A bit of a recap:
I have a 2002 Buick Rendezvous. His name is "Stanley". I bought it (used) a few years ago while in Wisconsin to alleviate the problem of getting stuck in the snow. It was the cheapest all-wheel drive available except for a Subaru Brat or two, which Violet hated. Anyway, I haven't had too many mechanical problems with it (As many owners have). My major issue came back in January when the fuel gauge stopped working. After a $100.00 diagnosis from the dealer, they determined my level sensor (I think its called) was defective, and its repair would be around $500.00. Ack. At some point I hope to order the part I need, remove the fuel tank, replace the sensor, and put everything back. One day. For now, I'm ignoring it. I keep track of fuel used via the instrument panel (DIC).

What I'm really posting about:
Last week (Sunday or so) I noticed that my car didn't start the first time. The second crank was kinda weak. The third crank was fine and I went along my merry way. Odd.

The next day I went to work and sometimes I had to crank it once or twice but otherwise I was OK. Since I worked until midnight Monday evening, I was a little nervous, but it was kinda OK. Tuesday morning it got worse. I took my Simple Start™ Vehicle Battery Booster which I had plugged in the previous night "just in case". Good thing, because come midnight Tuesday evening (Yes, I worked late again). Unfortunately it didn't work at all. Stupid thing. I had used it with some success on Violet's car last year when I had the same issue, but I always had a problem getting it to work in mine. So I'm at work with a dead battery at midnight. There were about 5 cars in the lot and one guy happened to be exiting, so I asked him for a jump. He said no. Apparently his Saturn requires a jump to be performed via the wheel well or something and that he only had 10 mins to get o where he was going. Nice guy (not). Fortunately the audio guys were working late so I asked them for a jump, which I got. (Last year's fiasco taught me to put jumper cables in my car, which I always have in the trunk now). Car started no problem and I drove home.

On Wed I took Violet's car to work, leaving her vehicle-less. After I got home, I checked the battery terminals for corrosion, but they seemed OK. The belt seemed OK. So I didn't know if it was the battery or the alternator. I assume when I bought the car it still had the original battery in it, so the battery was probably going on 6-7 years old. Still, I didn't want to chance replacing the battery and the car still not work.

Thursday I took her car to work again. My vague plan was to have my car battery tested for free at a local shop. After some discussion with some co-workers though, I decided to buy a new battery on the basis that if the alternator had been bad, I wouldn't have made it home from work the previous night. The Violet and Drake and I had a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday and then we went to Walmart to buy a new battery. $70 bucks. Ouch.

Thursday was a very bad day for Violet, baby-stress wise. Unfortunately, I had to replace my battery so I couldn't help her out at all. Most car batteries are easy to replace. 30 mins tops. Not so with my car, of course...

Whoever designed the engine layout of the Buick Rendezvous hates mechanics. As you can see in the picture, the battery is located under a large metal support bar, the fuse box, and the windshield wiper fluid tank. Stupid... Stupid... Stupid!. Unless they think only rich people buy these kinds of cars and so just goto the dealer for simple stuff like battery replacement. I don't know how much it would have cost me for them to do it, but I didn't want to find out. I'm guessing hundreds.

So anyway, Thursday evening I spent 7 pm-10 pm replacing my car battery. Yes, a 30-min-job-for-most-other-cars took 3 [frickin] hours. Not only did I have to remove the fuse box and the metal bar, but I also spent a lot of time trying to get to the screws. There's maybe an inch or two of space which made it very difficult to remove most of the screws. Also adding to the fun were bugs. Since the sun was setting, I ended up being dinner for several mosquitoes and ants and who knows what else. I ended up putting on some bug repellent (with DEET), but I'm not sure how well I applied it, nor its effectiveness at keeping the bugs away.
So I finally removed the old battery and put in the new one. Wearing leather gloves to keep from being shocked is a good idea. I highly recommend it. There might have been some way to use the metal ratchet and connect it to the bolt that connects the wire lead to the battery terminal and not have sparks flying all over the place, but I don't know what that way might be.

I finally finished about 10pm and everything started and worked as it should. My gauges seemed ok, the radio worked.. nothing was shorted out. I drove the car to work Friday and everything seemed ok, except for 1 weird thing. Apparently I needed to re-calibrate my car's compass. To do so, I had to drive in a circle. Weird, but it worked and now I know what direction I'm traveling again. A least until the Earth's magnetic poles flip again...