I wasn't sure where to put this. But since this particular blog was started here in Stuttgart, I thought, "Why not?"
Now from time to time, there will be an experience with an organization, be it good, be it bad, that will stand out to me that I will want to share with you, my readers. Today was AutoZone's turn.
Let me set it up for you: This past Saturday, (8/3) my bride went to DeWitt for a baby shower within our homeschool group. No problems. She came home. Not 15 minutes later, I decided I needed to head to the store to get some food for dinner. It was to be chicken, but the chicken was still too frozen, and I didn't feel like having a late dinner. I sit in the car, add the key, listen to the beeping until I close the door, do my seatbelt and then turn on the car. (Yeah, you really wanted to know all of this.) By this time, I popped the hood. The terminals on the battery had such corrosion that the two white piles had become one. (It's amazing how fast what was a mere spot on one terminal several weeks ago became one all-consuming mass.)
Thankfully, we had a plastic squeeze bottle and Carol made me a solution with baking soda. From there, I cleaned the battery off. But every time I ran the hose over the battery, the mosquitoes swarmed me. This didn't really help my patience. But once the battery was cleaned, I hooked up my bus to the van to jump it. Nope, nothing. Even 10 minutes of revving the bus didn't produce enough charge to jump the van. (The bus' battery is only a few months old itself.)
That is a dichotomy with me. One hand, I love working on cars. I was always working on my Plymouth Volare station wagon and my Citation. On the other hand, my hands don't fit anymore in the newer cars. Even now the petroleum causes my hands to bleed as if I dipped them into acid. Oh well. I am glad that there are still people whom I can pay to take care of these problems for me.
So Monday, my friend comes from Marvel to pick me up and give Carol a rest from the boys. We also pulled the battery with the goal of getting it to an AutoZone in Memphis. I am told those are 24 hours. So dropping the boys at his house in Marvel, we continued our trek to Memphis. (No I haven't seen, nor plan to see Graceland.)
Why were we going to Memphis? Well another preacher, from California, was visiting the area because his boy is in college there. We decided that BBQ would be the best venue for our meeting. (We had met on a mutual forum on Facebook and were interacting quite often.) Now in Memphis, I learned that it's not unheard of to combine bbq and pizza. The place we went did just that, Stateline Pizza.
But this post isn't about Stateline Pizza, other than to say that we 3 windbags visited until 11 pm, nearly 6 hours. The other two wondered about my needing to be home. Carol, thankfully, understood that when I am around other preachers, I seem to enter a time vortex. She was counting to seeing me when she saw me.
But it's now 11. We DIDN'T go into Memphis first, and at 11, I was wanting to get home. So the battery was pulled and I would just carry it to the local Autozone when I woke up the next day. Which I did, both wake and took the battery in. At 10.30, I was told to give them about 45 minutes because the battery was so dead. I told them that I was heading to Wal-Mart so it may be another hour or so. (Apparently Wal-Mart is another source of time vortexes with me.)
It was hot Tuesday. We unloaded the bus, and I sat to cool off. Then at 5.30 I remembered that my battery was sitting at AutoZone. I called. They still needed another half hour. OK, not a good sign. Then at 7, I called again. Yep, still not charged. It's bad. They quote me a price and I look at my bottomline in the bank. The two didn't see each other.
I was blessed with the funds for the battery yesterday afternoon. I picked up the new battery and reminded them that I had already brought in my core to trade. But there was a small problem. The clamp wasn't coming off the positive terminal. So I bought a new one, along with anti-corrosive gel, along with those neat green and red felts. It was a blessing because the total costs weren't near as much as I expected, well actually nearly $10 lower.
So I get the battery in. As I was in the process of reconnecting the wires to the positive terminal clamp, the negative clamp came loose and touched the negative terminal. Instantly, my lights flashed on as well as my A/C fan. Instantly I removed it, resecured it and finished my job. Then for the moment of truth. I turned the key. NOTHING!
I was a bit upset and then some. So I went into the house. The evening shade made it too dark to check the fuses. Now I shared this on Facebook. Someone said I should wait and try to start it again. OK. I did. It didn't. So I checked the terminals. The negative was loose. But I was done for the night.
Before I left for my meeting with the Stuttgart Ministers this morning, I took a pair of locking pliers and saw that though the clamp was loose, the nut would not tighten the least bit. Yet I had a connection, precarious as it was. It started and I drove it into town.
After the meeting, I took it to AutoZone. (Hey, wasn't this the point of the post?!) I told them what was going on and they said they had a shim. I asked if they could install it since I left my tools at home. They were gracious. But the shim made the too loose clamp become the too small clamp. It tore up the shim. The option before me was to replace the clamp. I had a hacksaw that I could use, but being 95 outside, I wasn't looking forward to the tight confines and a medium size tool the saw is.
Again, AutoZone took time to cut off my old clamp and install a new one. And of course, I had to get more gel since I didn't have any left from the night before. It took them about a half hour to work in the heat, but unlike my house that had shade, AutoZone was in direct noon-time sun. No respite from the sun. And the guy did the work with a smile on his face and grace in his voice. And even for just a $5 sale.
You want quality service, AutoZone in Stuttgart, Arkansas will give it to you. I highly recommend them.
