Dallas, TX -Friday - 8.17. 2018 - 93.5 degrees - relative humidity 77%

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/05/18/00/10/lawn-mower-346637_960_720.png
Dallas, Texas
August 17, 2018 1:01pm CST
The Caddy has a bad battery. It went dead after sitting for several days in the driveway. I tried to jump the battery using a charger/jumper. The charger was fully charged with a solid blue light. I unplugged the charger after it was fully charged, connected the cables and then went outside to the 1995 Caddy and popped the hood. I connected the two clamps, Red Positive to the positive battery terminal, and Black negative to the negative battery terminal. I pressed and held the start button on the charger for a few seconds and it began to flash red. The manual of the charger indicated that it could take up to 25 minutes to flash red to finish phase one to start charging the battery but if at any time it began to flash alternately red and green, that means the car’s battery has a fault that prevents it from being fully charged and the charger continued to flash red and green alternately. It took about 15 minutes for the charger to go from flashing only red while connected to the car’s battery terminals to flashing red and green alternately. So I mowed the grass during the first 10 minutes of the test charge and stopped long enough to see that the charger was at first only flashing red, meaning it was not past phase one yet. After another 5 to 10 minutes of cutting the back yard, I went back to the car to check the charger and it’s light was no longer flashing red, but flashing red and green alternately. So I disconnected the two clamps from the two battery terminals, and unplugged the charger. I was able to read the instructions and operation manual for the charger to find out why it was charging and flashing the alternate red and green lights. The manual specifically indicated that this flashing red and green was a fault light indicator that the car’s battery was actually having a problem of some kind that prevented the charger from charging the car battery . I had to accept the fact that either a cell is dead in the Cadillac’s battery or some other problem exists that makes the battery unable to accept a charge from that charger. The charger is functioning as it should function. I brought the charger back inside the house and closed down the car’s hood and went back to finish mowing the front yard. After completing mowing the front and back yard and alley I cut Juaquin’s front yard and alley also and the edge of grass next to the street and sidewalk. The driveway of Juaquin’s front yard next to the neighbor’s house to the East is lined with heavy gravel. That said, I had some of the loose gravel bounce under the lawn mower and blade and probably scattered some gravel while mowing the East side of his house in front, next to the neighbors East of him next door. The discharge port is to the right side of the lawn mower. That means, the discharger sprays the cut grass out through the discharge port as it cuts but also it will in fact discharge lose gravel if any gets under the blade and that is unavoidable, but I deliberately cut that East side with the discharge port pointing West, away from the drive way to the East of his front yard, where the next door neighbors have a car parked in front of their house in the cement driveway. The issue I am talking about is that because of the loose gravel on the driveway immediately adjacent to Juaquin’s front lawn makes it nearly impossible to avoid scattering some gravel but due to the fact that the lawnmower was positioned so that the discharge port pointed away from the East neighbor’s front driveway and parked car, there was no real likelihood that any loose gravel would be discharged at the parked car. My concern is that the loose gravel would in fact bounce off the siding of Juaquin’s house and deflect back at me and possibly outward towards the East neighbor’s parked car. This makes it like playing a game of gravel roulette, so to speak. I do not want to mow the grass where there is any possibility of scattering gravel from the lawn mower’s discharge port and damage either Juaquin’s house or the car parked in the next door neighbor’s driveway. After finishing the mowing I put the mower back in the shed, and put the old Christmas tree and two lamps back in storage and closed and locked the shed. I was exhausted. The temperature had reached nearly 93.5 degrees F and the relative humidity was nearly 75 %. By the time I got in the house I was soaked from head to toe and all points in-between. At 60 years of age, going on 61, I do not have the stamina that I had even one year ago, but managed to at least mow the lawn still and keep it under control.
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5 people like this
5 responses
@akalinus (44366)
• United States
17 Aug 18
Did you try scraping the battery terminals to make sure there was no icky stuff keeping it from making full contact? You might need a new battery, generator, or alternator.
2 people like this
@akalinus (44366)
• United States
17 Aug 18
@lookatdesktop Usually it is grunge on the terminals that makes it not have contact. But some cars are hard on batteries. I have had to buy several for mine. It had a bad battery when I got it.
2 people like this
@akalinus (44366)
• United States
17 Aug 18
@lookatdesktop I have an Aveo. I think the battery wearing down too quickly is a known problem with those cars. Otherwise, it runs well. My son put thousands of miles on it when he had a sales job. Thankfully, he has his own car now and does deliveries instead of sales. That boy was born to drive.
1 person likes this
• Dallas, Texas
17 Aug 18
No, but I will have the battery removed, taken to a tester at an Auto Zone store and if the battery holds a charge, by golly, I will keep using it. But if it fails to get charged I will fork out money to get a new one.
2 people like this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
17 Aug 18
Humidity is bad also here in the LA area. Step outside and you are dripping. I know what you mean diminishing stamina rapidly depleting with age. So depressing to feel your body betraying you especially when your mind is still 18.
2 people like this
• Dallas, Texas
17 Aug 18
Thanks, I am glad I am not alone. But actually not glad that either of us has this old timer's disease. Do you still mow your lawn? I knew a man who mowed his lawn until he reached his late 80's. He had lots of spunk for an old timer.
2 people like this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
17 Aug 18
@lookatdesktop No lawn to mow here!
2 people like this
• Dallas, Texas
17 Aug 18
@JohnRoberts , Oh, I didn't think to ask. I guess I forget that not everybody lives in a house with a lawn. I have lived this way all my life so it's they way I look at things. I imagine Trump Towers has just a tiny bit of grass on the rooftop.
2 people like this
@jstory07 (148749)
• Roseburg, Oregon
17 Aug 18
At least your lawn is mowed and it looks good.
1 person likes this
@jstory07 (148749)
• Roseburg, Oregon
17 Aug 18
@lookatdesktop It is suppose to get to 100 today.
1 person likes this
• Dallas, Texas
17 Aug 18
@jstory07 , Well, is that the usual average August 17 temperature for your area this time last year, the year before that and so on back over the past few decades? Don't let it bother you. Temperatures are slowly rising all over the planet, not just in Oregon. If our government were able to accept that we are all responsible for global warming maybe in time, they will do something about reversing climate change before we fry.
• Dallas, Texas
17 Aug 18
Yep. It does look good. Not a perfect lawn but in spite of all this Texas heat, it looks pretty good. We got about 3 days of rain and about 3 inches of accumulation. Is Oregon feeling any excess heat today?
1 person likes this
@just4him (323168)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
18 Aug 18
I'm sorry about the car battery. I hope you can find the cause why it won't charge. It's too hot to mow a lawn. Though I know you're happy it's done.
1 person likes this
@just4him (323168)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
19 Aug 18
@lookatdesktop Now, would you push that weather our way? The rain that is. Our grass here is an ugly brown. The green is fading fast. Ouch! I hope you do win the Texas lottery so you can fix your car. Or at least find out the diagnosis without cost. Doesn't Auto Zone give free diagnostics?
@Courage7 (19626)
• United States
17 Aug 18
What a nuisance all that, hope you get it sorted. But yes I can relate to the age and not being as good as the year before. Hope you got in a cool shower.
1 person likes this
• Dallas, Texas
17 Aug 18
Yes a shower always feels better.
1 person likes this