Errands, Asashoryu, and How To Jump-Start A Car
12/7/1
Running errands always takes so much time.
Aisai and I hit the road once she got home. We got money out of the ATM and ate at Logan�s Roadhouse. Then we went to Bruno�s, which is now Food World, and bought $25 worth of peanut butter. A man in our congregation will be heading down to the church in Mexico City that we help out and he�ll take them down. Then we went by church and dropped it off and then went grocery shopping.
My alarm on my watch went off as we were carrying groceries in. It was 8:54.
I had the 8:54 alarm on my watch since when I had a Tamagotchi going, I needed to check to make sure it was all good before it went to sleep. Hmm...I think I may need to start up one of the generation 2 Tamagotchi. I have a few since I capitalized on a store that sold them for $3. I can sell them for more than that on Ebay. Plus, I wanted one and the shipping was $5 on one or on ten.
We watched Squirrelvivor and Kelly got voted off. It was fun watching Lex and Soccer Dude have fun in the village. After that, I started watching the Sumo that the replaytv had been holding onto for about a week and a half.
Asashoryu is a berserker freak. He only weights about 260 lbs and he took out Musashimaru who is 200 lbs heavier than him. And quick. I haven�t finished watching the whole thing since I got really sleepy. Asashoryu, the only Mongolian sumo in the pro leagues, is only 20 and is going to be a big favorite of mine for years if he can keep up his Batman like tactics.
I was disappointed when I first recorded this since I thought that I had seen the tail end of the Autumn Basho already. I thought Kaio won. But Kaio had a hurt leg or something and ducked out. Man, I hope Asashoryu wins.
I didn�t see Tananohana. Maybe he�s sitting this one out. I hope he didn�t retire like Akebono did.
Ok, about that jump starting...
I was talking to Aisai yesterday and she said that she was going to help a co-worker with her car, but that she didn�t know how to do the jump-start. So here�s the Postwood Manual of Jump Starting.
1. The red is the power. When doing jump-starting, the red, or positive, is the side that you need to watch out for. I�ll give you a piece of advice in 2 which will let you be totally stupid and not blow up the battery, but remember Red = different = the power. Aisai remembered that Red = Danger. That�s fine. Good. Another way to remember is that red is positive is that everything in the world is negative, comparatively, to what they had to make. They had to make something, and it�s positive. The car�s body is negative. You�re negative. Everything but the red is negative.
2. Always hook the negative to the car�s body. Why? Oh, you don�t have to if you know what you�re doing. But you can�t mess up if you hook it to the body. If you hooked the red to the black and hooked the black to the car, nothing happens. Well, not much, but don�t do it and hook up the other side just in case. By hooking the black to the car, you know you got one right.
3. Don�t trust anyone with the other side once you get your car hooked up.
4. Hook up the dead car first. This way, if some ditz does touch the red and black on the other end, there isn�t all that juice.
5. Keep the car doing the jumping running. Your alternator has more power than the battery does. It will charge the other battery some while it�s hooked up. You may be able to start the car immediately, or you may have to let it sit charging for about five minutes. If it can�t start after that, then it may not be the battery with the problem.
6. Once the jumped car is running, let it charge its battery for 20 minutes. This can be done while driving or idling, but don�t turn the car off to see if it�s done. I have a story about his. I call this story �The Problem with Democracy� and I won�t tell it now.
A recap. Red is positive. Black is negative. Always hook black to the car. Don�t trust anyone with the life of your battery. Hook up the dead car first. Don�t turn the car doing the jumping off. Let the battery of the dead car charge once it�s running.
Another piece of advice is that when the alternator of your car goes bad, spend the extra $40 and get the top of the line, most powerful one that can go in your car. Also, get the best battery when your battery dies. Batteries only last three years, so unless you are swapping out cars constantly, I think you�ll replace some batteries. My car has a big ol� alternator and a big ol� battery. I can jump-start a freakin� cement mixer if I had to, and my car only weighs 2300 lbs.
If you are the jumpee, if you didn�t have your battery die since you left your lights on or something obvious, then take the car straight to Autozone. They are great since they will test the car for free [yes, FREE] and tell you if it�s the alternator or the battery. Pray it�s the battery. If it is, they�ll put the battery you buy in for free [yes, FREE]. If it�s the alternator, at least get the price there so you can tell the people at the dealer to go jump when they want 4x more for a inferior part.
I�ve been with the government now for 5 years. I got my first �longevity check� today. An extra $52.41 is padding my wallet, or will be once I cash it.
I think I�ll spend it on Half.com before I even leave the building. Possibly before I even stand up again. Hee hee.