5 year old car batteries suck

So, this last Monday, I was getting ready to leave work. I go out to my car (a 1999 Pontiac Sunfire) and I try to start it. Nothing. Gee, that's weird, it ran this morning. So, I look to see if I left anything on in the car. Nope. No reason it should have die while sitting in the parking lot.

So, it is 5:14PM, and basically, everyone but two guys are gone. One guy pulls his Buick Century around and we try to jump it. Nothing, still. Shit! So, I have to get a ride halfway home, and get my roommate to come pick me up. Embarrassing.

The next day I wear jeans (I was the envy of everyone at work wearing jeans on a non-Friday), packed up my socket set, packed an old sweatshirt, and headed off to work in my truck. I was more than a little upset because the truck gets 14 mpg on premium gas and the Sunfire gets around 32mpg on the cheap stuff. At about 3:00 PM I go to the local AutoZone to buy a battery, the homely, yet helpful girl at the counter looks up the battery for in their system. She starts naming off different batteries; but I interrupt with:

Me: Cheap. I want the cheapest one you got.

Homely Sales Rep (HSR): That will be $65 for the battery.

Me: Not bad.

HSR: A $12 core charge. And Tax.

Me: Core charge?

HSR: You bring us your old battery, you get the $12 back.

Me: Oh, like a soda bottle return.

HSR: What?

Me: Never mind, I’ll take the battery.

After this mildly entertaining distraction I went back to work. At 4:57, after most people had left, I changed the battery in the parking lot. It wasn’t as easy as I had hoped, the Stanley socket set I had only hade 3” socket extenders, so that made getting the battery “holder” bracket hard to get on and off. And, the stupid engineers at GM had the air intake hose running right in front positive lead of the battery. I had to push the hose back (which that hose is sturdy stuff) to get the positive leave on and off. And, I think I kind of stripped the negative lead, but not so bad that it won’t hold, for now. All said and done, it took me 35 minutes to change the battery. And the car works now.

What sucks is that I now have two vehicles in the parking lot, and I can’t find anyone that likes me enough to give me a ride to work to get both vehicles home. It never ends.

Later,

B