I'm Going to Make a Mechanic Out of You Yet

So after I posted such an uplifting post for all of you that hate Mondays, like I do, I had a bad rest of the day. I got what is known as an "All-Inclusive Final Written Warning" on my record. Which means, that if I do anything that incurs an "infraction" which is a corrective action, then I can and almost positively be terminated.

So, I know when all of my "infractions" are going to come off that have resulted in this "All-inclusive" one. One of the ones is tardiness. All of my tardies are going to come off by the end of the year. So, when I go out to my car today to get to work on time, guess what I find. My battery dead. D-E-D dead.

This is exactly what I need, not 24 hours after I get issued this "all-inclusive" tardy. I sent my job coach an e-mail telling him I would be late. And I had until 11am, to get to work or I would be counted as off completely and I really can't have that. I am at six tardies which means I'm on a "verbal". At seven, I go to a "written", and at eight I go to a "final written". Hopefully, with all of the tardies that are supposed to be rolling off within the next two months they won't fire me. If I were to come in after 11 or take off the day completely, then I would be fired because I'm at eight occurrences.

Now, I'm sitting in my car, trying not to panic. My first thought was, my battery was dead except for my lights and electronics were working. So, maybe some how, my key got unprogrammed. I call my grandfather, he comes as soon as possible, with the extra key. When he gets there, the key doesn't work and when he tries to turn the engine on, he goes "yep it's the battery".

We try for 20 minutes to jump it, and it's just gone. So, he drives me to Advanced Auto Parts to buy a battery that we take back to my car. Sure they'll install it for free, but we don't have time for the truck to get back from the delivery. Because I can't call off work, but if I'm late, I might not lose my job. To top it all off, my grandfather has pulled something in his back so he is in excruciating pain. He's confused himself because he told me to program a key but I do not have a second key to program (he has it), and the information he's going off on was from when I had my mustang and not the Taurus.

So, we get the battery and take it back to my car. Then, I install the battery myself. It's really not that hard to install a battery. You simply, unscrew the lines, take off the cover, unscrew the back take out the battery, put the new battery in and reverse what you just did. Voila! Installed battery. If I had time, I would have turned this into a tutorial but time was not on my side.

I must mention now, that while we're doing this though, my grandfather says "I'm going to make a mechanic out of you yet." Hence the title of the post.

I can only sigh, because it's apparent he's forgotten that he's taught me all this stuff on how to be a mechanic. Now, am I a mechanic, compared to him? No. But I can change my tires, battery, oil, air filter, etc. That's more than most people can do.

Anyway, I get the battery installed and thankfully the car starts. For some reason now, there is no "battery dying" process, the battery just goes. Not fun. If it wasn't the battery, it would have been the starter and that I don't know how to change.

Now, I sit and I wait. Because when I get that corrective action, that could be my last day... I need a drink.