Monday, September 3, 2007

The Need For Glasses


On the way to pick up Emilee late on Friday afternoon, I got stopped in some traffic in EG. As I stepped on the gas to go, a little picture warning light came on very briefly on the dashboard of my car. I had my sunglasses on and I couldn't see what the picture was of, I just noticed that it was lit for a second. I figured I'd get a better look when I stopped again.

Don't ya know it - I didn't stop again until I was in front of the airport - I never get all the way through Apponaug right before 5 on a Friday afternoon without many stops - but this Friday I did! So the next time the warning was on for just a second again, I thought it was the battery box pictured. I called Michael and asked if he had any distilled water - nope. I had bought a gallon of distilled water several months ago when I showed Veronica how to add water to the battery, but she had dumped it one night. Seems she and some friends were on a leaky boat off Jamestown one night and they needed a bailing bucket.

After picking up Emi we went to the auto store to buy some motor oil and distilled water. But they don't sell distilled water at the auto store! So we took a ride by Vanessa's apartment (no one was home) on the way to the cell phone store. Now each time I stop, the warning light flashes on for a moment and I worried that each time I turned the car off that it might not start again. The cell phone store was a mob scene, so Emilee and I headed to NK, deciding that we'd get Subway for dinner. After a quick stop at Dave's to pick up milk and chocolate ice cream (for you know who) as well as distilled water. I asked a clerk at Dave's where to find distilled water and he pointed to an entire wall of water and water products. After a few minutes, Emi went off to find the clerk, because we couldn't find the distilled water. He came over and pointed to a section of Poland Spring water that had the smallest print DISTILLED above the label. Off we went to Subway. We got our sandwiches and headed to my apartment, I'm thinking after we eat I'll go out and put the distilled water in the battery so that the car will start in the morning.

Well, I didn't do my maintenance on the car until the next afternoon, as we were leaving for Clayground. After taking off the 2 bungee cords, pulling the wire for the hood release, the battery cells looked pretty full, but I poured the distilled water in them anyway, checked the oil (okay) and looked over at the overflow for the radiator, which looked full.

The car started right up and the stupid picture warning light came on again! I'm thinking what the heck could be the problem, I just checked everything!?! Figuring I'll deal with it later I pulled out of the driveway and decided to put my glasses on to look at the warning picture when it came on again, which it did about 30 feet down the road. It was the little picture of a box with a spout on the top and a fan in the middle!! The radiator fluid was low! I pulled into a driveway of a house that has been for sale and is vacant down the road, took the bungee cords off (again) and opened the hood. Sure enough, what looked like a full overflow tank at my house, was an empty one at the house down the street. The trunk of my car is like a mini auto store, stocked with just about everything you could possibly need in case of emergency maintenance - which this was, by now - so I poured some antifreeze into the overflow tank.

And guess what, the stupid little picture warning light never came on again!

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