Batteries Don’t Last Forever?

It's been overcast sand drizzly over the weekend and today.

Today started badly. On Mondays, the street sweeper comes by on our street. It's always around 830 in the morning and headed on the opposite side of the road. It provides enough warning to go move our car so they can sweep along our curb rather than leave the debris as they dodge our car. There's no requirement to move the car, it just saves having to sweep the gutter myself. With the construction across the street there is more dirt and debris on the street so a good cleaning makes it look better too. The problem here is that Lou dashed out to move the car and it wouldn't start. So I tried as well and oddly, it still didn't. Dead batteries tend to work that way. Evidently the strain on the battery with all the hard starting recently due to the engine problems killed the battery. It had no problems prior to that. I don't think the fact the battery was nearly 10 years old had anything to do with it.

I dashed down to the local Orchard Supply Hardware. I got the last starting battery for the RV there a few years ago. They have carried Diehard batteries since Sears bought them several years ago. I remember seeing them there a couple of weeks ago, but none today. Evidently they didn't sell as well as Christmas decorations?. So I stopped by Sears. They didn't have one for our model car and I wasn't really interested when I saw the prices anyway. Next stop WalMart. They didn't have one for our year of Volvo (87) so I got one for a newer model of Volvo (92). As if there was really any difference. The only difference is the battery capacity. The battery mount is the same in both cars. The battery was half the cost. I hope the fact it came from China doesn't really affect it. The warranty is good enough, two year replacement 7 year prorated. And this is their lowest level battery. The car now has plenty of voom when starting.

Lou hasn't been feeling well so went to see a doctor yesterday afternoon. Nothing obvious found but they kept some of her blood. She and Dawn had classes in San Jose. Dawn's was canceled, Lou decided she didn't want to attend her doll class so they returned. Lou usually stays at Dawn's for her two days of classes Tuesday and Wednesday.

I started forming for some more sidewalk in the back yard but I got tired of the mud and drizzle so gave up and played with the computer.