04 October 2007

At least we have a car

Today, somebody accidentally didn't shut his/her (his) door as he/she (he) exited the car. This caused the overhead light to remain on all day. And the battery died.

The car was in my work parking lot (which is conveniently across the street from where Eric spent his entire day). When Eric came to get me from work I asked around the office to see if anybody has jumper cables. Even though I say we need to buy some every time our car battery dies because somebody (usually me) leaves the lights on, we still do not have jumper cables. One guy suggested that we just pop the clutch. Eric had never heard of that, and I had only witnessed my mother doing it once when I was about 14. My co-worker came downstairs and helped Eric push the car into position. He and another guy gave the car a good push, and we were off.

One problem: the warning bell would not stop its incessant dinging.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. The whole way to the mall.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Even after we had stopped the car and made sure there were no lights on and such.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. The whole way home from the mall.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. The whole way over to Eric's friend's house, where we watched Episode 2 of this season of "The Office." Also, as we approached our friend's house we heard a noise that sounded like a flat tire. Eric got out and checked, but surprisingly, no flat tire. "Interesting," we thought.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. The whole time we watched the show (which was great for the first 45 minutes and completely ridiculous the last 15 or so).

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Weird noises. Thud. Yes, and that would be the tire officially going flat.

We put on our warning lights, pulled over and proceeded to change the tire. It took a while. When the professionals put on those bolts, they are too tight. Always. So tight that if I were by myself I would not be able to change the tire. Other than those tight bolts, I wouldn't have much of a problem. Those bolts are impossible for a tiny girl like me!

Eventually, the tire was replaced, and we got back into the car to find that the battery was dead again. The blinking of the lights and the dinging of the warning bell had exhausted the battery.

We used our new trick and popped the clutch for the second time today.

And you know what we didn't hear? Dinging. It's gone. Hooray!

Instead of taking the car in to get the dinging to stop, Eric will take it in to get new tires.

5 comments:

Just Jaime! said...

I have left my lights on numerous times. I have had to deal with a dead car battery a lot. Somehow I ended up with my sister-in-law's jumper cables in the back of my car, but they've come in handy!

Noelle said...

Sorry to hear about some nasty car problems! I've never had it happen to me, but I have watched my husband help other people pop their clutches and it looks kinda fun! As for the dinging, at least it wasn't your horn honking persistently!

Anonymous said...

Oh how I don't miss the days of the Corsucka, my first car. Problems included, premature clutch failure, hood incident near Four Corners, horn stuck in the on position (more than once), broken ignition (twice), busted heater core which lead to a cracked head, loose battery terminals-that one was kind of funny, broken turn signal, and I could go on forever.

Matt said...

You might want to check your owner's manual before you push-start your car again. Our car's battery died a few weeks ago and I thought of trying to push-start it, but when I checked the owner's manual it listed all the bad stuff that could be caused by doing so. Newer cars with all their fancy technology don't handle such brute methods very well.

Sherman said...

If uou have a four way tire iron, you can hop on the arm,usually to the lefy of the bolt you are trying to remove, and hop, Your mom taught me that,