DieHards
Mike and Glen were inside the city limits this morning from their self-imposed exile out in St Chuck and we got together for lunch and then came back and hung out for awhile to catch up. Afterwards, it was time to address the issue with Matt's battery. During last week's cold snap, it wouldn't start for him, but thn started right up as the thermometer rose. This morning as we were leaving for lunch, it wouldn't start again. But when we got back and got the old truck (which has no problems starting) in place to jump it, it turned over. Matt had checked a couple of shops this week, but it was a special size and would have to be ordered. Sure, we only paid $13k for a 7-year-old (at the time) Merc' - which i still say was a smart move since it's pushing a quarter mil' and still running strong and looks great - but sometimes upkeep can be a bit on the pricey side.
The biggest issue with swapping out the battery is the theft-proof radio. Once you lose the juice, you have to enter a code to get it to work again. We went through this the last time and i'm sure i've got the email from MB in my inbox somewhere since i keep EVERYthing. But the liquid crystal display on the radio doesn't work anymore so we wouldn't be able to read the prompts. i had contemplated some kinda Rube Goldbergesque solution like using jumper cables from the new battery to the engine while we swapped them out, but Matt could only envision us coated with battery acid eating away our flesh after i'd blown the damn things up. Fuck it, i figured Sears would have a solution. Hell, every car's got computers and stuff that need constant power and sure enough, they had a way to keep low wattage juice to the system to keep a feed while they swapped it out. And they had the right battery in stock. So off we went and an hour or so later we had a new battery.
On the way home, we stopped at the store so Matt could get the final fixin's for a pineapple-upside-down cake. Matt had to pause by the holiday liquor displays to say hey to the Crown Royal boxes (with NEW LOOK!!). He loved his Crown-on-the-rocks, but his tummy just won't have it anymore which is why he doesn't like going out as much anymore. Poor baby. i dropped him by the house to get started on his cake and went to Old St Louis Chop Suey ("CASH ONRY!!") for some of the yummiest chinese in town. Sure, we'd just gone to Mekong the night before, but that's actually Vietnamese. Beside, the Chinese eat chinese pretty much every night and yadda-yadda million chinese can't be wrong.