You’re Never Gonna Believe This One…..

Last night I got the ok to buy a brand new mower……If you have been following my blog you will know that my mortal enemy as of late is the lawnmower.

So, last night after work we had it all planned out, go grocery shopping then have “Mr. Fix It” meet at our house so he could go with us and tell us which mowers were good and which were junk (if you recall he fixes mowers for a living, but mine is the ANTI-MOWER!).

Me and wifey end up going to dinner because we were hungry and we didn’t want to buy up the whole store…ever been shopping when you were hungry? It’s torture, and “Mr. Fix It” was going to eat dinner at my bro/sis in laws house while he waited for us to call him…..we didn’t go grocery shopping because it got too late and I couldn’t wait to buy my new mower.

After dinner we get “Mr. Fix It” and he follows us in his company van to store #1.

We look at the selection or lack there of for our budget and decided that this wasn’t the store for us.

We go to store # 2 and “Mr. Fix It” leaves his van at store #1, we would buy the mower load it in our car and drop him off at his van on the way home right? Just wait.

We get to store # 2 and they had a little bit better selection, but not by much and we still weren’t satisfied, so off to store #3.

We get in the car, I turn the key in the ignition and nothing but click click click……we all look at each other and sweat starts to appear on me (it’s 94 degrees outside with a heat index of 115), I try it again same result…click click click.

“Mr. Fix It” says the battery is dead….all I can think of is there goes my mower……so wifey says do they sell them here at store# 2? He says he doesn’t think so….I go in and check and sure enough they do not….awesome!

We call the sis-in-law she comes and takes us all to “Mr. Fix It’s” van and wifey and sis-in-law go back to her house, no room for wifey in the van and no reason for her to sweat it out.

Me and “Mr. Fix It” go to store #3 to buy a new car battery….it’s about 8:45pm and we still haven’t been home from work. We get to the car battery section and look up our car……..THEY DON’T HAVE IT IN STOCK!!!! In fact, THEY DON’T EVEN CARRY THE KIND WE NEED!!!!! The store is deserted and I go to look for help.

I walk to the sporting good section….deserted, electronics…..only 2 people there and they are busy…..cameras…..deserted…..shoe dept….I spy a worker walking down the main aisle of the store and I say “Help, help, can you help me please?” She looks me dead in the eye and keeps walking!!!! “Really? You’re just going to keep walking? Nice!!!”

Another lady comes up and I ask her for help, she says she will try to get someone, I thank her and head back to the batteries. I tell “Mr. Fix It” about it and he is trying to find the battery we need……no one shows up to help…we continue to look for the battery still no luck.

Still no one has come to help…..”Mr. Fix It” looks at my battery and this other battery that is clearly not the right battery and he starts measuring it up with his eyes. He takes out his tape measurer and starts measuring the new battery…..still no help has arrived. He goes back and forth measuring them and finally he says “This one will work!” I say “Are you sure?” Like I have any right to question “Mr. Fix It.” “He says “Oh yeah.”

I shrug and agree with him…..$80 later and I have a new battery, we decide to look at the lawn mowers while we there there, since this was the next store on the list anyway….they were all junk.

We go back to the car and install the battery….all good right? Just wait.

I turn the key in the ignition and it starts HOORAY I think, but “Mr. Fix It” knows better, he goes to his van and pulls out a battery tester, the dude is like Batman with his utility belt!

He hooks it up and tells me to push the gas a little bit, I do and he kills all my happiness with these words….”It’s not charging.”

WHAT?????????????? Seriously? It’s brand spanking new, how the hell could it not be charging??????

Then he gives me this real serious look, he tilts his head down and peers over his glasses at me and says “I bet it’s your alternator.”

Awesome!

Mr. Fix It

I am not a handy man kind of guy, sure I can hammer a nail, I can use a screwdriver, I can change a tire and I can even change my own oil (I’m way out of practice, but still). So now onto my point:

This is Walt, he is my father in law he’s 71 and strong as an Ox……he is happily showing you just how strong he is here at my wedding reception:

The other day, Tuesday to be exact Walt came over for dinner and he looked my lawnmower which was giving me some problems. Walt has his own lawnmower repair service..good for me I’m family.

Walt took a look at and said I had too much oil in it, before I didn’t have enough….so I was very embarrassed and ashamed of myself, well long story short Walt fixed the mower.

Then my car wouldn’t start so he told me the previous weekend that it was my battery and it needed to be replaced, he let me borrow his battery charger and it wouldn’t charge, so I was in the process of taking the battery out to buy a new one.

Now here is where my lack of being a handyman comes into play, 1st off I don’t think the battery has ever been replaced since the screws were pretty much rusted on and was very difficult to loosen up. I did get them loose though and here is where the fun part begins, the battery is secured on the right side (passenger side) near the back of the hood, there is not a lot of room to work there and the battery is secured by a bar the goes across the top of the battery and then hooks to the front and back of it. I got the screws loose, but still could not remove it…….so of course I was pissed and just gave up and was hoping Walt could come look at it.

Walt took a look at it and again long story short he removed the bar and told me that my battery wasn’t dead…..I said well what is it then? He said the battery had corrosion on it. I said that’s it? He said yep and went to his service van and cleaned up the battery. This man had a tool for everything, he had lubricant for the screws to loosen up and he had 2 different brushes to clean up the corrosion with….this blew my mind.

I told my stepson “Man, your grandpa is pretty awesome.” He replied “Yep, he can fix anything.” He’s 4!!!!!!

So here’s to you Walt aka Mr. Fix it, I don’t know what I would have done without your help, Thank you