Today started out pretty mediocre but really ended up as a pretty good day. Work was normal work...very busy, lots to do, work of two men, blah, blah, blah...this seems to be a regular theme in my life, and more and more, in the lives of most professional American men these days, but that's for another post. Today also started off on a sad note, because my mom and dad, who were in town visiting me and my kids this weekend, had to go home this morning. That's always sad, because I love them and I love it so much when they visit, plus they are heading back home to Oklahoma, a place where, unfortunately, I cannot yet follow.
sigh.....
Anyway, things really started to get interesting tonight in class. The first two hours was lab time, so from 6:00 until 8:00, my boys worked hard on getting their labs done. While they were working on labs, I was grading papers, and I got all my ungraded papers finished, put in the gradebook, and handed back. That made me very happy. Then, they took their mid-term. I wasn't sure what to expect on this, as some classes have trouble with my exams. I considered this one fairly basic and not something that would take a great deal of time. It took most of them just 35 minutes to complete, and most looked either grim or exasperated or both as they turned in their exam papers. I tried to give them all reassuring smiles, but that almost never works, and it didn't work here, either. I had a few lone hold-outs who took a bit more time with the exam, so I started to work grading the papers. The results were plesantly surprising. I had a few students, 2 or 3, who didn't score very well. But the remaining 9 or 10 had 88 or above out of 100 total points, and that made me very happy. They weren't stellar...frankly, I would've liked to see a lot fewer partial credit answers. But at least they're learning something from me. Even better, they'll be able to take these exams, learn what I'm expecting ad what they'll need to know, and improve for the final. This mid-term is only worth about 4% of the total final grade, whereas the final exam will be worth nearly 20%, so they'll really need to buckle down and get their stuff together for it. It won't be quite as easy as this one was. And the best part, again, is that I am still caught up with grading papers! I have all the mid-terms graded, down in the book, and ready to return and go over first thing tomorrow night.
For those of you who have never taught at any level where grading is required, grading papers is the bane of a teacher's existence. Those papers are always calling you, and you know you need to get them graded and returned, because the students need feedback, and this thought haunts your free time...ugh. I won't go into it any further.
The REAL best part of all of this is, class wasn't the best thing that happened to me.
In late Decemeber or early January, when I was at my lowest point and everything seemed to be crashing around me, something else happened. We had a bad cold snap accompanied by a small snowstorm. Now, I'm getting used to this sort of thing here in Colorado, but that doesn't mean I like it. So my mood was already rather foul as I went out to my white 1998 Land Rover Discovery that sat eagerly waiting for me in my garage. I opened the door, got in, put the key in the ignition, and turned her over, and...nothing. There was a small whine and some pathetic coughing noises as the solenoid tried to nudge the starter along and crank the engine. But it was no use...my baby wouldn't start. I love my Disco, and I do NOT like it when she's not running properly. So in the midst of everything else that had happened, my Land Rover was dead. After a little troubleshooting and a little research, I came to the conclusion that my starter motor had probably gone out. The battery appeared to be holding a charge and the accessories still worked without too much apparent drain, so I figured the starter was the most likely culprit. Unfortunately, a starter for a 1998 Discovery runs about $200, and that's money I didn't have (and still don't, frankly). Sadly, I decided to leave her in her weakened, pathetic condition until I could afford the parts and put her back together right.
Fast forward to this past weekend. As I said, my mom and dad were visiting from out of town, always a good thing. Dad and I had been talking about the Disco, and so just for fun, Saturday morning I went down and cranked her again. This time, it was even worse than before. For a few weeks after the start of her apparent coma, she would at least respond a little bit when I tried to start her, with the same feeble coughs as the starter tried to crank. But now, there was almost nothing. In fact, I couldn't even get the doors to unlock. The battery, for all intents and purposes, was nearly dead. The dashboard clock was still running and the internal lights would barely flicker on, but not much else was happening.
This gave me an idea. When I dropped the kids off last evening, I asked my ex-wife if I could borrow the car battery charger her dad had given us several years back. (When I moved out, as much as I would have liked to take it, it originally belonged to her dad, and I didn't know if he'd want it back or not. So I left it, knowing full-well that Lisa would probably never use the thing. I wasn't really interested in causing trouble, and I'm still not.) She graciously said yes, and so this afternoon after work, I dropped by the house to pick up the charger. As soon as I got to my apartment, I immediately opened the garage and and hooked the charger up to the Disco's battery. Now, since I hadn't been able to use the keyless remote to unlock the door (not enough juice for the power locks to work) and had done so with the key, I had unwittingly tripped the anti-theft circuit, which was still set to "This car is in the process of being stolen". When I hooked up the charger, the lights immediately began to flash and the horn began to honk. I don't know how many of you have ever been under the hood of a car when the horn honked, but I'll just say it's not a pleasant experience. I nearly jumped out of my skin, banged my head on the hood, and wet my pants. Fortunately, I was able to maintain my bladder control, keep from giving myself a concussion, and convince the car to shut up and let me try to make her better. That done, I left her there to charge up happily while I went to class. This was right at 5:00 pm.
Just after 10:00, I got back to my place from class. Overflowing with anticipation, I immediately went back to the garage, unhoooked the charger, got in, held my breath, and cranked her. One small cough, then the starter fired up and with it, the engine!!! My beloved Discovery was running again!!! I was so happy and excited that I probably got very loud with Heidi, who I was on the phone with at the time. (Sorry, babe. I didn't mean to yell in your ear, especially since you're not feeling well...but I'm sure I probably did. I'll make it up to you this weekend by taking you for a ride in my Discovery.)
So I'm planning to take my Disco out for a nice drive to work and back tomorrow, and I'll probably even take her to class. She's got half a tank of gas left in her, and it needs to be used. The good news in all of this is that this appears to be a battery problem and not a starter problem. It's much easier to budget for a $70 battery than a $200 starter motor. And of course, I discovered that for me, happiness tonight was a running Land Rover.
Thanks for reading along.
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