I Need A Socket Set

Saturday, the battery in Scruffy's car died. He was stranded at the nearby Walmart parking lot, so he called me to see if I could come help. While the "helpful" part is certainly debatable, I was available.

I brought some of my tools. I have a fair number of tools, but most of them fall into the "screwdriver" and "wrench" categories. I have no socket wrenches. Socket wrenches were required. So instead of using my tools (impossible), I took Scruffy to his house and we collected up his set.

Scruffy's got a nice Socket Wrench set. It's got Metric and English socket heads. Turns out, this is a very good thing. The brace that holds his battery in place has three bolts... two are English, one is Metric. This boggled my mind... is this common (the bolt thing, not the Jeff's-mind-is-boggled thing)?

Anyway, we got his battery out. Since he was stranded right there at Walmart, we just carried it in and bought a replacement. While installing the new battery Scruffy asked me, "Does it matter if I do Positive first, or Negative?"

I am not the person to ask when it comes to this kind of automotive voodoo. I shrugged. "I don't *think* it matters." Scruffy attached Positive first, then got a mild electric shock when he attached the Negative side.

Oddly enough, the internet tells me (after the fact) that you should attach Positive first. Weird.

Anyway, I have a small reward for you, since you actually read this far. This is a kickin' story from a co-worker of mine (his wife is a hero!). You'll be impressed, I promise.