Sir Gala Clad
Bronze Member
My last hunting day ended before it began, with a Ka Clunk. What a bummer, after loading up all the detecting gear in the back of my pickup and pushing my ancient Pit Bull into the passenger seat nothing hampered - The battery was dead.
Oh well, I could see that it was just going to be one of those evenings. After returning everything to the house, except the Pit Bull, who decide to stay as he likes to sit behind the steering wheel and look cool with the windows down. Besides he needed to rest up after all of the exertion of getting in, even though I had to push.
Good Fortune - I was able to borrow my daughters car.
Not - could not test the battery as the nearby Napa dealer was closed for New Years Eve.Compressed myself back into the sardine sized drivers compartment of the compact and drove to distant Wally World of discount stores (Wal-Mart).
Bad fortune - The blue dot on showed that it was past due the three year period for a free return. Worse - They not only re arranged the entire store since my last trip to town, they were somehow able to hide entire battery display. After a frustrating fifteen minute search, I was finally able to find the same size battery. Duh the old battery had 850 / 700 stamped on its side - the replacement had only 700 stamped on its side. Also it had a red dot on it stamped 10/12 and the current month year is 12/12.
Not knowing if it was the same as the old, I decided to buy it - just in case the old battery was bad till I discovered that I had to pay an extra nine to ten dollars for the core charge.
Nuts - back to the return desk to pick up the core charge. But first I needed to speak to the manager to determine why the red dot on the battery was stamped 10/12 as it was 12/12 - turned out to be that was the date that battery was made . She was very helpful, turned out both batteries had the same Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) which is critical. I not only got my core charge back, I only had to pay about one half of the price of a new battery as the old battery had a prorated life of an additional two to three years.
It just goes to show that treasure is where you find it, and does not have to be under your search coil.My metal detecting head light came in handy too, as it was getting dark.
Speak of miserable it had just started to drizzle and there was smoke everywhere from the stench of damp fireworks. With all the snapping, sparkling and whistling from the safe and sane fireworks combined with the popping and booming from the dumb and dangerous fireworks, I felt like I was in combat and actually snapped one of the replacement connectors to the battery in half plus constantly dropped the nuts under the hood, which is really bad when you have a hard time bending over. The magnet in the stand up scoop was no help here.
After completing the repair, and sipping a little brandy to take of the chill, there was this dull feeling that something still needed to be done. I was just ready to doze off, when I realized that my Pit Bull, Pica Maximus, was missing. I called and called - he was nowhere to be found. Fearing the worst - I thought that he had run away as a result of stress from the fireworks. Nope - turned out he decided to sleep in the small space in back of the seats. Took several minutes to wake him up and pull him out. Great care had to be taken, one cannot be too careful as great watch dogs such as this are hard to come by.
Oh well tomorrow is the New Year and the start of 2013 Treasure Hunting. It just has to be better than 2012s ending with a Ka Clunk.
Oh well, I could see that it was just going to be one of those evenings. After returning everything to the house, except the Pit Bull, who decide to stay as he likes to sit behind the steering wheel and look cool with the windows down. Besides he needed to rest up after all of the exertion of getting in, even though I had to push.
Good Fortune - I was able to borrow my daughters car.
Not - could not test the battery as the nearby Napa dealer was closed for New Years Eve.Compressed myself back into the sardine sized drivers compartment of the compact and drove to distant Wally World of discount stores (Wal-Mart).
Bad fortune - The blue dot on showed that it was past due the three year period for a free return. Worse - They not only re arranged the entire store since my last trip to town, they were somehow able to hide entire battery display. After a frustrating fifteen minute search, I was finally able to find the same size battery. Duh the old battery had 850 / 700 stamped on its side - the replacement had only 700 stamped on its side. Also it had a red dot on it stamped 10/12 and the current month year is 12/12.
Not knowing if it was the same as the old, I decided to buy it - just in case the old battery was bad till I discovered that I had to pay an extra nine to ten dollars for the core charge.
Nuts - back to the return desk to pick up the core charge. But first I needed to speak to the manager to determine why the red dot on the battery was stamped 10/12 as it was 12/12 - turned out to be that was the date that battery was made . She was very helpful, turned out both batteries had the same Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) which is critical. I not only got my core charge back, I only had to pay about one half of the price of a new battery as the old battery had a prorated life of an additional two to three years.
It just goes to show that treasure is where you find it, and does not have to be under your search coil.My metal detecting head light came in handy too, as it was getting dark.
Speak of miserable it had just started to drizzle and there was smoke everywhere from the stench of damp fireworks. With all the snapping, sparkling and whistling from the safe and sane fireworks combined with the popping and booming from the dumb and dangerous fireworks, I felt like I was in combat and actually snapped one of the replacement connectors to the battery in half plus constantly dropped the nuts under the hood, which is really bad when you have a hard time bending over. The magnet in the stand up scoop was no help here.
After completing the repair, and sipping a little brandy to take of the chill, there was this dull feeling that something still needed to be done. I was just ready to doze off, when I realized that my Pit Bull, Pica Maximus, was missing. I called and called - he was nowhere to be found. Fearing the worst - I thought that he had run away as a result of stress from the fireworks. Nope - turned out he decided to sleep in the small space in back of the seats. Took several minutes to wake him up and pull him out. Great care had to be taken, one cannot be too careful as great watch dogs such as this are hard to come by.
Oh well tomorrow is the New Year and the start of 2013 Treasure Hunting. It just has to be better than 2012s ending with a Ka Clunk.
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