What You Get When You Pay $2500 for a Car.

Okay so Teana got home in the early afternoon so we thought we'd spend some time out in the local shops to get a few things for the hen's night (bachelorette party) tonight for her best friend who is getting married Saturday. Let's just say I wish I had some pics to go with this story. What started as a quick 20mins at the shops turned into a car that wouldn't start and an hour wait for our warranty people to come help us. My wife with her amazing touch and prayers somehow got it to start after about an hour of sitting there after I repeatedly told her to quit fiddling with it. The people were still 20 mins away so we thought we'd go straight to the auto shop to get a new battery or see if they had any ideas what it was. It hadn't happened before and our car always starts fine. When we'd turn the key the radio and everything worked but it wouldn't turnover, not even the slightest bit. I thought it might be the starter since the car still turned on but seeing as I only know how to change a tire and a battery, it went far over my head. So we got the guy at the auto store to check it out and he called his brother who worked next door at as a mechanic and they thought it was the starter or battery. We then called her mechanic who is cheaper and he said just from hearing that it sounded like a battery problem. We tried to start the car again and it worked but then turned it off and couldn't start it again so we went and bought a new battery, which wasn't a biggie because they said we could bring it back as long as there was no damage to it. We switched it (which is a whole other story seeing as we didn't have any tools but a adjustable wrench I bought at the auto store.) and it worked like a charm. A guy stopped and helped us change the battery and it turned out that he had a whole (i mean probably every possible size) of ratchet known to man in his car. My dad is in construction (management... but he professes that he used to do some of the work himself, evidently that was quite some time ago) and trying to find any size in his garage was always a chore in itself. Total side note but I think that it would be great for Parkway if all the owners threw in some labor on one job a year. Dad could do tile since that's what I always hear he did on his first Burger Kings, Jerry could do the framing or cabinet work since he's probably the only one who owns most of the wood working equipment. I'd throw Joe on slab, he'd get done just in time to teach seminary that morning. I'd put Rick and Sean on the roof taring since they're in the best shape, it'd keep 'em young. Vaughn could do all the plumbing work. He's got the plumber since of humor. Back to the story... Teana restarted it several times to make sure. I thought that must have been it since it worked so well and decided to give the auto shop our old battery for disposal. We then came home and Teana got ready for her evening. I ordered a pizza and was going to pick it up when the car wouldn't start again. Now we have a new battery and I gave them our old one so we're stuck with that cost, and we're going to have to do something else to it. I mean it is a '95 and the engine runs well so hopefully this will work. It's just fun when you've saved all that money and it flies right out the door in one or two days. I guess that's why you save extra. It was a fun day. I get to drop of the car tomorrow and walk about 2-3 miles to the train station and then walk another 2-3 miles from the closest train station to our home. Maybe I'll do it Papa style and hitch hike.