un-grateful dead

[Tessie McMillan <tessmc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks you guys for feedback on my deadish battery. I also didn't realize 
there are different kinds of chargers. I am pretty confident by now I 
know the culprit that drains the battery down. When I first bought the car 
in '95, I encountered this problem and as my first Alfa exercise, Fred 
walked me through testing different parts of the circuitry and cleaning 
contact points, then we (me, he was on email) removed the battery and I 
cleaned it before replacing it again. So I think I know all the things to 
watch for (foot-well light, for example), and I was more worried about 
the health of the starter if the battery were allowed to get low 
repeatedly. The culprit in my case I think is an aftermarket radio 
installed by the P.O. The radio has a totally lame blinking red light, 
which I presume is to spoof would-be thieves into thinking the car is 
wired with a loud, threatening alarm system that sends a wireless instant 
message to the local police station -- accompanied by a gaggle of 
drooling, hungry, fire-breathing dragons leaping out of the trunk. Really 
all the light does is drain down the battery fairly quickly. I think I've 
posted before that the other thing which drains down my battery is 
hooking up the auxiliary temperature sensor for the fan when I use the 
A/C. So I don't do that. &:-) Funny thing though, I had one battery go 
dead in my garage and then all my batteries started going wacko. I think 
they talk to each other. So I'll buy a new battery for Olive and finally 
get around to installing a "kill" switch.

In response to "geez what does a 15' tree look like in a Spider?", I 
don't have any photos, so picture this:
	15' tree, or 2 -- these tend to be green, with leaves on them, 
unless it's winter, in which case they are gray and bare -- standing 
upright, burlap and manure wrapped over the roots and smooshed (technical 
term) into peat pots;
	cream colored '87 Spider Graduate with the top down, all original 
except 14" Veloce wheels and 205 AVSi tires, a large blue tarp 
covering the package shelf (the passenger seat either folded down or with 
its own large blue tarp and another tree on the seat), and a little sassy, 
sprightly attitude to the car's stance. (aka, what you'd look like if you 
had a gaggle of drooling, hungry fire-breating dragons hidden in your 
trunk.) 
	
The hardest part is driving the car with all that manure smell, and the 
occasional fire.

Tess
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