Power to the Car

I think the Camaro needs a new battery.

First, it doesn't start as 'crisply' as it once did. Instead of turning the key to hear a "VROOM," I turn the key to hear a "grunt VROOM."

Second, my best guess is that I have the oldest still-running battery in the history of car batteries. As far as I can guess/remember, my 1997 Camaro with not-quite-99,000 miles on it still has its original equipment battery. This sounds unlikely even to me, but I know that I have not put in a new battery since at least 2001; I do not recall buying a new battery even before that.

Furthermore, the poor old battery that's in there is an AC Delco battery. If the ex had replaced that battery, I don't imagine he would have replaced it with an OEM battery. I think we would have grabbed NAPA's Best or something equally convenient.

I found a website that talks about the average lifetime of a battery. It suggests that in frozen places (like upstate NY, where he car was 'born') an average lifetime might be 50-ish months. In hotter places (like Arizona, where it lived for the last several years), the lifetime decreases.

It probably helped that I barely drove the car while I was in Arizona. When you work at home and walk to the grocery store, your car has a pretty easy life.

Now that I'm in Houston, the beast works more often. The grocery store is close, but not walking-distance. Same with the dog park and almost anything else I want/need to do. Do she takes a lot of short hops. (This is bad for gas mileage as well as battery life; I can usually get 300 miles on a tank, but with all this short-hop nonsense, I sometimes don't even get 200.)

At any rate, one of my chores before I leave for Denmark this weekend is to get a new battery. Why before I leave? Well, it looks like right after I get back, I will be starting a great NEW JOB at a real office with a real commute (ugh!) but also a real salary and real benefits (yay!)

More about the job (and maybe an adventure with getting a new battery) later. The formal offer showed up in my in-box while I was typing this journal entry. I am so excited, I may jump out of my skin.