Be Happy Anyway

Be Happy Anyway
From Brave Girls Club

Saturday, December 6, 2008

I should have stayed in bed.

Every now and then I write about those kind of days when you would should have stayed in bed. Thursday was one of those days.

It was a typical Thursday where I had to pick up Caitlin from school and run her over to the dance studio. I called my mother to see if she could pick my son up so I didn't have to run back and forth between the studio, house and daycare. Unfortunately, she had made plans and couldn't do that for me, so I had to take James with me.

After Caitlin's class, I went to dinner with the kids to pass the time until my dance class. Upon returning to the dance studio, Caitlin said that James was asleep. Not wanting to disturb him, I asked Caitlin to stay in the car with him until he woke up (usually only takes about 5 minutes.) Caitlin had a novel and the car radio to keep her company. I kept leaving the studio to check on them and James stayed asleep through the entire class.

After my class, I went outside only to find I had run down the battery. You should have seen a studio full of women trying to read the instructions for using a jumper cable under a single street light at 9:30 at night. We finally figured out what to do and had to figure out how to open the hood ("bonnet" for my friends of the Queen's English.) Then we had to locate the battery. Time to get out the car's instruction manual and stand under the street light again. Come to find out, the car doesn't have a battery under the hood, only a post for charging it should such a situation arise. The actual battery is under the back seat. Who's bright idea was that?!?

Even after letting the charging car run for a while, my car would not start. My friend, S, drove me to the local auto parts store that had closed at 9:00, so we went to the Wal-Mart service department. We read the catalog to determine which battery to buy and found that there was no such battery even listed in the catalog...Huh?

By this time, my mother had come to pick up the children and drive me home, and S's husband T had arrived to install the new battery. Since there was nothing I could do until morning, I decided to leave the car in the parking lot overnight and take part of the school day off on Friday and get a tow truck to take the car to the car dealer.

Well, I found out why Wal-Mart doesn't carry that battery....Not even the dealer had a battery. It's because it was a special $169 battery (three to four times the cost of a regular battery) that is supposed to last 6 years. The dealer had to search the parts stores for one especially for the car. When it was all said done, including the tow truck, I spent $270 (£184.)

Merry Christmas Victory Clan. When you go to your stockings hanging on the fireplace this year, you will each find a copy of the service receipt. Ho ho ho!

4 comments:

miruspeg said...

That certainly was a 'Black Thursday' for you Annemarie!

What type of car do you drive? I've never heard of a car with a battery under the back seat.

The only blessing was having friends with you standing under that one street light.....you painted a very visual picture.

I can completely understand how these unexpected expenses can be such a burden when Christmas is just around the corner.

I enjoyed the Van Morrison song...'Days Like This'....very appropriate. It was also interesting comparing it to the Shirelles version back in 1961. (You weren't even born)!

Hope your weekend is more relaxing and you can put that Thursday in the dust bin.

Peg

Wendelyn DeMoss said...

Wow, I hope your weekend has been more relaxing. and ouch! that is a steep price for a battery. Doesn't it always happen that the big expenses come just as you need to spend it on something else? So sorry. I hope this next week is a much better week!

MJ said...

Yikes ~ car troubles are not my thing either. I don't know how to boost a battery or change it. I would have been in the same predicament! I hope you at least put a candy cane in the stocking alongside the receipt!

merryheart2 said...

i seriously thought i left you msg on this post! anyways - where did you find that photo of me in the mornings! that is SO me! LOL

i'm so glad that you have such sweet friends and family to help you out.
aren't you glad hubby will be home in just 10 days now. i bet the kids are counting down!

Christmas HuGS to you and James and Cait from me and Jake.
Sandra

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