fit exactly. This left me in the unenviable position of having to unbolt the battery clamp and heat shielding using a regular adjustable wrench. Sadly, this did not work out as well as I might have hoped, and after some considerable fiddling about, I concluded I would simply have to accept that I didn’t have the appropriate tools.

I apparently made a few too many stops on my way home last night, because when I came out this morning to drive in to town, I found that the old battery was dead again, and the car wouldn’t start. Undaunted by the fact that I live on a level road, I push-started the car* and drove it in to the service center, where they do have the correct tools for the job. Meanwhile, I’m temporarily car-less again, and that means I’m going to have to take the three miles or so out to my dentist’s appointment on foot. That’s not so bad, though; I like a nice walk, and I have my umbrella with me in case it rains. (My friend Sara, who is from near Seattle, finds the concept of carrying around an umbrella amusing; people from Washington apparently disdain the use of umbrellas, or something. But it works for me.)

Hopefully, they’ll be done with my car by the time I get back from the dentist. Then I can get back to my more normal schedule, which this week includes such fascinating topics as, “which of the instructions in this computer program were actually required by the code the programmer wrote, and which ones were just stuck in there by the compiler to make its life easier?”, and “Will all my students finish their final projects on time?”, and “Which among these reams of papers are actually important background material for my thesis, and which can be safely filed under Round and Grey?”

I’ll let you know how it all works out.

* I sustained a few bruises and minor abrasions in the process, but the feeling of triumph when it worked was kind of cool.

(12:04PM) As it turned out, I was able to obtain a ride to the dentist, so I only wound up needing to walk one way, in the return direction. The weather was pleasantly breezy, and it didn’t even rain on me. No bad dental news, either; this was just a routine checkup. Next month, I’ll go back again for some cosmetic work: When I was maybe nine years old, I fell on some icy slate paving-stones, and chipped one of my front incisors. It got repaired, at the time, but over the (many) intervening years, the patch wore down and got discoloured. I’d been meaning to ask the dentist to fix it for some time now, but I never got around to it. Today, I decided it was time to make the appointment. The methods they use now don’t even require anaesthesia, as it turns out, so it will be quite a simple procedure.

On another even more Narcissistic note, I got about four inches of my hair hacked off this past weekend, and I’m much happier about how it’s behaving. I hadn’t done anything with it in a year or so, and the ends were getting somewhat scraggly. Sheesh. What’s happening to me? Next thing you know, I’ll be buying a new suit. Actually, I do need to do that anyway, since my dear friend David is getting married this summer, and I’m supposed to be the best man. (I still assert that the problem with being the best man at a wedding is that you never get a chance to prove it).

(7:24PM) The car is back and working fine again.

Filed by Michael at 09:03 under Personal, Story
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Here’s the latest in the ongoing saga of my car’s failed alternator. On Monday, they told me they weren’t going to get around to even looking at the car until Thursday (that being today). Since I hadn’t heard anything back from them all morning, I gave them a ring this afternoon, just after I got back from my weekly lunch gathering with folks from the Mathematics department. The conversation went something like this:

“Hello, Bob’s Service, how can I help you?” said the cheerful man on the other end of the line.

“Good afternoon,” said I. “I’d like to check on the status of my car.”

“What’s your name?” he asked. I told him, and he said,

“It’s done, all set. It’s ready to be picked up.”

I sat in dumbfounded silence* for a second or two. Then, as diplomatically as I could, I asked,

“It’s done, as in finished, installed, repaired, the whole nine yards?”

“Yup!”

“So,” I said, “did anybody ever think to call and give me the estimate that I requested, when I arrived with the car?”

He didn’t really have a very good answer for that. Fortunately for both him and me, the final cost was right in line with what I was told it should be, by the guy I called up at the Saturn dealer. Otherwise, I was prepared to raise all manner of unholy Cain, and let slip the dogs of war (or at least, the attorneys). I guess it was good I called when I did. I wasn’t positive the alternator was the problem, at the outset, but since the guy at the Co-op had suggested it, I figured I should at least get some background information. Computers are familiar ground for me; automobiles definitely are not.

So, anyway, now that my afternoon meeting is over, I am going to go pay the piper, and hopefully get back on the road. When I was a child, I used to like it when abnormal situations like this would arise — for example, the power going out — because it shook up the “normal” patterns of living in an exciting way. This situation didn’t give me at all the same feeling of detachment and oddity; it was mostly just bothersome. I only hope that doesn’t mean I’m in danger of growing up.

Naw. No chance of that.

* Not to be confused with well-founded silence, well-ordered silence, or well-tempered silence; this last, in particular, it was not.

Filed by Michael at 14:59 under Personal, Story
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When the man from the repair shop came to tow my car away, on Saturday, he told me that he would call me on Monday to let me know what was wrong with it. He said if it was an easy job, they could do it on Monday; otherwise, they could definitely fix it by Tuesday. Since he was the repairs manager, I figured he could speak fairly accurately about the work schedule. But when Monday late afternoon rolled around, I still hadn’t heard anything from the shop, so I called up to see what was the matter.

“Thursday,” said the man at the other end of the line. “We’re not going to get to it until Thursday.” (more…)

Filed by Michael at 09:57 under Personal, Story
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