Relative Something

Today, I have an appointment for a service call on the New Holland tractor we bought from the people who sold us this property.

The seller had drained the battery and felt like it wasn’t taking a charge properly, so he ordered a new battery. It arrived on the day we were unloading our belongings from the moving truck. We were so consumed by getting the house in order that it took me about a week and a half to get around to installing the new battery.

I positioned myself in the seat, and reviewed the operating instructions in the manual. Over and over I tried to get the thing started, but absolutely nothing was happening when I turned the key in the direction to engage the starter. It didn’t even offer up a click.

I figured it was possible I was still missing some interlock, or wasn’t actually getting control knobs in a neutral position, as required. The seller generously offered to stop over and check on it.

He couldn’t get anything to happen, either. We tried a few tricks, but nothing changed. He told me to make a call for service, and assured me he would cover any charges incurred as a result.

I see it as a blessing in disguise. It is a learning opportunity. It will give me insight on who to call for service, and what such a visit costs. It will teach me about the starter, and I will get to watch the troubleshooting process. I wouldn’t learn any of that if there hadn’t been a problem, right off the bat.

It already provided a gentle lesson from the visit the seller made to verify I wasn’t missing anything in the start-up routine. He asked me if I had seen whether he had left any heavy logging chain laying around. I pointed him to a pile of chain on a pallet in the barn. He decided to go get a web strap from his truck, instead. He wanted to pull the tractor enough to see if the starter was locked up while engaged.

After he finished that experiment, he said he wanted to review how to put the chains on the rear tires for added traction in the winter. He took me over to the pallet and picked up one of the tire chains which I had previously gestured as the possible location of his heavy logging chain.

I realized he was kindly choosing a way to communicate my error without overtly highlighting that I had just revealed that I didn’t have a clue.

Another lesson for me that wouldn’t have occurred if everything had worked just fine the first time I tried to start the tractor.