* I guess I better call the car place Monday. Best I can recollect, I had the battery replaced about 2 1/2 years ago and that might well still be under warranty. I wonder if they'd refund me the cost of the battery if it was? I'd hope so. (I'd also hope they'd have their system set up so it would flag when an under-warranty thing failed). Of course, THAT battery was itself a replacement for a failing under-warranty battery, so I don't know if you can "stack" warranty replacements like that or if the warranty replacement doesn't "reset the clock" and so, for warranty purposes, that's a four-year-old battery in there. If that makes sense.
* I have no idea how long a car battery is supposed to last but it seems my past experience was that they lasted longer than 2 years? That's what I seem to be averaging right now. (Then again, like a great many other things, car batteries are probably made worse now and don't last as long as they once did.)
* And yeah, our climate is hard on car batteries. And we had a cold winter and it got really hot really suddenly. But I can't remember leaving anything on - not the dome light, not the radio (in fact, you CAN'T mistakenly leave that on and get out of the car; if the car is off, the radio shuts off when you open a door). Not the a/c, and I am not one of those people who leaves their car running with the a/c on in a parking lot.
* I wonder if some Fords just have electrical issues that eat batteries. My parents' Escape does the same thing.
*I wish they'd hurry up and get a Honda or Toyota dealership in town; I might be inclined to go with one of those for my next car. (I don't fancy an hour's round trip any time some "official" service is required, and anyway, as I said, I don't know of a reliable in-town indie shop)
* Technology is great when it works but it sure does stink when it doesn't.
* On the other hand from all of that: It was probably a real blessing the battery died where it did, if it was going to die totally. I could have been out at a field site. I could have been in Sherman or somewhere else where I don't know where to go to get car help. It was close to the dealer, the guy didn't charge me for coming out, and I had a promise of a ride home had I needed it.
* At least it started up fine this morning, I got my groceries, and am planning shortly on going over and doing a bit of research work before it gets too hot.
* Groceries acquired include a loaf of English Toasting Bread (a decentish white bread that is low enough in sodium) so I can make a tomato sandwich, now that I have another ripe tomato and most of the makings for Cook's Country's skillet mac and cheese.. It's been a long time since I had mac and cheese so it will taste good to me.
I can also now make egg salad when I want it. (In my mildly ocd-eating-world, types of bread matter. For a cold-meat sandwich or for peanut butter, you want a whole-grain bread. But for a cheese sandwich, it has to be white bread. Egg salad requires white bread, toasted. And I think a tomato sandwich would taste better on toasted white bread, so that's what I'm going to use. And yes, there are very occasionally things about food prepared by some Other that get to me to the point I can't eat it: I was once served a grilled cheese sandwich that was not actually grilled (it was heated, but not grilled) and that contained MAYONNAISE. I like mayonnaise on some things and even eat it with pimiento cheese, but for some reason it seemed a total abomination on a grilled cheese. And I couldn't really eat it. The fact that I was overtired and had been crammed in the back of a car for six hours, with the folded-up walker of the person who had recently had knee surgery banging ME in MY knee every time we took a left turn might have been part of that.)
4 comments:
I don't know how you do it, Erica...One of my fears, tied to CAR issues is to get stuck somewhere in a middle of the road in a car that has some sort of malfunction.
Of course, it might be just self-placating bias of someone who doesn't drive (the more issues I'll find with car ownership, the better for my phobia).
But I really admire women who deal with these things every day - you, or my sister, or millions others.
I have also known people think mayo belongs on grilled cheese. Blech.
Have never tried toasted white bread with egg salad, though. Sounds like a great idea. I do love egg salad.
At one time, batteries were larger, the cells had thicker plates and they lasted much longer.
Now, with the demand the battery has the same cranking amps, be smaller and lighter, the plates are thinner, closer together and more apt to short out, due to temperature changes and bumps.
I could accept this, if they weren't much more expensive than they should be.
Battery warranties are invariably pro-rated: if you got 30 months out of a "48-month" battery, you'd be entitled to 3/8 (18/48) of the original purchase price.
Last two batteries I got from Nissan lasted three years each; I have almost two years on the current Interstate battery.
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