Finally, the day that has always seemed so far away, arrived yesterday. We launched the brand. The biggest event in Foresters' history was yesterday's launch event. It was great and it came off without a hitch. My congratulations to Laury (the event was her baby), Lyn (the ultimate decision maker) , Beth, Janet, Sandra, Mihaela and the whole rest of the team that pulled the whole thing together. It was awesome.
For more details on the new brand, check out the updated web site: www.foresters.biz; or for an eyeful of Yield Integrated's beautiful work interpreting the brand into our new collateral visit: here.
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Today, a couple of young guys in the garage asked me to give them a boost. Their old Volkswagan has seen better days. I said sure, and pulled in beside them. They had cables at the ready. I popped my hood, and since they seemed eager to do it themselves, I let them go to work. That is, until I noticed one of them putting the red on black and vice versa. It doesn't matter of course as long as you've got live running to live, and ground to ground, but they had one end reversed. I took them off and switched them around. It still wouldn't start. They spoke to each other in chinese, so I had no idea what they were saying, but they were excited and anxious. Before I knew it, one guy had pulled the clamps off again and reversed them once more.
"I don't think, uuh...wait!" I tried to stop him, but he clamped on. After a second, the handles begin shooting sparks. We're all standing there, surprised and disbelieving. A second more, and the plastic handles burst into flames. I ran around and shut my engine off, but of course, the sparks kept going. The plastic around the whole cable stretching between the two batteries bubbled and melted. I don't pretend to know the intimate details of auto mechanics, but I do know: fire + engine + gasoline = not good. Visons of every movie car explosion I've ever seen flashed through my mind.
The handles were still on fire, so I couldn't grab them. I kicked one off, then the other. One guy beat the flames out on the handles on their car with a rag. The garage was filled with thick grey smoke. I felt all jittery from adrenalin. It had us all freaked out.
We tried my cables next. I did the clamping this time; red on red, black on black. It still wouldn't work. I figured it wasn't the battery anyway since when we tested the headlights, they were nice and bright. Go figure.
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