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How was my drive to work this evening?
Aug. 9th, 2008 03:11 amThe tow truck driver only accepted cash -- $153. I was very lucky to have that cash on hand.
The battery light came on as I was coming home this morning. I was too tired to do anything about it then other than plan on leaving early for work. I should have headed to NTB instead.
I was able to get the car started this evening and even have air conditioning until route 128 (two-thirds of my way to work). If I hadn't turned that on, perhaps I would have made it all the way to work -- but I would not have been able to see through the windshield. My car fogs up easily.
Then everything started failing -- the inside lights dimmed, the ABS light came on, then the air bag light came on, then the lights dimmed a lot more (including the head lights), then the brake light came on (meaning power brakes had failed). The I lost power to the speedometer, then the tach. I slipped into fourth gear to be safe. Then the check oil light came on.
Soon enough the car died. I coasted for half a mile and then came to a stop just a few feet from the offramp for my exit. I was half a mile from my office's parking lot. It was 11:30 p.m., half an hour before I would normally punch in.
A cop pulled up and she called a tow truck. I called my office and no one answered. I sat in the shotgun seat for twenty minutes and read about Algerian re-adoption of French after independence. Those cop cars give off amazing amounts of light.
The tow truck showed up pretty fast and got me to the office. We jumped the car, but it lost most of the juice within a minute.
I'm pretty sure it's the battery because power gets distributed but there just isn't much of it and less and less every few seconds. I was talking with one of the security guards about this -- he drives an Audi, which is the Lexus of VW, and he'd seen the same problem. If any one of the cells in the battery dies, the whole thing is short the twelve volts and the car goes ape snot.
NTB opens well before I get out of work. I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow because this will screw up my sleep schedule. I wager this will cost me a lot more within a few hours, unless someone would deliver a battery to me instead of towing me to a station.
Before you ask: no, I don't have AAA.
Things had been uneventful this week until now. Now I'm nerved out. I also forgot to take my pills before I left for work and I'm going to want to eat too much. How's your weekend?
The battery light came on as I was coming home this morning. I was too tired to do anything about it then other than plan on leaving early for work. I should have headed to NTB instead.
I was able to get the car started this evening and even have air conditioning until route 128 (two-thirds of my way to work). If I hadn't turned that on, perhaps I would have made it all the way to work -- but I would not have been able to see through the windshield. My car fogs up easily.
Then everything started failing -- the inside lights dimmed, the ABS light came on, then the air bag light came on, then the lights dimmed a lot more (including the head lights), then the brake light came on (meaning power brakes had failed). The I lost power to the speedometer, then the tach. I slipped into fourth gear to be safe. Then the check oil light came on.
Soon enough the car died. I coasted for half a mile and then came to a stop just a few feet from the offramp for my exit. I was half a mile from my office's parking lot. It was 11:30 p.m., half an hour before I would normally punch in.
A cop pulled up and she called a tow truck. I called my office and no one answered. I sat in the shotgun seat for twenty minutes and read about Algerian re-adoption of French after independence. Those cop cars give off amazing amounts of light.
The tow truck showed up pretty fast and got me to the office. We jumped the car, but it lost most of the juice within a minute.
I'm pretty sure it's the battery because power gets distributed but there just isn't much of it and less and less every few seconds. I was talking with one of the security guards about this -- he drives an Audi, which is the Lexus of VW, and he'd seen the same problem. If any one of the cells in the battery dies, the whole thing is short the twelve volts and the car goes ape snot.
NTB opens well before I get out of work. I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow because this will screw up my sleep schedule. I wager this will cost me a lot more within a few hours, unless someone would deliver a battery to me instead of towing me to a station.
Before you ask: no, I don't have AAA.
Things had been uneventful this week until now. Now I'm nerved out. I also forgot to take my pills before I left for work and I'm going to want to eat too much. How's your weekend?
