This past Saturday was supposed to be a productive day at home. In particular, we were supposed to clean the garage. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I blame the truck. I drove it to get an oil change on Saturday morning, but it failed to start when they were done. After a bit, it started again, so they decided they must have flooded the engine or something. Sounded good to me, but that became rather unlikely when the truck suddenly died as I drove south on I-5 to get home. I safely pulled to the side of the freeway, but despite numerous attempts, I couldn't get the truck to start again.

Thankfully, I had remembered my cell phone, so after I called Julie, I decided to give the oil change place a ring to see if they had any ideas, since they'd got it to start again. To my surprise, they said that they'd send someone out; to my chagrin, nobody showed up for nearly an hour. Worse yet, he wasn't able to help me at all, so when he drove off, I was back to square one.

No need to panic, though; I've got a AAA membership. So I gave them a ring, and they sent a tow truck. That can take a while, so I walked to the gas station at the next exit – I had drunk a few cups of water at the oil change place a couple of hours before, so you can guess why. Fortunately, a few minutes after I returned to the truck, the tow truck arrived. My truck and I were successfully towed a few miles to our mechanic, which was closed, of course, so I called Julie to come and pick me up.

While I waited for the tow truck to disconnect from my truck, I made a mistake. I decide that I'd drop my key in the mechanic's drop box with a note. Bad timing, because we needed the key to unlock the steering to push the truck into a parking spot! Fortunately, Julie had my spare key when she arrived, so she helped me get the truck into position.

Goodness, this is a long story. Anyway, my Nissan Pickup has been a faithful commuter car for many years, but it certainly has its quirks, and with over 210,000 miles, I won't be terribly surprised when it croaks for good. Happily, the shop managed to examine and fix the problem on Monday afternoon – a battery cable had corroded to the point of no return. About $50 for parts and labor, so I'm a happy man.

I picked it up from the shop this morning and had no trouble getting to work and back, so I'm hoping for a few more months of trouble-free driving! Hey, it's paid for!