The Good, The Bad and The Dead
So yesterday wasn't really a bad day...just a bad night.... (this is long..so go to the bathroom now)
It started off ok; we got all the wiring finished at Hima's house, excepting two outlets that we forgot to buy faceplates for. The only thing left to do is install the hardware in the cabinet, but the phone junction hasn't come in yet, but should be here by the weekend. We'll install all that Monday or so of next week at which time we'll be able to test all the jacks and label the cables also.
The real fun started after we finished an were on our way home. I left my phone in the car as I didn't want to break it/leave it in the house. When I pulled it out it was extremely hot and wouldn't turn on. So I put it infront of the AC and when it was cool enough I turned it on to see I had 4 voicemails. As I was checking them I realized I was in hot water. Joni's car wouldn't start while she was at work...so over the course of an hour she called 20 or so times and left 4 messages...each one getting more and more angry with me and the car. The final message said she was at a friends house and I should call her immediately....not good!
So I called her and made arrangement to pick her up then we went to her office and diagnosed the problem. It was not the ignition switch as she thought it was...it was actually a dead battery. We verified this by jumping the car and then disconnecting the battery allowing just the alternator to keep the car running. We also found out that an alternator doesn't have enough juice to power the car, the breaklights, the headlights and AC all at once...the car shut off before we even left her parking lot. We did a few tests to see just what we could use and found that breaks and the occasional wipers (oh...did I forget to mention it was starting to rain...) was all we could run without overloading the alternator. So we started the 5 mile trip to the closest walmart only to find that we couldn't find it and didn't have the time or energy (literally) to find it. I stalled the car once when I forgot and turned my turn signal on at a red light...doh!
At this point we scrapped the idea of finding that walmart (which even if we had I'm sure it would have been closed) and went up to the one in Wake Forest. I'll be damned if I didn't catch better then 75% of red lights! So we get up to our light and I make a decision. If the light is red at Burlington Mills Rd I'm just going to make the right and go home...but if it's green we'll go to walmart. The light was red until the last possible second..I was already in the right turn lane when it changed, but there we no other cars so I cut back over and pushed my luck... As we neared the light for walmart I saw police lights..thinking some other idiot got into an accident I failed to notice just how dark it was (at 11::00 at night). As I got closer to the police lights I noticed that there were no other lights...the power was out in that section of town. Were we foiled again? I figured what the hell..I'm just going to go for it and we went over to see if walmart was still open...they were like the only thing in Wake Forest still open for business! So we finally got the old battery out after a little struggle with the retaining bolt and went to get the new one.
After a small scare with them being out of stock, a nice stockman dug through a few boxes and found the battery I needed and sent me on to the register. This should have been the easiest part of my night, but of course not...I had to pay the $7.00 core charge for the old battery...however I had the old battery RIGHT THERE WITH ME! The highly educated cashier informed me that "We have to do it on two different transactions"...I didn't believe her, but whatever...just do it. So she charges us the money and proceeds to hollar at a casheir roughly 10 lanes away to page the CSM (Can you Say Moron...that's what it should stand for) so after a 10 minute conversation with another employee and another page the CSM get's off her ass and comes to our lane and insists to me that only the Tire and Lube Express can do the core exchanges...and naturally they close at 7. Now you all should know by now that one of my best friends is a manager at Walmart and I feel like I know their policies better then most of the associates and I called bullshit on the CSM, but then again, I look at the intelligence of Jamie's ex-girlfriend (also a CSM) and it all makes sense. I now have to go back to Walmart for the sole purpose of returning a battery for my measly $7. I suppose that's just one more part of walmart I'll have to swear off. We've been paying $5 more each oil change because I refuse to go to TLE anymore because of the whole sticker fiasco, but that's another story...
By the way, I called the store manager and confirmed that "CSM Sarah" is a fucking idiot and has effectivly wasted more of my life then any walmart employee should be allowed to. He said it's their policy to do the exchange at the TLE, but if it's closed do it at customer service. Of course if you have the old battery at the time of the new purchase...they can just back the core charge off....I should run my own walmart...no..Jamie and I should run one..it would definatly be the most kick ass walmart in the country... it would run like a high tech well oiled machine! Flatty, think about that!
