My van wouldn’t start the other day. I had recently had some hose in the steering system replaced because it had holes and since then, the car was really hard to start. I don’t think these things were related. I think it had something to do with the fact that since I have Julie’s car, I’m not driving the van very much. It can sit in my garage for weeks at a time. So, when I did go to drive it, mainly just to make sure it was still working, I found that it would not start. I turned the key and it just made some clicking noises. I’m no mechanic, but I thought that this was a battery issue, even though the radio and lights were still working. A quick check on Google confirmed this.

I called my cousin Mickey asking to borrow a battery charger, even though instinctively, I felt that the battery was bad. I had driven it a lot on a Saturday a while back, mainly to charge the battery, while I ran some errands. But, by Sunday, it was already very hard to start again. He said he had one, but that I probably should just replace it. He made it sound easy, so I figured, why not. I have a socket set and loosened the two bolts on the battery and then the third one that holds the battery to the car. Pretty easy. In fact, the hardest part was lifting the battery out of the car. Those things are HEAVY and really, really dirty. I took it to Menards at Mickey’s suggestion, only to find that the Menards closest to me doesn’t sell car batteries. I then went to the Oreilley parts place right by my house. In five minutes with $100, they took my dead battery and gave me a new one. I brought it home and had it back in the car in about 10 minutes. Got in the car and it started up immediately.

Yes, this was a very simple fix. In fact, it’s probably the easiest thing to fix on a car. However, the feeling of satisfaction I get when I fix something that’s broken is priceless. Here, I have something that doesn’t work, then I do something and then it does. It just makes you feel so good and completely turns around your day. Who doesn’t love that?