A few days after I had gotten back in Denver since abandoning my car in Pueblo, I called the auto shop where it had been towed. I asked them if they had come up with an estimate for how much the repairs were going to cost. The person on the other end asked, "Oh, did you want us to fix it?" He said it would be a couple of days before they could give me an estimate. So, I called them up a couple of days later. They told me what was wrong with it and that I was going to need to replace the battery. They said I could bring a new battery and they wouldn't add that onto the final bill. They also told me when they expected to have the repairs completed.
I was able to get Rid and his mother to give me a ride to Pueblo to get the car. There was some reason that Rid didn't have access to a car at this time, so he had to talk his mother into helping me out. She actually took a day off work to do this.
The night before we were going to go, I got a call from Sheld. She was hanging out with her friend Mand. She said they were bored and they wanted to come over to my house to hang out. I didn't have anything better going on, so I drove (in my other car, which I could still drive on the streets) over to Arvada to pick them up and brought them over.
We ordered pizza, played music and goofed around on my keyboard. I asked them what time I needed to get them back home because I had to wake up early the next day. Sheld said they had planned to spend the night. At my apartment. WHAT? I told them we would need to call their parents and make sure it was alright. Surprisingly, they both agreed to let them stay instead of me driving them home on the icy streets. Then I told them they would need to leave early in the morning before Rid and his mother came by to pick me up. They said that wouldn't be a problem and that they would just take public transit home.
They slept on my mattress and I slept on my futon. I got up early the next morning and tried to get them to wake up, but they just kept sleeping. It didn't matter how much noise I made, they were not going to wake up. I thought, "Well, if Rid's mom doesn't come in here, it won't be a problem." I sat and waited for them to show up.
My doorbell rang. I buzzed the front door and went into the hallway. Rid and his mother came up the stairs. She said, "I need to use your bathroom." "Uh, no... You can't. The apartment's a mess." "I don't care." They came into my apartment. His mother surveyed the room and then saw the two girls on my mattress. Rid slapped his forehead. His mother held her breath and ran into my bathroom.
Rid laughed and said, "Okay, I'm outta here. You can deal with this on your own!" He started to leave, but he really had nowhere else to go.
His mom rushed out of the bathroom. We went out to her car and went on our way. While she was driving, she said, "Okay, I've only got one thing to say to you: Two of them?" "We didn't do anything! They just spent the night!" "Don't you know you could go to jail for that? Okay, that's two things!" "They had their parents' permission!" "What were you thinking? Okay, that's three things!"
The bad thing about this was that Rid's mom thought very well of me. She liked that her borderline at-risk son was friends with someone who had graduated from college, had a job and lived on his own. She thought I would be a good influence on him. However, she probably lost some respect for me that day, thinking that Rid was actually being a bad influence on me. In some respect, that was true, but I knew I could count on myself to not let things go too far.
After about ten minutes, we stopped talking about it and concentrated on getting to Pueblo. The first thing we had to do was go to the auto shop and get the old battery. We then had to take it over to K-mart so I could buy a new battery for the car and exchange the core. Dad had told me that in Artesia, if you bought a battery at K-mart and had a problem with it, you could return it and they'd give you another one without any hassle.
We took the new battery to the auto shop. The car started with no problem. I took off and Rid and his mom followed. Everything was going fine until after I passed Colorado Springs. All of a sudden, SOMETHING EXPLODED UNDERNEATH THE HOOD! Smoke and residue was coming out from where the battery was mounted. I knew something was wrong, but the car was still moving and I didn't want to take the risk that it wasn't going to start again. I just drove all the way home as fast as I could and prayed that my car wouldn't stall.
I made it home and was able to park in front of my apartment building. The first thing I tried to do after I turned off the engine was try to start it. Sure enough, the starter went "click, click, click." I opened the hood and saw what had happened. The caps were blown off the battery and acid splashed all over the inside of the engine. A few minutes later, Rid and his mom drove up and we surveyed the damage.
Before they left, Rid told me that his mom was still upset about the girls in my apartment. He said that was all she talked about on the way up. He kind of gave me a lecture, which I thought was strange coming from him. I imagine that his mother had told him to say something to me so I wouldn't do that again. It didn't work, but I'll get to that in another post.
I went inside the apartment. I found that Sheld and Mand had done a little cleaning while I was gone. One of the things they did was take all my coins that were on top of a speaker and put them in a vase I had. I remember they left a note, but I didn't keep it nor recall what it said.
In my limited knowledge about cars, I was aware that a brand-new battery is practically hard to kill. I got some water and poured it into the reservoir. I didn't have the caps, so I knew I had to be very careful. I was able to start the engine. This was good, because it meant I didn't have to have it towed. I carefully drove the car across Speer Road, where there was an auto shop just down the street. Again, Dad had told me to put it on my credit card and he would pay me back. The auto shop appeared to be staffed with people fresh out of mechanic school. They determined that the problem was with the part that charged the battery. When the battery is fully charged, it's supposed to stop sending juice. However, the switch was busted and it kept charging the battery and that's why it exploded.
They replaced the caps and I took it over to the K-mart in Denver. I brought the battery and the receipt to the auto department and proceeded to tell the guy what happened. He just got this blank stare on his face and appeared to know that I was going to ask for a replacement. He just kept staring at me after I finished. I told him flat out that I wanted to replace it per their warranty. He said it was against their policy to replace it, but he would charge the battery for free. (It's no wonder Walmart swooped in and grabbed up most of their market share.) I waited for the battery to charge and left the store.
As it turns out, the battery was the least of the problems I had with the car. I found out later that there was another car that my Dad wanted to get me, but Mom didn't like it. I eventually got that other car and it ran well. It would have been nice to have gotten that one instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment