It was a day like may others. My Dad is out at my sisters for a month and I am taking care of his affairs. I had noted on his last gas bill that it jumped to double normal. I thought that the Lady watching the house had just switched form cool to heat on the thermostat ad it was still set in the mid 70’s and that might explain the high bill. My plan was to check the house and the car, look for a lost payment envelope and do a few other minor chores for him…
I made my way over , a journey of about 70 miles, and arrived at the house by about 9:15. In checking I found the thermostat set at about 70 not higher so I slide it on down to low 60’s. No one in the the house so we only need to maintain some heat not a lot. I also checked the hot water heater and it showed to be set on hot? but that was the lowest setting so I slide it on down a little lower as it would go below that setting. I am not sure if I turned it off or not but again, no need for hot water if no one is going to use it.
When I got to check the car, the right rear tire was way low. That was a concern as my Dad is in his 80’s and having to change a tire when he returns is not something we think he needs so my option was to get it out and have the tire repaired. I guessed the closest tire shop was the Goodyear dealer on N. Van Buren. I figured I could get that far with out more air as it was not real bad but if I drove to find a station for air and got almost to the tire shop, just go on and get it fixed. The Goodyear dealer on N. Van Buren is a T&W tire center. I arrived and told the lady that I needed a slow leak fixed. I knew they were Goodyear tires but I think they were purchased at the Toyota dealer or maybe Wal-Mart? They took the info, made a work ticket and told me to go to the waiting room. I figured it would be awhile as I looked in the shop and there were only two guys visible working in an 8 bay shop (they do work on Truck tires a lot also). Anyway the two working were not “fast movers” by any stretch but when they rolled the car in they only took a few minutes and it was done? I guess looks can be deceiving as I know I saw them take it off, took it to the machine and boom it was done and back on the car. My hope is they really did get it patched and Dad will not come home to a flat tire. The really good thing, it didn’t cost me anything. Since they were Goodyear tires and I had no way of knowing exactly where they came from they just accepted they were part of their service to cover that.
After the tire repair I checked on the lost payment and found it in the folder with all the other papers that were to be saved. Guess he forgot to mail it. Once all the chores were done it was lunch time so I stopped on at the Lot-a-Burger as it was on my way home. They are now on Willow but I remember when they were on N. Grand. I used to go there a lot back in the day. They serve up a nice big old fashioned grilled burger. I am sure it is not real good for me but it tasted good anyway.
I headed on home from that and it rained off and on all day. Once I got back home I grabbed up the two old “road” batteries out of the motor home that I took out yesterday. I was sure one was bad but it turns out both were near dead. I picked the replacements up at NAPA and was surprised to find they were 10 dollars cheaper for the 1000 cranking amps truck battery than the 750 cranking amps specials at Wal-Mart? I gave them the old ones and got my $13 dollar core charge refund – OUCH!… that core refund has sure gone up since the last time I checked big batteries. I guess that core charge needs to maybe go up some more to keep more of the old dead batteries out of the junk piles and causing future pollution spots. I have seen a lot of old junk, bad batteries laying around in my work that we sure didn’t need to leave where they were, wrote them up for that as well.
Since it was cold out and late and I just didn’t feel like putting on grubby stuff to put the batteries back in I left that job for tomorrow. You see I have a real problem around batteries… just look at all my old work t-shirts and blue-jeans… nearly every on has some battery acid holes in them. I have no idea what it is but I seem to get acid on me every time I mess with batteries so now I have some old work clothes that get pulled out for the acid jobs… I got asked twice yesterday evening, “why are you in that old stuff?” and I just responded, I am swapping out batteries and these are things that can be thrown away when they get holes in them… I am guessing that they will out last the batteries since I am, on purpose, using them for that job… That is another one of my outstanding lucks, no matter what I plan for it seems to go the other way… so do not follow me cause things are bound to go the other way… – WD0AJG