a follow up

the other day i wrote about how i had bad news and good news about losing/replacing the removed battery and charger for my drill. i figured i'd stop by the home depot on the way home from work on friday to see what it would cost to get a replacement cordless drill, as at that time, having not found any reference to a 14.4v battery/charger on the ryobi website, figuring i'd just have to replace it outright.

well, as i was parking, i could see a paddy wagon (i didn't even know we used them in sommerville) and sure enuff, there were the police, leading a (seemingly at the time) well behaved person from inside home depot into the back of the paddy wagon. i couldn't help but chuckle and wonder what he had done to get himself arrested. all i could picture at the time was that he had been arrested for shoplifting something small like a few screws, as i can't really picture someone trying to shoplift a sheet of plywood, or stuff a cordless drill down his pants.

so, i head into the store chuckling and head towards tools. i'm quick to find the 5 piece set (18v Combo II) they have for $169 and i think that's a little steep for what i'm looking to replace. so i look around and finally find a drill/flashlight combo which is a little more reasonable at $100, but it's still the 18v set. then i find the replacement batteries and charger for the 18v and i start getting a glimmer of hope that maybe i can find a replacement battery and charger (those were $25 and $20 respectively, so $45 is even better). so i start scanning everything and then i see what looks to be a near holy grail - the updated version of my drill. and for $80, i can get the new version of my drill, 2 batteries and the flashlight with charger.

that fills me with hope that i can get a new charger and battery again and i start looking harder. the good news is i found the battery ($24). i didn't find the charger. DOH! right now, i need the charger more than i need the battery, so that didn't do me a whole lot of good.

so i headed home, but i don't feel quite as bad about getting a replacement now. i checked the home depot down the street from me, and they had the same inventory (battery, no charger) so for the moment i'm in a holding pattern, but i got part numbers this time.

i looked it up online, and it appears as tho i can get a replacement charger from some place that sells replacement parts for ryobi (and other companies) for $35. the batteries are $30, so having seen the $20 18v charger at home depot, something tells me i may have to pay a premium for the replacement.

OR as i started thinking about it, if i go that route:

$35 charger (online)
$24 battery (home depot)

that's $59. (wow, i can do simple math) but that doesn't include shipping on the charger, and so i should expect up to $10 just for the charger which puts me in the $70 range.

didn't i say earlier that to buy the updated version of my drill, it would cost $80? and that comes with drill, flashlight, charger and TWO batteries?

hmmm....

when i got home, i talked to KO to let him know what i had found (no word from assclown window contractor) and he said i should buy the replacement and if i get the charger/battery back, i should just keep them, giving me an extra battery/charger.

decisions decisions decisions....i'm not going to go out and buy things today, as i'd like to hope they assclown window contractors have realized that mine is 14.4v and they are using 18v ones and they don't work well together (maybe?) and have set them aside and aren't using them for the moment.

so, the saga continues...

(btw - i wanted to put links to the various bits, but the home depot site for some reason seems to be uncooperative and the links i'd copy would go somewhere else.)