My poor father really wanted to have some boys in the family, but he had four daughters. Then the last one was a boy. My brother however lives with my mom and does not spend a lot of time out at my dad's doing boy things. While growing up to compensate for lack of a son, he tried as hard as he could to teach me all the things he would have taught an eldest son. I worked hard on the farm, whenever I would complain and whine that something was too hard, he's say any boy your age could do it. And sure enough I figured out a way to do it. I might sound like I'm complaining now, but it really is something I am grateful for. Helps me push myself to do things even now.
One thing my father thought was really important to teach me was to know my way around my car. That way if I ever had car troubles or needed to do some maintenance on it, I would know how to do it. Unfortunately I had/have no aptitude to learn anything car related! I sort of brushed it off when I was a teen, because I figured I'd just hire someone to do it for me. But the past several years I've been wishing that perhaps I had taken better notes.
Fast forward to today; I have recently purchased a car off my sister and went out today to pick it up. It's been sitting there for a few months and the battery seemed to have drained as the car refused to start. There was nobody home at the place and my mom drove me out (she's about as good with cars as I am). Not surprising her booster cables weren't in her van as she had lent them to my brother in-law and he hadn't put them back yet. So I suggested we drive a minute down the road to a small gas station/convenience store and see if they had any we could borrow. My mom said "Well... I don't know how to boost a car and I really don't want us to do it wrong and wreck my vehicle" I assured her I had done it several times before and if it made her feel better I could google it before hand. She agreed to let me try so off we went in search of cables.
The lady at the store didn't have any there. And she called a neighbor and theirs was in their other vehicle which was in town at that moment. It was starting to look like I'd have to head home and pick up a set of cables when this guy walks in. The clerk asked if he had any cables and he went to look. He said I could borrow them and bring them back. So off we went to try. There was a paper with instructions on the booster cables so I followed them step by step. Man did I want to get that car running. If for nothing else then to prove to Mr. J that I'm not completely hopeless when he's not around.
The cables are connected, red on positive and black on negative, and I give it a try starting. Still no start, just makes a weird noise. So I check the cables to make sure they're connected securely. I try again. Nothing. So we call by brother in -law he walks us through it. I try grounding the black cable on a different spot on the van. Still nothing. We let it sit and charge for several mins. Nothing. So I give up for the day and decide to get Mr. J to come back out with me and help when he returns home from doing some work. We return the cables back to the man at the store (who has since left because we took so long, with the promise that he'd return soon to the store to pick up his cables).
But my mom has one last idea. Not too long ago she sorta dated a guy who lives two minutes from here plus his job is to work on machines, so he's great with cars. I was like "ehhhh I don't know. Like how did it end? Is he even going to want to come and help?" She said "oh yeah, let me give him a call." So she does. No answer. She figures he's probably outside. So what do we do. We just drive right over there and knock on his door. He answers and isn't in the most pleasant mood. He worked night shift the night before, and was still sleeping. At 2:00 in the afternoon. He agrees to come look at the car. So off we go down the road again.
We get everything set up and step-back so he can connect his cables from my car to mom's van. He says "oh we can't use your van, the battery is in a bad place in the motor and it's not good to do it because of the computer in the van." So he drives his truck closer. He grabs the cables to hook them off and first REMOVES THE PLASTIC COVERS off my battery!!!! Are you FREAKIN' KIDDING ME!!! Needless to say the car battery had no problem getting a boost and the car started with no problem after that. I like to think I'm not a COMPLETE air-head but some days it's really hard to debate that.
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