Click. Clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick.
That is the sound the car makes. Which means, I hope, that the battery in the key fob is dying. So I try the other one.
Clickclickclickclick.
Well.
The lights turn on. The radio and the interior light, too.
So it is the battery, since the starter and the alternator have both seemed strong recently.
One 5/16ths wrench and three bolts and the two connectors later and the battery is free. This took just a minute, which is an improvement over the headlights in this car. They can’t be replaced without dropped the entire front end of the car. This battery is also better off than a car I once had that required a mechanic to take out a support bar to simply change batteries.
Because nothing on a car should be simple.
But at least this battery comes out.
Off to get it tested. And that battery failed. But it has been in the car for six years and that’s asking a lot of a battery these days.
So I bought a new battery. Took it home, set it in the engine compartment and started tightening nuts and bolts. Dropped a nut into the deepest, darkest part of the engine compartment. With visions of a bouncing battery tearing through the hood I had to figure out a way to pull out that nut.
I found one of those fridge magnets from a realtor that knows who you are for no reason and thought you might like a football schedule. I put that in right spot, fished it around and found the nut. Take that, MacGyver.
(Aside: have you ever visited MacGyver Online? These are two of their features: MacGyver’s Wardrobe and The Houseboat Today. That’s impressive.)
The biggest setback of the day, then, was realizing I have to re-set all of the radio presets in my car radio.
Life is pretty good then, no?
Tried to rent a tuxedo for a wedding, but failed. I’m trying to match a tuxedo that someone else already owns, but it seems that that tux is one this particular suit store sells, but does not rent. Though that’s not what I’ve been told. So I’ll try a different store later.
I just bought a battery, nothing is phasing me today.
Got a flag folded, in preparation for a birthday gift for my grandfather. I visited the local reserve center and there soldiers helped make it official. One of them was a sergeant who’d never folded a flag before. But, she said, she’d always wanted to. They’d just been talking about it, in fact. So they took pictures of her folding the flag. So everybody wins.
And I didn’t have to buy a starter or an alternator.
Everybody wins.
Except that we’ve lost. A lot. Here are a series of disconcerting headlines:
New Snowden documents say NSA can break common Internet encryption
Revealed: how US and UK spy agencies defeat internet privacy and security
N.S.A. Able to Foil Basic Safeguards of Privacy on Web
Revealed: The NSA’s Secret Campaign to Crack, Undermine Internet Security
