Man. Tomorrow is the “Tour de Madeira”, so stay tuned for a post there. You might check my other blog, where I will update silly things like this. What? You know you’re not cool unless you have at least 3 blogs.

So we’ve been having some van troubles lately, culminating in an “adventure” Wednesday afternoon where the car wouldn’t start after Carolyn had gotten the kids from school and was trying to come home. So Wednesday after work, I stopped by the school to see what was up. I tried to jump the car, but failed. One problem was that it was hard to get the two batteries very close as there was a giant light pole right where I needed to park. I resolved to tell Carolyn that next time she is unable to start the car, to try and not be parked next to a giant light pole ;-).

In any case, that wasn’t really the problem; the main problem was just that I’m an idiot. Luckily our home teacher lives just down the street from the school and I had passed his house while driving there and seen him out in his yard. So I called him up and he came over and un-idiotically jumped the van. I drove home and we pondered what to do. At this point I was a bit worried that it was more than just a dead battery. The battery in there was only 2 years old, and it was a 60-month battery. It seemed kind of odd that it would just be dead. I considered that it could be a problem with the alternator. I called up Pep Boys and they said that they could test the battery if I got it out of the van. Since I am an expert in such matters, this was no problem. I was just going to take it out in the driveway and drive it over in the other car, but then I realized that then if the battery was fine (meaning potentially something else wrong), then I’d have to go back home, re-install the battery, jump the van, and drive it somewhere to get it fixed. So instead, I jumped the van again in the driveway, and drove it to Pep Boys.

I commenced un-installing the battery in the parking lot of Pep Boys. I had brought my toolbox with me, and they had a few tools that they lend to poor saps such as myself. So, as I’m getting the battery out, I move one of the clamps that clamps on to the negative terminal of the battery, and the hood light comes on! I go inside the van and start it up and it comes right on. So at this point it appears to be some sort of connection problem.

The next day, I test things out again and clean the terminals, and clamp things down tighter. Stay tuned, but that appears to be the problem. I definitely felt like a big manly man with all of my car-fixing skeelz.