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Thar she blows! Thanks for the help, AAA!Sep 17 '00 Write an essay on this topic.On Saturday, September 16, 2000, I spent the day at Mom's house, helping with things like cleaning, eating, etc. Mom has dementia, and needs quite a bit of help. But that's not what this article is about! As the kids and I were leaving, we hopped into the ol' trusty '96 Jeep Cherokee, ready to head home after a long day. I have never had a single problem with this wonderful car, not one! So as I turned the key, fully expecting to be on our merry way, we about hit the roof of the car as this horrible explosion rang out! It sounded a lot like an engine backfiring, only MUCH louder! My four-year-old daughter immediately began screaming that she could smell smoke, and my seven-year-old son began smelling the smoke too! I couldn't smell any smoke, and was quite insistent about all of us staying calm. As I collected my thoughts, I felt really glad that hubby had gotten me that AAA membership 9 years ago for Valentine's Day! Yes, Valentine's Day! Not the most romantic gift, but his reasoning was that he was looking out for my safety on the road. Awwww, good enough, honey! We've renewed the membership every year since, and have always gotten our money's worth! Just one tow or lock out a year will cover the membership fee, and we seem to end up with our fair share of those incidents. I went into Mom's house, put in a video for the kids, thanked God that it hadn't happened an hour ago when I was leaving McDonald's with Mom and the kids (wouldn't THAT have been ugly?), and called up AAA. I also called my local Jeep dealership, to see if they had any clue as to what had happened. They were no help whatsoever, and their service department wouldn't be opening up until Monday at 7am. Why is it that these things always seem to happen on a weekend, when you've got to wait another two days for a service station to even consider opening up to take all your money? The good folks at AAA said they'd have a tow truck there within an hour. With an hour to kill I decided to just look like I know something about cars, so I popped open the hood. Yep, it was an engine all right. No fooling me for long! Then I noticed it. The cover of the battery was lying about 3 feet away from the battery, and this plastic screw thingamajig (a technical term) was about a foot from the battery, leaving a gaping hole in its place on the battery. There was also a ton of corrosion on the terminals, and that hummer was smoking! Sorry kids, you were right! Yup, the sucker had blown! I decided this was a job that Pep Boys could surely handle, and since they have weekend hours (they're even open from 9-6 on Sundays), I decided to have the Jeep towed there instead of the dealership. After about 85 minutes, the AAA truck arrived. The driver asked what had happened, and I proudly announced that I figured out that the battery blew up! He said, "Did you know that we can fix that for you right here on the spot? No need to tow this car!" I had no clue! He immediately dispatched the AAA truck that carries all the batteries, and said it would be there within an hour. Well, that's certainly worth waiting another hour for! So back into Mom's I went again. About, oh, 85 minutes later, the second AAA truck arrived. A kind young fella quickly went to work removing what was left of my battery. Then, as he was standing there looking at the hole where my battery used to be, he asked me the world's dumbest question ... "So, are you going to be here for a while?" DUHHHHH! You've got what's left of my battery, dear! What am I going to do, hop the nearest hot air balloon home? OK, calm down, Deb, he's just a kid. It turned out that although his truck carries 30 batteries, mine wasn't one of them. Now wouldn't you think their computer could tell them which type of battery to bring along? I was starting to get pretty impatient as he informed me that he had to go to his shop to get the right battery. He'd be back in thirty minutes. About forty minutes later, he was indeed back with my battery. Five minutes later, it was installed and I was filling out the forms to pay him 91 bucks for this new battery with a six-year warranty. It was a little over three hours from the time my car scared us half to death with its explosion to the time I was back on the road. Although it ended up taking a little longer than I would have thought when they said they can fix the car on the spot, it was still so much more convenient than having the car towed, and then waiting until Monday morning for the Jeep dealership to fix it! I am really happy with the service that AAA has always provided to us, and highly recommend it to anyone who owns a car. They've saved us a bundle over the years, and have safely gotten us back on the road in no time!  |
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