Friends,
I’m really trying to make a point to remain positive in the first posts this year. Here’s my attempt to spin today’s non-fun events:
You know that lump of copper and aluminum under the hood of your car? The one with big, fat wires hanging off of it? The alternator under the hood of my Microscopic Racecar© packed up this morning. Shuffled off its mortal coils (yikes, a windings joke? proud of yourself? -ed).
I left for work this morning at my usual time, before sunrise. The headlights flickered at the 4,500 foot mark and the charging system warning light came on. Headlights dimmed at 3,000 feet. The radio failed at 2,200 feet. I figured that the car was running on battery power only and turned off the headlights down at 800 feet, while it was still dark. Must make it to work, after all…
Five minutes to the Festival of Dirt and the car quit. At this point, I had no idea that the alternator had died and instead condemned the battery. First mistake. I walked to the local car parts store and waited a half hour until they opened to find out they don’t stock the over-sized motorcycle battery nestled in the Racecar’s trunk. They not only didn’t stock the battery, but they also didn’t know where to get one. What they did know was the phone number of their local competitor. Take a deep breath.
“Do you have a Miata battery?”
“No, we have Energizer, Interstate and Optima”
“Oh no, I’m looking for a battery for my Miata”
“Huh?”
“Mazda Miata? MX-5? You must’ve heard of it.”
“Oh yeah, right. What year? Let me get back to you, I’m trying to open my store right now.”
That was the last I heard from Manny, Moe and Jack’s harried and forgetful surrogate.
So after a dejected trudge back to the car and a phone call to a friend at work to pick me up, the car started right up. It soon died again, but this time in front of a nearby garage run by a gentleman who’s been driving the same road I do every day for the last two decades. It’s a small world!
Setting the crushing repair bill aside for a moment, there are positives in this story. I met a nice guy who in addition to running a garage down in the desert but also does fire abatement, gardening and housecleaning up here on the hill. I also have a newly steady stream of electrons coursing through that tiny little car. Can it get much better? Yes!
When the alternator failed, it also fried the wiring to the instrument panel. Now there’s all new wiring from there to there. See? It’s a great day after all. Hell, it’s an amazing year!
Your pal,
bob