After fixing the fuel line in the Mustang before going home for Christmas, I was quite disappointed to come home and find that the car didn't start. We've had some previous trouble with batteries since moving to Tucson (we're on the 3rd battery already...), so I was pretty annoyed. I called Dad for his advice, and embarked on this adventure. First, we took the battery out and over to Interstate Batteries to be tested. They said it was good, just dead. So we left it overnight to get recharged. Then, we picked it up, reinstalled it, and did a few at-home tests Dad recommended to see if we could figure out the problem. No luck, so I drove it over to Auto Zone to see what they could tell me with their free battery test. The very helpful guy there recommended installing a new regulator to see if that would fix it. After conferring with Mark and Dad again, I went back over, bought the part for less than $20, took out my old one, and put in the new one. Then, I drove the car back over to Auto Zone to be retested, and the tests were good! So, it seems that our problem has been solved. Despite being a generally reliable car while we've had it, the hiccups we've had over the last year or so make me feel more anxious about driving it. Here's hoping the next time I try to start it up everything will go smoothly. But, despite the time and running back and forth to one place and another, at least the repair was inexpensive! I've included pictures below of the old regulator (taken on my kitchen floor) and the newly installed one (I probably should have rotated both photos...). You can see that the old one was painted a matte dark gray color to match the rest of the metal under the hood; the new one is bright and shiny, (at least untill it gets coated with dust like everything else!).
In other news, Mark and I took a giant box of things over to Bookman's, the local used book store, on Friday to see if we could get any money for selling them. We had everything from video games to old cassette and VHS tapes (recently upgraded to CD and DVD) and lots of books. After waiting nearly an hour for them to go through it all (they were quite busy...I guess lots of people do this after Christmas), we were offered $9 cash or $18 store credit for the electronics stuff we brought and $3 cash or $27 store credit for the books and other stuff. We decided to take the store credit, and Mark was able to buy a component cable for his PlayStation 2. We have $30 left to spend another time. Not too bad. They also said they would donate the stuff they didn't want to buy, so we came home almost empty handed (just what we hoped for!).
Today, I did quite a bit of work around the house--the regular cleaning and laundry, plus some more cleaning out of closets and reorganizing. I hope to take a big load of stuff to Goodwill in the next few days.
During the week, I did finish my syllabus and do quite a bit of work on assignments and plans for 108 this semester. I will read over the syllabus one more time tomorrow before printing it out to turn in for approval at the meeting on Monday. I guess the beginning of the semester is really almost here already!
Right now, I'm starting on another attempt at homemade pizza. This time, I'm using a new dough recipe and my new pizza stone. I'll let you know how it turns out!
No comments:
Post a Comment