1 afternoon multiple lessons

The backstory is that my new roommate is off gallivanting about Paris and had loaned his car & bedroom to a 3rd friend for this past weekend while he is gone. Said friend arrived only to discover said car Dead as Doornail. For unrelated reasons, Friend of Roommate cut plans short and the unstartable car was not a problem. Lawboi called AAA yesterday morning, and the big yellow truck got Doornail running. I drove her around a while and then stopped off for a cup of coffee and some broadband. Imagine my surprise when she would not start again. Grrr.

I exercised my first option: Lamely calling my friends and asking for a rescue. It was not terribly surprising that nary a soul able to help was around to help on this, a gorgeous Sunday afternoon.

Escalating the problem to tech support, I exercised my second option: using my brain. I had other alternatives. One approach would entail total self sufficiency and require several long walks to get back home, fetch Heidi come back, jump start Doornail, park Heidi, drive Doornail home. Walk back for Heidi. Drive Heidi home. Another far ballsier approach would mean walking to nearest intersection where memory said an autoparts store might still be located, and then flagging down strangers for a jump start. Since I loathe exercise in just about every form, I had to bite the bullet, spend of the quickly disappearing cash reserves on my own personal jumper cables, and then... GASP approach strangers for help.

I am no Blanche DuBois. I try not to depend on the kindness of strangers. Yet, there I was, flagging down people I'd never met asking them to come back to my car for a little intercar electrical action. In the end, one of the firemen from the firestation across the street appeared with a battery charger. That did the trick. I got Doornail back home and let her spend the night parked on the street as punishment.

This morning Doornail was ever truculent, only considering turning over before the start solenoid failed. I got Heidi Hinkl out of the garage and let her give Doornail some tough-love Wolksburg style. Needless to say, Doornail is BACKED into the garage, in prime position to lock batteries with Heidi again, once roommate gets back.

From this I take these lessons:

- every girl needs her own set of jumper cables, the $30 dollar 6 gauge kind.
- self sufficiency is a wonderful thing, but is often better combined with more people.
- T'is better to have a fully charged phone and a long saved contacts list than a fully charged phone with a really short saved contacts list. Both are better than a car with a dead battery.
- Firemen do more than put out fires and rescue kitties from trees.
- Always carry a spare pair of comfortable shoes and an umbrella, in case you have to walk home.