Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Adventures in auto maintenance

It was rainy day, but it was interesting and an adventure whenever Rich is in town. We planned a lunch at a local eatery, but ran into some problems with his 1994 Honda. It was a car that he drove from Tucson in the last few days to deposit here as transportation when he's in town. He had no problems until shortly after I rode with him to the local Ace Hardware store to get bolts to hold on his new Minnesota license plates. While we were in the store, his battery failed. We called AAA and the adventure began. After a trip to Sears and an encounter with Jim the Battery Man, who recommended a new alternator, Rich bought a battery charger and we came to my house to plug it in. The alternator would have cost nearly the same as the car's current resale value.

We missed tennis. It was too cold, anyhow, in my opinion - barely 50 degrees. We did get a late lunch at the Pie Shoppe and a safe ride here in my trusty Matrix. It was a good time and as is usually the case, a day with Rich is not without interesting incidents. The whole story is his to tell.



The photo was taken in my alley after his auto's battery was revived and ready to roll. A happy guy with a running auto.

So there was no tennis today, but we're going to try to get in a couple of sets of singles tomorrow at Fort Snelling. It's been some months since my last go at singles, but my 4-5 times a week of pretty good doubles will help my cause.

2 comments:

Retired Professor said...

Problems with cars can put a damper on your day, for sure. It sounds like you managed to work your way through it, though delaying lunch for 3 hours would just NOT work for me.

Not mechanically inclined except for bicycles said...

My life experience points to alternator.

Just sayin'.

Good luck with the battery charger.