Charge, recharge, or no charge

Last spring, when Daniel was working as a private chef in Europe, I defied his command and purchased a new lawn mower. I went with a battery-operated model, then gave away our smelly, hard-to-pull-start gas mower. Along with the mower, I was sucked into the “package deal,” which included a weed whacker, and an extra battery for the mower, fortuitously a stroke of luck. For some unknown reason, one of the batteries was faulty, and it died. Or so I thought.

My maintenance philosophy drives Daniel crazy. That is because I’m done after the second try, sometimes the first, to fix something. It is time to move on and replace the defective or broken item and replace it with a new one. Daniel, on the other hand, relentlessly tries to fix everything repeatedly. He swears that I’d buy a new car if I got a flat tire. Maybe not a new car, but new mower batteries, for sure.

This whole battery dilemma (drama) started a few weeks ago when I noticed Daniel had stuck a stripe of blue painter’s tape with the word “broken” across one of the batteries. He told me to leave it alone and that he would check it out and fix the problem on his day off. According to his YouTube research, if a battery is drained completely, the charger won’t recognize it to recharge. All that occurs is a red light on the charger.

The YouTube solution to recharge a dead battery by connecting it to a live battery so the charger can find it to charge seemed to work.

I was impressed with his dedication to fixing the battery, and he began mowing the lawn with the once-dead, now fully charged battery. However, after five minutes, the battery died. I put it back into the charger, and the red light glared at me, refusing to recognize the battery. Frustrated but undaunted, I switched to the other battery and completed mowing the lawn.

I charged the “good” battery after deciding the other was a lost cause and needed replacement. Daniel, stubborn and not to be deterred, tried again, this time telling me he did a more professional job charging, so it should be fully charged.

I mowed, and it died again and turned red in the charger.

He has again guaranteed to me that it is fully charged. So, tomorrow’s lawn mowing will be the final test. Since I know we have one good battery and the mowing season is ending, I won’t replace the bad one until next spring. Soon, mowing will be replaced by raking, and elbow grease, not batteries, supplies the energy.

We have gone keyless, and all our exterior doors have battery-operated locks. Recently, the front door lock has been having glitches. I assumed it needed a new battery, and although it might have, that was not the problem with the inoperable lock. While Daniel was out of town, my neighbor came to diagnose and hopefully fix the tricky door. He took the mechanism apart and fixed it with the caveat that it could be a temporary fix and that we may need new hardware.

After he returned, I told Daniel we may need a new lock. Of course, he first had to take the lock apart to see if he could make a permanent fix. But lo and behold, even he gave up, at least for now. Meanwhile, he exchanged a lock from one of our other doors to the front door. I hope that the battery is fully charged.

Daniel is working double shifts this week, after which his energy source will be depleted, but no, I won’t replace him.