Adventures in my being stupid... :: The Life of the Traegorn

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Adventures in my being stupid...
Posted Aug 16, 2010 - 6:26:17

So I realize that while I mentioned this on my Twitter Feed/Facebook account, I never really explained what happened last weekend in detail with my car. My blog entries instead were about the site redesign and politics... neither of which had anything to do with my little adventure. I feel that I need to correct this, so today (a week late) I've decided to tell you why I, Trae Dorn, can occasionally be a complete idiot...

...and how it is demonstrated through my car.

My car no longer detects whether or not the driver side door is open. This is important to know. It has this problem because I, quite a while back, manually disconnected the sensor that told it. My reasons were sound, as my 1996 Ford Escort's driver side automatic shoulder belt got jammed. It originally was stuck in the forward position, but I fixed it so it would be in the back (and useful/safe/seatbelt-like) position -- but unfortunately had to cut power to the motor so it wouldn't burn itself out. As the power to this unit is one and the same with the door sensor, that meant that I no longer get a warning bell if I forget to turn the headlights off.

Needless to say, a week ago Friday, I forgot to turn the headlights off on my car.

The next night, at least 30 hours after I'd left them on, Crysta and I went out to the car as we decided to see a movie that night. We noticed something was wrong when the (functional) passenger side automatic seatbelt didn't move forward. I then noticed the lights were "on" (as the headlights were now dark) and the car wouldn't start.

I had, in fact, drained the battery.

Joy of joy, our plans for the night ruined, I then walked the 3/4 of a mile to Target and bought a car battery charger (as I lacked one). Try as I might though, the old battery had been far too discharged. No matter what I tried I couldn't get the (not that old of a) battery to accept a charge. This sadly meant one thing: I had to get a new battery.

Crysta and I own one car. This is important to note. So when I had to go purchase a new battery, I had to walk the mile and a half to the Auto parts store. This was not a big deal. The big deal was that once I had the battery... I had to walk home with it. For anyone who has had to carry a car battery before, imagine how that feels after you carry it for a mile. Now also imagine that the heat index is possibly over 100 while doing so.

Not a whole lot of fun.

Thankfully, a nice couple saw me in my slow, painful progress, and gave me a ride for the last half a mile home. I honestly don't know if I would have made it. I successfully installed the battery though, and the car is fully functional yet again.

But I'm still a bit of an idiot.
- Traegorn

Why is it always the stupidest little things that turn into the biggest hassles? Happens to me frequently.

Are you going to replace the verse in 500 miles with car battery instead of laserdisc player? Which was worse?

No -- just add another verse.

I can't help but notice that something is always going wrong with your car.

Well, this time things were completely my fault.

I also drive older cars with high mileage, so things are bound to happen. The last wear and tear problem was just a belt in April, and those are pretty cheap to replace (and will wear out on any car too)