Two Hundred Dollars Later

Wednesday I went out in the snow to hook the truck to the 5er. When I tried to start it, click, click, click. OH, ----. I put the trickle charger on the batteries and the first thing Thursday, the charger said it was fully charged. It was so cold, (5 F) that I decided to wait until afternoon to try to start it.
I told Rob, the mechanic in the repair shop by my shop about it. He said that with 6 years on the batteries, he would bet that they were bad, and he would come over and check the batteries for me.
He put his tester on them and part of the test is to try to start the truck. It still wouldn't turn over and the tester printed out that I had a dead cell. Oh joy! Like the title says, $200 dollars later, I had 2 new batteries. I guess better now than in Quartzsite. The good part was, I didn't know I had a block heater on the truck, or where to find the plug. Rob said he had never seen a diesel with out one, and helped me find it. After putting new batteries in and plugging in the block heater, the truck started like it would in July.

Friday was officially my last day to work. In my former life 40 years ago, I was a construction company mechanic. I had my tool boxes in my shop and decided to bring them home. I used to move the boxes by myself, but I had to get help to load them onto my pick-up. I really don't remember them being so heavy. They must have gained weight sitting in the shop for all those years. It was about all two of us could do to load them.

Anyway, I think all we have left to do to leave on the ninth, is to load the trailer. It has been so cold and icy out, that Cindy has been afraid to load the trailer. Last time she slipped on the ice, she broke her elbow and was laid up for a month. She had to sleep in a chair for that month because she also wrenched her back. Her elbow is still wired together, as her doctor said it wouldn't hurt to leave the wires in as long as they didn't bother her. I used to kid her about the metal detectors at the airports, but she hasn't had any problems with that.  Our back yard is a sheet of ice, but we are supposed to get a heat wave starting tomorrow, clear up to 23 F and 40 F by Wednesday.  I personally am more than ready to leave for warmer weather, while Cindy is still nervous about retiring.