Boy these blog's are so theraputic!
It started off ok; we got all the wiring finished at Hima's house, excepting two outlets that we forgot to buy faceplates for. The only thing left to do is install the hardware in the cabinet, but the phone junction hasn't come in yet, but should be here by the weekend. We'll install all that Monday or so of next week at which time we'll be able to test all the jacks and label the cables also.
The real fun started after we finished an were on our way home. I left my phone in the car as I didn't want to break it/leave it in the house. When I pulled it out it was extremely hot and wouldn't turn on. So I put it infront of the AC and when it was cool enough I turned it on to see I had 4 voicemails. As I was checking them I realized I was in hot water. Joni's car wouldn't start while she was at work...so over the course of an hour she called 20 or so times and left 4 messages...each one getting more and more angry with me and the car. The final message said she was at a friends house and I should call her immediately....not good!
So I called her and made arrangement to pick her up then we went to her office and diagnosed the problem. It was not the ignition switch as she thought it was...it was actually a dead battery. We verified this by jumping the car and then disconnecting the battery allowing just the alternator to keep the car running. We also found out that an alternator doesn't have enough juice to power the car, the breaklights, the headlights and AC all at once...the car shut off before we even left her parking lot. We did a few tests to see just what we could use and found that breaks and the occasional wipers (oh...did I forget to mention it was starting to rain...) was all we could run without overloading the alternator. So we started the 5 mile trip to the closest walmart only to find that we couldn't find it and didn't have the time or energy (literally) to find it. I stalled the car once when I forgot and turned my turn signal on at a red light...doh!
At this point we scrapped the idea of finding that walmart (which even if we had I'm sure it would have been closed) and went up to the one in Wake Forest. I'll be damned if I didn't catch better then 75% of red lights! So we get up to our light and I make a decision. If the light is red at Burlington Mills Rd I'm just going to make the right and go home...but if it's green we'll go to walmart. The light was red until the last possible second..I was already in the right turn lane when it changed, but there we no other cars so I cut back over and pushed my luck... As we neared the light for walmart I saw police lights..thinking some other idiot got into an accident I failed to notice just how dark it was (at 11::00 at night). As I got closer to the police lights I noticed that there were no other lights...the power was out in that section of town. Were we foiled again? I figured what the hell..I'm just going to go for it and we went over to see if walmart was still open...they were like the only thing in Wake Forest still open for business! So we finally got the old battery out after a little struggle with the retaining bolt and went to get the new one.
After a small scare with them being out of stock, a nice stockman dug through a few boxes and found the battery I needed and sent me on to the register. This should have been the easiest part of my night, but of course not...I had to pay the $7.00 core charge for the old battery...however I had the old battery RIGHT THERE WITH ME! The highly educated cashier informed me that "We have to do it on two different transactions"...I didn't believe her, but whatever...just do it. So she charges us the money and proceeds to hollar at a casheir roughly 10 lanes away to page the CSM (Can you Say Moron...that's what it should stand for) so after a 10 minute conversation with another employee and another page the CSM get's off her ass and comes to our lane and insists to me that only the Tire and Lube Express can do the core exchanges...and naturally they close at 7. Now you all should know by now that one of my best friends is a manager at Walmart and I feel like I know their policies better then most of the associates and I called bullshit on the CSM, but then again, I look at the intelligence of Jamie's ex-girlfriend (also a CSM) and it all makes sense. I now have to go back to Walmart for the sole purpose of returning a battery for my measly $7. I suppose that's just one more part of walmart I'll have to swear off. We've been paying $5 more each oil change because I refuse to go to TLE anymore because of the whole sticker fiasco, but that's another story...
By the way, I called the store manager and confirmed that "CSM Sarah" is a fucking idiot and has effectivly wasted more of my life then any walmart employee should be allowed to. He said it's their policy to do the exchange at the TLE, but if it's closed do it at customer service. Of course if you have the old battery at the time of the new purchase...they can just back the core charge off....I should run my own walmart...no..Jamie and I should run one..it would definatly be the most kick ass walmart in the country... it would run like a high tech well oiled machine! Flatty, think about that!
Boy these blog's are so theraputic!
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