{"id":1823,"date":"2009-08-18T22:33:19","date_gmt":"2009-08-19T03:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawrencem94.sg-host.com\/?p=1823"},"modified":"2009-08-18T22:33:19","modified_gmt":"2009-08-19T03:33:19","slug":"because-i-didnt-want-anything-to-get-blowdy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/?p=1823","title":{"rendered":"Because I Didn’t Want Anything To Get Blowdy. *"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve both got a nutso week here at Chez NuWo, and so I was close on my\u00a0 husband’s heels this morning, leaving for work. Up until I got behind the wheel of Mimi and tried to turn her on. I was greeted with a strobe-light effect from the automatic headlights, and the worst rapid-clicking sound you could imagine.<\/p>\n

I paused.<\/p>\n

Then tried it again. (Perhaps I just had an out-of-body experience and it didn’t really happen.) (Denial)<\/p>\n

More clicking. I tried to turn off as many things as I could. A\/C. Radio. Lights. (Bargaining)<\/p>\n

Tried it again. Nothin’. (Acceptance and Panic)<\/p>\n

At this point I think at the least, it’s a dead battery. At the worst, the car no longer has an engine, as the “Service Engine Soon” light does remain on. So I sent up the ChocoCat signal (Dulcedosa<\/a> to the rescue again! Though I yanked her into fourth gear out of first, unfortunately.) I look at the clock and realize James probably hasn’t turned his phone off yet, so I call him. He informs me there’s a battery charger in the back of his truck, and what settings to put it on. So off I go, I plug it in, and wait. After twenty minutes, I think it’s good and charged and then stop. What to do next? When you jump start your car you keep them both running. Do I leave the charger plugged in while I attempt to start it? My gut said “no”, but at this point, I can’t check with my husband, so I call the next person who comes to mind: Shan, my creative director at work. He confirms I should unplug everything, then unclamp the contraption, THEN start it up, and sure enough, it fires up and I gingerly start driving.\u00a0 Carmen still rode backup, just to make sure I didn’t sputter out, and off it was to O’Reilly’s for a new battery.<\/p>\n

I go in, and am helped by a young woman who informs they do NOT install batteries. I look at her and start bargaining. She informs me that she herself has changed a few batteries in her life, and she’ll take a look at it, but they are not licensed or insured to do it. I offer to be a willing student, just tell me what to do.\u00a0 She proceeds to test the battery (dead), and then goes at the battery hold-down and gets the battery out. Without breaking a single long, fuschia-french-manicured nail. I am agog. And paying very, very close attention, because I do like to learn things and feel capable. Carmen heads off to work once she knows I’m not going to be stranded and she gets another pair of Friendship Angel wings.\u00a0 I pay for the battery, we get it installed (I use “we” quite loosely), and I handed her a $20 while thanking her profusely, because by golly, she not only earned my appreciation, but my respect and amazement. She didn’t want to take it, but I was having none of it.<\/p>\n

When I got to work, Shan gave me a bit of a hard time, saying how funny and ironic it was, this independent, strong woman who can do anything, but when it comes to something with a carrrr, (yes, he got sing-songy) I had to call a MAN<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I’d like to point out that the difference between me and a man? (besides the obvious)<\/p>\n

I call for information BEFORE I potentially blow up my vehicle or electrocute myself.<\/p>\n

I rest my case. (But thanks, Shan! I knew you’d know the answer!)<\/p>\n

* I am coining my own slang. “Blowdy” is short for “shit gettin’ blowed up in here”. In other words, you want to AVOID The Blowdy.<\/em> Unless you’re looking for blowdy as part of an action movie. Car chases and Blowdy, YEAH!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve both got a nutso week here at Chez NuWo, and so I was close on my\u00a0 husband’s heels this morning, leaving for work. Up until I got behind the wheel of Mimi and tried to turn her on. I was greeted with a strobe-light effect from the automatic headlights, and the worst rapid-clicking sound […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1823"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1825,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823\/revisions\/1825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}